Best Brake Pads for an Impreza

[Animal]

Hi All,

Any recommendations for a pad upgrade for an '04 Impreza WRX?

Standard brakes are OK but as a relatively cheap improvement pads are top of my list.

Cheers, Animal

[ScoobieWRX]

EBC Yellowstuff all round (highly recommended as i use them myself!!) or Performance Friction all round (finger of god like stopping power so i hear)

[GRD]

2ND to that^^^^... the only pads we stock! other option is to fit the sti brembo brakes... but require 17" sti alloys or 18's

[T5NYW]

I am using EBC Yellows on my 06 STi (brembo's) and seem pretty good both when cold or hot, although no trackdays since fitting them YET

I searched around on Ebay and found only fronts or rears, no one selling both.

I noticed one seller was a well known Scooby motoring shop so rang them up and got both front and rear sets for £104 delivered I thought that was excellent as a front set of Pagids cost me nearly £200 9 months ago

IMHO

Tony

Edited by T5NYW on Saturday 5th April 00:47

[ScoobieWRX]

T5NYW said:

I am using EBC Yellows on my 06 STi (brembo's) and seem pretty good both when cold or hot, although no trackdays since fitting them YET

I searched around on Ebay and found only fronts or rears, no one selling both.

I noticed one seller was a well known Scooby motoring shop so rang them up and got both front and rear sets for £104 delivered I thought that was excellent as a front set of Pagids cost me nearly £200 9 months ago

IMHO

Tony

Edited by T5NYW on Saturday 5th April 00:47

Two sets of yellows for £104 Are you sure?? That seems too cheap!! Would you mind PMing me the shop name as at that price it's got to be worth a punt

[T5NYW]

Absolutely ceratian I couldn't believe it either at the time did price match with others on Ebay

BTW this was for Brembo front EBC DP41210 pads and rear EBC yellowstuff DP41538. The prices maybe different for a WRX

no Idea how to PM you on here???

email me on [e-mail] and i'll let you know

Tony

[cw42]

Tony, that price is crazy, you have mail

[ScoobieWRX]

You have mail

[T5NYW]

cw42 said:

Tony, that price is crazy, you have mail

I know looked now and still both would be around £120 delivered

Tony

[T5NYW]

I did have a instance of brake fade yesterday on the Road, going to have the Brake fluid and braidded hoses fitted but I never had this on the road with standard Pads, DS2500, Pagid or EBC ceramic reds

[oobster]

Alyn at asperformance is a good person to talk to regarding scooby brakes.

http://www.asperformance.com/

[ScoobieWRX]

Tony, These Yellows will be useless until they are bedded in properly and sympathetically over a couple of hundred miles. When bedded in properly bite from cold should be very good and they get better with more heat and abuse. The best way to warm these yellows up is a few dabs of the brakes from around 70/80 Leptons to get the temperature up and then see what happens on subsequent braking.

From 130 Leptons down to 60/70 they scrubb speed of at a phenominal rate(on private roads of course) and they are nothing short of superb!! On coutry lanes where you have frequent braking from 70/90 Leptons down to 30/40 they keep on getting better and better as they get regular intervals to cool down a bit and heat up again, as you might do on track. My experience with the latest yellows has been that they get better with more abuse.

Your brake fade is more than likely coming from the type of fluid you use or that it needs changing because it's old and tired out. Boiling brake fluid at high temps creates air bubbles in the brake lines and makes the pedal go very soft because the fluid isn't rated at high enough temp handling (use DOT5.1 for starters), and the fact that the rubber brake hoses you currently have are expanding as they have hot brake fluid in them, softening the rubber hose and together with high footbrake pressure they are expanding instantly and your foot goes to the floor with nothing happening.

A combination of crap fluid and rubber brake hoses under heavy and frequent braking means you'll end up going through a hedge at the next set of bends. These pads will generate temps up to 800F and make your rotors glow bright red so there's that to bare in mind.

Make sure you install Stainless Steel braided brake hoses all round not just the fronts as the rear brakes get a good use under hard braking as well, that way you will get a much firmer brake pedal with excellent feel, and no fade!!

What condition are your rotors in and are they std OEM issue, although so long as the rotors are in good condition, even of they are std OEM, it's the pads, brake fluid and brake hoses that will make the biggest difference??

[T5NYW]

ScoobieWRX said:

Tony, These Yellows will be useless until they are bedded in properly and sympathetically over a couple of hundred miles. When bedded in properly bite from cold should be very good and they get better with more heat and abuse. The best way to warm these yellows up is a few dabs of the brakes from around 70/80 Leptons to get the temperature up and then see what happens on subsequent braking.

Yes i have bedded them in Properly and were @ 250mile

ScoobieWRX said:

From 130 Leptons down to 60/70 they scrubb speed of at a phenominal rate(on private roads of course) and they are nothing short of superb!! On coutry lanes where you have frequent braking from 70/90 Leptons down to 30/40 they keep on getting better and better as they get regular intervals to cool down a bit and heat up again, as you might do on track. My experience with the latest yellows has been that they get better with more abuse.

It was the second press @150 leptons it let me down, I've run Brembos with 2 lot Brembo pads, DS2500, EBC Ceramic Reds and Pagids and never had this happen expect at Donny after some VERY hard Braking

ScoobieWRX said:

Your brake fade is more than likely coming from the type of fluid you use or that it needs changing because it's old and tired out. Boiling brake fluid at high temps creates air bubbles in the brake lines and makes the pedal go very soft because the fluid isn't rated at high enough temp handling (use DOT5.1 for starters), and the fact that the rubber brake hoses you currently have are expanding as they have hot brake fluid in them, softening the rubber hose and together with high footbrake pressure they are expanding instantly and your foot goes to the floor with nothing happening.

