Originally Posted By: badtlc
The priority list goes as such:
1) Stopping
2) Low dust
3) Price
4) Life
This is for the wife's car so safety first.
The best advice (I found here) is avoid EE and FE fade rated brakes, and buy FF or better (though GG and HH are usually specialty/performance/crazy expensive). Of course, most retailers don't bother to tell you which brakes are which, but it is written on the pad itself, and/or the packaging. Fortunately the last set of Raybestos I bought from my truck were marked FF.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/sho...-friciton-codes
If long pad life is what you're after, look carefully at the rotor runout when mounted on your hubs. Lube all pad contact points with a quality brake lube like Syl Glide. Depending on the design, typically for floating calipers, inspect the tracks/rails/slots where the pads sit. Look for notches, indentations, rust and/or pitting. You may need to stone or polish the tracks/rails/slot (depends) so the pad will move in and away smoothly without hanging-up or tilting. If you avoid hang-ups and tilting, you'll get even pad wear, and that means long life.
If cleaning up the tracks results in excess clearance, use abutment clips to make up the difference.
Next, if your brakes were ever done in a shop, compare to OEM brakes for missing retention clips/springs. Busy "techs" sometimes leave them off as "unnecessary for aftermarket brake pads". That's how my first set were lost, anyway.
Finally, proper break-in procedure, do some hard slow-downs without coming to a complete stop, to evenly distribute friction material on the rotors and avoid build-up in one stop.
As to specific recommendations, you didn't give us much to go on. Which car? You list two. Which brakes? Front, rear, both? How much is the car driven, where, and what climate?