Brake Pad Selection Assistance

[Cronenberged]

My brakes are in need of researching. I tried searching for a few different reviews. Look for.opinions and knowledge on a good pad not necessarily low dust but not extreme for tracking. Just looking for a all around maybe less dust but good braking performance for daily driving.

[nahvkolaj]

What have you tried that you weren't happy with?

[Slideways]

Textar. ZCP comp brakes used them front and rear, and Porsche uses them on many of their road cars, for example 996 BBK upgrade. Mild dust, low noise and very good initial bite.

[Cronenberged]

What have you tried that you weren't happy with?

Last time I upgraded to from non comp to competition rotors and whatever pads the dealership had. I'm not sure what pads they even used. If slideways says Textar then I assume they are Textar. I haven't any issues if they are Textar now but I'm not certain.

[simon_c]

PO on my car did ECS drilled/slotted rotors with Hawk HPS pads and the pads have decent bite but dust a ton. I have Akebono Euro pads ready to go in soon. Anybody have experience with these? I had them on a previous Audi and they were great but not really tested for performance. Essentially zero dust and good enough bite for me.

[Will]

PO on my car did ECS drilled/slotted rotors with Hawk HPS pads and the pads have decent bite but dust a ton. I have Akebono Euro pads ready to go in soon. Anybody have experience with these? I had them on a previous Audi and they were great but not really tested for performance. Essentially zero dust and good enough bite for me.

Some people like them on the m3. I had a set of the the Akebono Euro Ceramics and I did not like them. I posted on m3f at the time, that while I loved the no dust I hated that I had no initial bite. It also felt like I needed significantly more brake pedal pressure than before. At first I thought it just needed bedding in, or more mileage, but after a couple thousand miles I gave up on them and replaced with Jurid / Textar OEM replacements. They were gentle on the brake discs, it was funny to see virtually no wear after a few thousand miles.

It was unnerving to be driving at highway speeds and have the feeling as if I'm not going to stop in time when traffic slows suddenly from 65 to 20.

Maybe I had a bad set of pads, who knows. For my use-case (not track), I'm going to stick to OE/OEM and get some Sonax wheel cleaner.

Would be interested in your experience with them. Keep us posted.

[Will]

Porterfield has pads in our shape, but they're probably not low-dust though. No experience with their pads, but the people in their shop are nice and stock lots of Redline and Motul fluids.

https://porterfield-brakes.com

[cobra]

I used the Textar pads and they squeak like crazy because the pad retention clips don't fit in the pistons properly. From a braking perspective they worked fine, but are seemingly defective.

I am using EBC BlueStuff pads now and they're nice and quiet, good fit and finish, linear feel. Not run them long enough to tell how they last or how much they dust.

[lemoose]

I used the Textar pads and they squeak like crazy because the pad retention clips don't fit in the pistons properly. From a braking perspective they worked fine, but are seemingly defective.

Is that consensus somewhere? I have textar pads and dont believe I ever heard them squeak. Well balanced pads IMO.About as civilized as you can get dust and noisewise without the neutered feel and bite.

[cobra]

Is that consensus somewhere? I have textar pads and dont believe I ever heard them squeak. Well balanced pads IMO.About as civilized as you can get dust and noisewise without the neutered feel and bite.

I posted about it here and several others had the same issue. It's not a compound squeak, more like they're not retained in the piston properly and dragging on the rotor.
I contacted Textar and they acknowledged different spring designs for this car that can be mixed up. I got fed up and switched it up.

[Estoril]

Some people like them on the m3. I had a set of the the Akebono Euro Ceramics and I did not like them. I posted on m3f at the time, that while I loved the no dust I hated that I had no initial bite. It also felt like I needed significantly more brake pedal pressure than before. At first I thought it just needed bedding in, or more mileage, but after a couple thousand miles I gave up on them and replaced with Jurid / Textar OEM replacements. They were gentle on the brake discs, it was funny to see virtually no wear after a few thousand miles.

It was unnerving to be driving at highway speeds and have the feeling as if I'm not going to stop in time when traffic slows suddenly from 65 to 20.

Maybe I had a bad set of pads, who knows. For my use-case (not track), I'm going to stick to OE/OEM and get some Sonax wheel cleaner.

Would be interested in your experience with them. Keep us posted.

That is what ceramic, low-dust pads deliver. Less dust = less braking effectiveness.

[Rekpoint]

I love my PFC Braking setup!

[nahvkolaj]

I am pretty happy with my stock blank rotors and PFC Z-rated pads.

[bigjae46]

Textar. ZCP comp brakes used them front and rear, and Porsche uses them on many of their road cars, for example 996 BBK upgrade. Mild dust, low noise and very good initial bite.

Has BMW updated the pads for older models to the newer compound? The newer non-sport brake pads are pretty good about having decent bite with almost zero dust. I remember the dust was ridiculous with my E46 330Ci. I'd wash the car, drive it on one trip and the silver wheels turned gray.

[Slideways]

Has BMW updated the pads for older models to the newer compound? The newer non-sport brake pads are pretty good about having decent bite with almost zero dust. I remember the dust was ridiculous with my E46 330Ci. I'd wash the car, drive it on one trip and the silver wheels turned gray.

I have noticed this on other cars. I have not used OE BMW pads in a while, but my stock front OE BMW pads (Jurid) would make the front wheels two shades darker after one drive.