Yep Ordered 5.1DOT Fluid and a full set ot Braided hoses

ScoobieWRX said:

What condition are your rotors in and are they std OEM issue, although so long as the rotors are in good condition, even of they are std OEM, it's the pads, brake fluid and brake hoses that will make the biggest difference??

ROTORs are fine I will replace Fluid and Hoses and retry if no good on the road then will be diabolical on the Track.

I'll go for some godspeed brake upgrade and Carbon pads

Tony

[ScoobieWRX]

I've never experienced with Yellows what you're getting from very high speed or even repeated braking heavy braking. I can only think that if you have changed the brake hoses to goodridge stainless steel braided lines that you still have a problem with brake fluid. These pads do get very hot therefore that may have something to do with it still. There is other stuff on the market that is even more resilient to boiling than standard DOT5.1:

http://www.rgracing.co.uk/Castrol_brake_fluids.htm

http://www.k300performance.co.uk/ate-super-blue-ra...

http://www.k300performance.co.uk/brake-fluid.htm (the PRF600 looks really good stuff i might get some myself)

http://www.moto-racing.co.uk/item--Brembo-Racing-L...

http://www.balancemotorsport.co.uk/products.asp?su...

http://www.aaoil.co.uk/racing-R600

It all makes for some interesting reading

[T5NYW]

I'm going to change the Oil and Pipes first

but I've not experience this sort of fade on the road before!!! only on the Track with STD pads, STD hoses and STD Oil and then after some very serious abuse

Tony

[BT52]

Wouldn't touch EBC with a barge pole!

Pagid all the way. May be more expensive, but you get your money back because they last so much better. And in the meantime they are far superior.

[Andy Freeman]

Hello from Andy Freeman the owner of EBC Brakes.

I am to say the least dissappointed that there is such a misconception about our Green and other ranges of pads and want to put this straight.

First please read below the latest compound versions we make, we have changed compounds many times through the years in fact most compounds get changed at least once a year in response to feedback. We make all our pads in the UK and respond and listen to customers, please dont treat us like a bunch of t w a t s which some of forum posts insinuate, we are Britains largest and finest manufacturer of pads and rotors and unlike others we still make our pads here,and have NOT run off the Eastern block or China to make stuff cheaper like ALL our competitors have done.

If you look on the box end labels you will see the material codes and this tells you if you have the latest materials or old stuff......ASK your retailer for these material codes.

Latest Greenstuff is AF 44/69 resin changed to produce a softer pad with less noise and slightly more grip appropriate for cars below 200BHP and not for racing at all, unless on very light cars like Caterhams and hillclimbs etc

Latest Redstuff is AF88/67 and just recently shanged to AF88/71 these two mods were made to OFFSET disc scoring reported on EVO's and reduce dust and noise at very low speeds. Only for fast street and NEVER for racing as life not up to it on a track.

Latest Yellowstuff is DM 1793 and DM 1846 which has been around for a year and is used on all UK Police chase cars and race use and adopted by Silverstone on their Elise's and Porsche fleet yet is fully streetable and a brilliant pad. The 1846 is fine for street but track work should always now use the 1793 version and that is what Silverstone use.


Then please guys ALWAYS read our website,we have our own webmaster,update the site daily and lots of good info on there.

Hope this is of use to those of you interested in a solution rather than making wild and unfair comments based on bad advice you may have received.

Please appreciate it is difficult for us or anyone to educate hundreds of stockists with turnover of staff and sometimes they even get it wrong,thanks guys

[ScoobieWRX]

Hi Andy,

I'm afraid you can't turn them all around.

I sing EBC's praises wherever i post and if i'm asked i will always recommend EBC. I must admit that for the trackdays i do and for everyday use i prefer YellowStuff to RedStuff. I recommend RedStuff for everyday use as they have proven superb under those circumstances and have been very good on B roads but to a lot of the hillclimbers, sprinters and one make competitors i speak to i only recommend Yellows.

My car will have 350/360bhp when it's back on the road so i will only be using Yellows all round as i've really put my trust in them and they worked extremely well for me before my engine went bang.

I've been using EBC now for over 3 yrs and am very happy to keep using them so long as you keep manufaturing these cracking pads. Excellent value too and highly recommended

Give my regards to Bart and the crew

Francis

[T5NYW]

Andy Freeman said:

Hello from Andy Freeman the owner of EBC Brakes.
Latest Redstuff is AF88/67 and just recently shanged to AF88/71 these two mods were made to OFFSET disc scoring reported on EVO's and reduce dust and noise at very low speeds. Only for fast street and NEVER for racing as life not up to it on a track.

To be fair I have used EBC ceramic ReD's on the road and occasion Track use and found then Fairly good compaired to STD Bremb Pads and DS2500's. I do about 4 Trackdays a year and also couple of Session days 2x 20mins at Japfest and Rallyday.

Andy Freeman said:

Latest Yellowstuff is DM 1793 and DM 1846 which has been around for a year and is used on all UK Police chase cars and race use and adopted by Silverstone on their Elise's and Porsche fleet yet is fully streetable and a brilliant pad. The 1846 is fine for street but track work should always now use the 1793 version and that is what Silverstone use.

I fitted both front and rears but by the Time I'd done 250 miles the Box was binned so no Idea if they were DM 1793 or DM 1846 .

I am going to replace Fluid and Pipes as precaution and them give them another chance "If" they a still fade during high speed heavy applications I must assume they are DM 1846's is there any marking on back or side of Pads?

Tony