Brake pads

[doitmyself]

We failed to answer the OP's original request looking for experienced opinions on these particular brake pads. I didn't find much with a Google search either.

The thread went downhill when I used the term "cheap out", but at least I conceded and acknowledged the OP's logic early on. The thread quickly turned into a discussion about personal buying preferences for brake pads, not the brake pads themselves. Poor debate ensued on both sides. The OP compared his pad purchase to buying Mobil 1 oil and Donald started out telling us his experience with Pep Boys 50 years ago.

Brake pads are required by law to meet minimum safety standards. Mail order through Rock Auto, Ebay, and Amazon DOES need to pursued carefully ( I used the fake spark plug example). Any store brand pads should work well, with the same good/bad experience that we have with ALL brand reviews. People's buying preferences will vary based on experience - I'm very frugal, but with old age my priorities and buying habits have changed immensely. In the end, the OP only has to please himself.

Good discussion. OP, please follow up with your review of the AAP pads you decided to go with.

 

[FordMan59]

I've used store brand brakes for years. Never used Pep Boys but, have used them from Auto Zone and Advance Auto Parts. They've always stopped the car when I pressed the pedal. Every set of brake pads/shoes I've used over the last 20 years or more have lasted 100K miles or more. Store branded brakes are made by a major brake manufacturer and are probably close to if not the same quality as the pads/shoes they make with their brand name on them.

A few years ago I bought tie rod ends with the AZ Duralast brand name on them. When I opened the box to put them on the car they were in a plasitc bag labelled Moog.

I recently had to replace the alternator on one of my cars. I checked the price at AZ and AAP and their rebuilt units were about $125. out the door. I checked RA and got a Magnetti Marelli rebuilt unit for about $75. including shipping and didn't have to send in a core. The car I was putting it on was an '02 Ford Escort with 200K miles. I cheaped out. I guess time will tell whether I got a good deal or not.

When I was a kid growing up in the '60's my dad usually ran Montgomery Ward tires. One of the salesmen in their auto center told dad one time their tires were made by Kelly-Springfield.

 

[doitmyself]

A few years ago I bought tie rod ends with the AZ Duralast brand name on them. When I opened the box to put them on the car they were in a plasitc bag labelled Moog.

We can compare single anecdotes, single data points until the cows come home. Others have complained about getting online parts that obviously were already installed once,removed, repackaged, and resold. Others talk about ordering two tie rod ends with same part no., one is Moog and the other is some poorly cast made in India POS. Others here ONLY buy OEM.

YMMV is the underlying theme with our entire membership. Where's the "beaten to death horse" emoji?

 

[FordMan59]

YMMV is the underlying theme with our entire membership.

I used mainly store brand parts from AZ for years before I started using RA. I don't ever recall having a problem with a part I've bought/installed on my cars since I bought my first car in 1977 regardless of where it came from or what it cost. Sure they wore out like any part will do but, when I bought at AZ I usually got their store brand with lifetime warranty. Just because the part had a lifetime warranty didn't mean it would last forever or that I thought it would. Nearly all products have a finite lifetime regardless of who made it or what kind of warranty it has. When AZ parts wore out I took them back and got another one at no charge.

 

[JMJNet]

Do yourself a favor, check the Raybestos Element3 brakes?
The one for Toyota are relatively cheap for Premium category at RockAuto.
I paid $50 OTD for front and rear. Not the cheapest but it seems to be a good brake.

I am not sure for Infinity.

 

[Hall]

I am not sure for Infinity.

The Raybestos are dirt cheap for Infinitis, especially if they're non-Brembo or Akebono calipers. Main reason is likely because the same pads are used on many, many Nissan and Infiniti models (rears = ~12, fronts = 12+). I bought front and rear pads and they were under $25 per axle. Even the Brembo-style pads are only around $30.

 

[HouseTiger]

Never really heard of bad brake pads. Although ceramic pads tend to have no dust over semi-metallic, they might not be as grabby as semi-metallics. But at that price, you should grab two sets for when they wear out if you're planning on keeping the car for long. Probably doesn't even really affect the shipping.

