Brakes Pads?

[TowDawg]

I see several threads talking about what pads are good at the track. My question is, what pads are good for the street? By this, I mean which pads are quiet? I have EBC reds on there (they were on there when I bought the car) and they squeak pretty badly. I've taken them off and they're almost new. I put the "non-squeal" stuff on them, scuffed my rotors, and scuffed the pads. They were quiet for a few miles, but now it's back. When I first pull the car out, they are fine, but as soon as they get any heat they start it up again. Is it the metallic content in the pads causing this? It embarrassing to pull up anywhere and all people hear is the brakes. If I'm tracking it, I can change the pads out in just a few minutes. I just want something that I can drive on the street where the only thing I can hear is the sound of the beast.

 

[Brian GTS]

Went through the same issues with my EBC reds. Switched to Hawk and they have been perfect. I'm now running Hawk pads on 3 of my vehicles and love them. Go with the HPS or ceramic. I run primarily on the street so I went ceramic. You're wheels will stay clean too!

 

[wallbanger]

here we go again another unsatisfied ebc red customer.. ebc reds **** .. switch to hawks and u'll be worry free

 

[TowDawg]

Went through the same issues with my EBC reds. Switched to Hawk and they have been perfect. I'm now running Hawk pads on 3 of my vehicles and love them. Go with the HPS or ceramic. I run primarily on the street so I went ceramic. You're wheels will stay clean too!

Thanks for the input. I read somewhere that ceramics do offer lower brake dust, but they tend to wear out or warp the rotors pretty quickly because of the heat they put in the rotors. Have you had any issues with this? How long have you been running them (milage)? The Viper is not my primary car, but it does get driven quite a bit. It is not a 2k-4k a year car.

 

[Brian GTS]

I've never had issues with the rotors but I'm not an excessive braker...mostly just cruising along. My cars are indeed 2K or less per year. If that is your concern, go with the Hawk HPS pads instead of the ceramic ones. I have run those too they were also great.

 

[jcaspar1]

For street I liked the Porterfield R4S. Minimal dust, no squeak and good braking.

 

[Achilles99]

Brakes that squeal are the best. It tells me that it's a racecar

Seriously, though. I went through a ton of different compounds and the ones that squealed the least also had the worst braking power. I remember almost running into someone with my greens the first time I had to brake (and it was low speed).

 

[Brian GTS]

For street I liked the Porterfield R4S. Minimal dust, no squeak and good braking.

I have these on my 97 GTS...decent pad as you mention but mine do squeak.

 

[YLW DRM2]

Went through the same issues with my EBC reds. Switched to Hawk and they have been perfect. I'm now running Hawk pads on 3 of my vehicles and love them. Go with the HPS or ceramic. I run primarily on the street so I went ceramic. You're wheels will stay clean too!

I second Hawks. I have them on the car and they are almost dustless.

 

[wallbanger]

One of the main differences between ceramic-enhanced friction materials and semi-metallic brake linings is that ceramic pads contain no steel wool or fibers. Steel provides strength and conducts heat away from rotors, but it also makes pads noisy. Steel also acts like an abrasive and causes rotor wear. Substituting ceramic materials and copper fibers for steel allows ceramic pads to handle the high brake temperatures with less heat fade, to recovery quickly, to experience less wear on both the pads and rotors, and to virtually eliminate noise. Annoying brake squeal is eliminated because the ceramic-enhanced compound dampens noise and moves vibrations to a frequency beyond our range of hearing.

Another features of ceramic pads is less visible brake dust on the wheels. All brake pads produce dust as they wear. But the ingredients in ceramic pads typically produce a light colored dust that is much less noticeable, and it does not stick to wheels like ordinary brake dust... the other key feature to achieving maximum performance from your ceramic pad is to bed them in properly...

 

[TowDawg]

Thanks guys. Looks like a set of Hawk Ceramics will be on the way soon.

 

[Achilles99]

Wallbanger is dead on with the "book" definition, but in my experience the red ceramic EBC's are not as great for stopping distance. On my Viper, it's OK but on my Murc (which takes the exact same pads as the Viper) it's terrible.

I called a race shop, and they said the reason was that my drilled/slotted Murc rotors cooled the pads off too much. Not sure how much I buy that, I have slotted Stoptechs on the Viper. Still, the EBC's do seem to work better on the Viper (although not as good as stock pads).

Report back on how you like the Hawk Ceramics!

 

[lagalaxy13]

Where do you guys get the Hawk Pads at? Going to do a caliper swap and might change my pads if they need it.