i really like ceramics for daily driving, and don't really notice the lesser initial bite. ceramics you have to brake harder at first and then as they warm up they bite hard, and you can lock up tires just fine with cold ceramic pads on old, underboosted brake systems.
Akebono pads claim low-dust, how is this a good thing?
- Thread starter ordinarybloke
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The better Semi Metallic pads outperform conventional (low end) ceramics by a wide margin. In normal driving, a typical driver may not notice. (any of the better OEM's that choose ceramics, the swept area is increased by 25 to 33% when compared to the Semi Metallic) But when towing a 24 foot fishing boat, for example, ceramics "may" result in the inability to stop from speed, for a sudden red light and rolling into the intersection. The critical point is high temperature, high load friction.
In the end, I like Carbotech XP-8 pads better than anything else. Righteous stopping power, modest dust, low (but not no) noise. They are NOT rated, but the friction specs put them squarely at an HH rating.
After suffering 220K miles with various "name brand" ceramic pads in my Jag X-Type, I finally went to Wagner Semi Metallics with a GG rating, and quite simply, they are utterly fantastic for my spirited driving. Head and shoulders above the ceramic pads.
As always, quality pads have relatively accurate ratings.
Great post here in my opinion. ^^^^^^^
I will say my Akebono Street Performance GG rated pads I had on my Nissan Altima VQ made me able to dive bomb corners much better… Carry much more speed into a turn. It’s like in NASCAR at Martinsville or Richmond … Better brake packages really made a difference .. I saw Joe Nemechek win there at Richmond and he won largely due to have a great brake set up in his car. You could see him drive 2 car lengths deeper into turn 1 vs all the other drivers that night.
Of course you have to roll the center with good pace and handling and accelerate off the turns extremely well and handle well too. But that 25 car killed everyone getting into turns 1 and 3 that night at Richmond.
Which BMW? BMW’s don’t use Brembo pads.
Pads on your BMW are not Brembo. If it is F30 you might have Brembo caliper as part of package, but pads are Jurid as OE.
F30 has three different pad choices:
Base: no dust=poor bite.
S2NHA: dust= high performance, very aggressive (base pad in Europe).
P337: pad on 370X30mm rotors. No dust=no bite.
If you don’t want dust go base or P337. They are all same size regardless of package or rotor size.
Yes, you’re right the pads aren’t made by Brembo although the true M pads have a Brembo logo on them which is just probably because it’s a Brembo brake system. The text on the pad always says Pagid or Textar. Haven’t seen Jurid but I’m sure they are out there.
ATE, Pagid, Textar and Jurid are usual suspects. Depends on model, equipment etc.
Toyota uses products/components from both companies. Akebono and Advics are both members of the Toyota family of companies and Toyota owns controlling interest in both of them. When you purchase these two brands you are basically using aftermarket Toyota parts.
Prices on their aftermarket parts are slightly lower than going to a dealer and buying OEM parts. They are not exactly the same as OEM parts, in many cases they are better, and they do offer options that you can't get at a dealer (different friction coefficient pads for example). In my personal experience Akebono ProACT pads (FF) are actually better than the OEM pads (DD) in my application (Akebono also sells Performance GG pads for my application).
Normally I loathe low dust pads, but I tried to get Akebono Euro Ceramic to test for my M2 comp because the brakes are overboosted and have way too much initial bite, to the point that it's annoying to modulate in traffic. Unfortunately they told me they can't produce the pad shape for the front brakes because it was too large for their tooling 
. I was surprised at that because Akebono is a large supplier and brakes are continuing to get bigger and bigger as cars get heavier. I may try Carbotech 1521.
I run semi-metal pads on my Mazda 3, the pedal feel and bite is terrible on that car with ceramics. I think it's important to consider how the car is set up rather than just blanket recommendations. Some people swear by Hawk HPS 5.0 etc. but I thought they were garbage. Perhaps if I had the same car I would feel differently.
. I was surprised at that because Akebono is a large supplier and brakes are continuing to get bigger and bigger as cars get heavier. I may try Carbotech 1521.I run semi-metal pads on my Mazda 3, the pedal feel and bite is terrible on that car with ceramics. I think it's important to consider how the car is set up rather than just blanket recommendations. Some people swear by Hawk HPS 5.0 etc. but I thought they were garbage. Perhaps if I had the same car I would feel differently.
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