I had a set once (operative word being 'once') - they were a discount auto parts brand and worked okay until one of the front pads cracked, came loose from the backing and proceeded to grind the rotor into uselessness. Since then I've stayed with NAPA premium pads without incident.

 

[SoNic67]

brake pads are required by law to meet minimum safety standards.

If you are satisfied with that minimum... more power to you. It is very depending on the personal driving style.
Some prefer to drive a bit more spirited and in the city that's more braking.
Some live in rural areas with barely any crossroads to stop at, some drive daily to and from work in stop-and-go traffic for an hour.
I am in the category with more spirited driving )when I can) and stop-an-go commute (before COVID19). So I prefer to pay a bit more for brake pads that can take a bit more of abuse.
And get new discs if that's needed, instead of re-cutting the old ones.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Pep Boys shows the edge code on their Youtube channel for these pads, if anyone cares to decode (see image.)

I bought a set of ceramic part store brakes a while back that was on RA closeout, but I forgot the store, might have been Pep Boys. The edge code for that one is in the second image.

Every set of brakes I put on my cars (when available) have been RA closeouts. I highly recommend them. Only had one issue, a set of fleet pads (Raybestos Super Stop) that dusted so bad it was pitting my wheels within the first 500 miles. I ate the $6 and tossed a different set of closeouts on, and kept on driving.

 

[Crash Bandicoot]

My read on this is that brake pads are easy to change and these are cheap enough to give them a rip and see how they do, if they suck you can just swap out to better name brand stuff and all you’ve lost is the price of a large pizza. Generally I don’t like to go budget, my anecdotal experience is that they tend to wear out faster than higher quality stuff (could be total BS because obviously the caliper has built up tolerance issues over time, same reason the original pads last forever it seems). If you’re paying retail prices than the delta between parts store house brand and Akebono etc is small enough I’d go Akebono etc. but you’re not. This would be more a concern if you were paying someone to do the work for you since having to swap out 2x while paying a shop to do the swap would be ruinously expensive.

 

[alcyon]

I just installed Wagner TQ ceramic pads, bought from Rock Auto. PD336 and PD337. The brakes are quiet and the stopping power is good, better than it was before. I am unsure of the older brake pad brand, but yeah I am happy with the Wagner.

 

[willbur]

Yeah so far on here they're telling you not to cheap out. But no one is saying I had these brake pads installed and they failed on me. I bought Autozone Duralast Gold brake pads before, couldn't tell the difference between those and any other set of brake pads I had ever had on the car. About the only difference I've noticed from going from OEM pads which must have been semimetallic to ceramic was how they didn't grab as well as the OEM pads, but I felt the OEM ones were much more sensitive and I felt the ceramic ones had a more normal feel. The ceramic ones were Akebono which everyone here seems to like. Regardless, you put your foot down, the car stops, no complaints.

Like? Not me. AKs "performance" are the worst pads I ever used. But are quiet and smooth. Just my experience and opinion.

 

[Chris142]

I am sure that there are many cars running around on PB pads and doing fine. But like most people here I tend to spend a little more on parts from names I recognize. PB carries Wagner pads too. I have those on our cars as they were only pennies more than the house brand pads.

 

[Wolf359]

Like? Not me. AKs "performance" are the worst pads I ever used. But are quiet and smooth. Just my experience and opinion.

They're OEM for many makes. I think it depends on the actual line of pads that you used, not that they're all bad. No issues with mine, they're their EUR line.

 

[willbur]

They're OEM for many makes. I think it depends on the actual line of pads that you used, not that they're all bad. No issues with mine, they're their EUR line.

These were AK "ultra performance" line GG rated. Their best stuff. If these don't stop, no AK will. YMMV as they say.

 

[pezzy84]

Ceramics are nice quiet and low dust pads - only downside someone above mentioned is the initial bite is going to be a little less than non-ceramic pads as they need to heat up a bit for best performance, but you end up adapting.

I used ceramics on the rear of my '06 Jetta 2.5 (VW's OEM pads tend to generate heavy brake dust) and the massive reduction in dust was nice, it was more of a beige/gray dust vs black dust of the OEM materials.

For $6/each set I wouldn't hesitate to give it a go.