EBC brake pads....experiences/opinions?

[ck42]

Checking out brake pads.
The EBC green stuff pads look promising as far as a good alternative with less dust.

PLEASE....no lectures about how I should just use OE pads and wash the wheels more often. PLEASE.

[psfred]

Chris:

I've never heard of anyone having good experience with aftermarket pads, but there are exceptions to any rule.

By all means, try them if you want, but my personal experiences with "low dust" brake pads is that you have "low brake power"' as a tradeoff. Ditto for soft (asbestos) pads -- rotors lasted forever, but the pads glazed very easily and wore out at a tremendous rate -- not good for a college student.

And my brother-in-law is still driving his 280Z -- nice car, if the stiff steering doesn't bother you!

Peter

[jobah]

I have had about a dozen sets of brake pads. I have used:

1. Mercedes OEM pads from the dealer I believe they were textar
2. Textar OEM (Euro Formulation)
3. Jurid OEM (Euro Formulation)
4. Textar OEM (US Formulation)
5. EBC Green Stuff

I have used the following rotors

1. Mercedes OEM from the dealer
2. ATE standard
3. EBC

My results with the EBC's have been positive. I am on the second set of EBC green stuff pads (with EBC rotors). My personal experience is that they shorten stopping distances and they have substantially less dust (40+kmi of experience with EBC). They also last about as long as the others mentioned above.

I debated for a long time before I tried them, but, I finally decided to give them a try (I also purchased Textar OEM's in case I backed out). I have not seen any downsides, only upsides.

Hope this helps.

[gsxr]

In the motorcycle world, all EBC pads are crap except for their race-only HH "kit" pads, which have one or two bad traits... and honestly I don't know if their car pads are any better.

For max performance, check out Porterfield carbon-Kevlar pads. Warning: They are NOT cheap. For street use you would want the R4-S compound ONLY. I have a set and they rock. Low dust, too. I've used Mintex "red-box" pads, they are OK, but initial bite is a bit weak. The stock stuff has good bite but fades more easily than I'd like, plus they're usually dusty. Mintex makes C-Tech race pads, and Ferodo makes DS-2000 race pads, both of which are supposed to be pretty good... but have the drawback of poor cold peformance (which the Porterfields don't have). I've also heard that Axxis Ultimates are good, along with Metal Masters (which unfortunately eat rotors). I have Metal Masters on my VW, the initial bite is so-so, but they resist fade pretty well.

I'd recommend Porterfields if you can afford them, and consider Axxis if you can't. The race-only pads are priced in between but remember they take a few stops to warm up.

My personal favorite is Performance Friction carbon metallic, which are THE hot ticket for superbike racing (everyone I recommended them to came back and thanked me profusely), and I'm ticked that they don't make ANY pads for ANY model Mercedes! Bummer...

Oh - you might want to search for "EBC" in the archives, and also post your question on the Hot Rod & Performance Paddock.


HTH,

[ck42]

Peter:
Tell your brother to keep that thing from turning to iron-oxide I absolutely LOVE the orginal body style Z's!

Jovan:
thnx for the input on the EBC's. I'll def. take that into consideration.

Dave:
I actually came VERY close to ordering some Porterfield R4-s pads....then got spoooked by reports of squeeling. Beyond this, it's been VERY hard to find anyone who has anything negative to say about them. The price doesn't bother me.....too much....they certainly are pricey tho.

Bill:
Glad you brought up the Axxis/Repco/PBR/whateverothername Deluxe pads.
I've started looking into these too now. Reports appear good....and they're fairly inexpensive. Def. staying away from the Metal Masters (too many reports of them chewing up rotors and being very noisy).

While I'm at it, anyone know how to 'mic' rotors at home? I have a digital caliper...if it can be used.

Chris

[LightMan]

Several members of another site's e-class w210 forum that I visit have tried EBCs and have reported warped rotors and other problems. Several have also tried and loved porterfield rs-4 pads. Nobody complained of squealing that I can think of.

[ck42]

Lightman....ja, I seem to be running into QUITE a bit of conflicting reports on the EBC pads...anywhere from GREAT to POS.

The R4-S pads look to be almost unanimously in favor....although, I have heard of a couple of neg. reports on them...noise and performance related.

Still trying to decide on PBR Deluxe pads...if these pass the 'smell test', they're cheap enuf to try out...if I don't like them, not much lost.


Chris
'85 300SD

[psfred]

Chris:

The Z-car has been hit twice now in Miami, so I suppose it's going to be a museum piece in his garage sooner or later. I don't think he will willingly give it up, I sure wouldn't! Nice ride. He was very appreciative that I put Premium in it the day I drove it last spring -- I figured regular was a serious gamble....!

Squealing is the worst complaint about aftermarket pads, but I suspect that is from people trying to get them cheap. List price for Textar or Pagid pads is unbelievable sometimes, they are very inexpensive on Partshop, etc. Cheap aftermarket pads are univerisally too hard, and also seem to glaze every single time. Volvo 740's suffer terribly from this problem, screech so bad it hurts!

Avoid racing pads, they have to be heated up to work properly, which can be a real problem when someone pulls off a side road in front of you!

I don't mind dust much, and the feel of the factory pads is fine for me -- the Pagids on the 280 SE will drag that big boat down just fine. Now, if I could only find a way to get rid of the tailgaters......!

Peter

[ck42]

Peter,

Ja.....the OE pads are great.......except I would *like* to see less dust.
That's my quest.....find something that performs as well as OE in all respects except producing less dust.

Any squealing is a HUGE negative. I already have some noise when backing up in and hitting the brakes in reverse for some reason....the OE pads NEVER make a peep going forwards tho.

Chris

[psfred]

Chris:

The dust is a pain -- seems the wheels are ALWAYS dirty. I don't wash the cars much, too much of a pain in the butt, so always have to scrub forever to get the dust off. Don't know why, but it really sticks.

My wheels look terrible, too -- someone seems to have used tire cleaner on them (or something like 409), ate the paint up. Both W124s are rough that way, and not work the effort to fix, or the expense.

Let us know what you decide to do and how it works!

Peter