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Ok well, my brake pads was changed last year and I believe i've put in around 15k miles on it. I was watching a tennis game today and left. I then started my car and drove off, but when I turned and brake, I could hear something on my front driver side brakes. It's like a loud noise, somewhat screeching, but at the same time thumping noise. I could even feel it on my brake pedal, but it goes away once the brakes get a little warmer.

I was going to say warped rotors, but the fact that it goes away once it warms up has me perplexed.

Begin the process of elimination. Take off that caliper and inspect.

15k on one set of pads? Christ man.

At this point, frankly I'd just replace both pads and rotors.

I got about 40K on present set ( 25K ish for you yanks ), and they are at about 50%.

I still don't know what I am going to get for replacements, EBC Red or Hawk HPS...

Well I took out the whole suspension yesterday and found out my coilover was loose. Now that's gone, there's still the brakes... Now I could hear the rear left drum squeking while pressing on the brake and that's when it's not running. I'll check up on the car more this weekend with my friend and see if we can fix it.

Your DD is an economy car, is it not? Like you need brakes...

I'll let you know how the EBCs are once I get them on my car. I was going to do that today, but that dumb misfire came up and I got unmotivated.

Some of the factors that affect brake life would be :

Weight of car,
Severity of brake applications,
Sizing of the brake.

I don't see think engine output would directly affect brake life.

Or to put it in simpler terms :

"Brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are for stopping the car is what brakes are , etc."

Sorry man, could not resist, but do you see how annoying and/or condescending that is now?

But I digress, economy cars do need good brakes, like Toyota Corollas when their accelerator sticks.

But I digress again, looking forward to the feedback on the EBC's. I am tempted to get them because they are supposed to be quieter then Hawk, and dust less, while having similar braking characteristics. But people are reporting that they have a tendency to eat discs? >_<

I assume you've bed brakes before? Not trying to be insultive, just making sure... Most likely it's second nature since you do autocross.

No, I know, but what I implied by that is that you're not going to be doing any hard driving on that car.

^ this. To save cash, just buy some run of the mill pads instead of forking out for pads that are well beyond the need.

So I guess you know better than myself what I would be doing with it.

Something is wrong there.

Why must you always be insulting me?

A bit of respect please. I don't go out of the way to insult you, I would appreciate the same from your end.

Good job at missing most of my post too, but I did expect that.

@floht : Assumptions are assumptions at best, don't subscribe to his drivel. What is exactly "well beyond my need"? And why would I want to "save cash"?

Please note that I did not post that I want to get something like Yellowstuff or Hawk Blues. Just a step up from OEM pads, better stopping power, less brake fade, and possibly less dust, that's what I am looking for...

Typically what I do is go to the auto parts store and buy the best pads they stock. Since Autozone/O'riley/Advance aren't likely to have brembo's/stoptech/willwood/EBC/Hawk pads, I just go with the highest off the shelf parts. I like all the little hardware that comes with the pads, and they work just fine for what I do. Even if I drove hard, and had a higher performance car, I wouldn't consider the really nice pads unless I was going to do more than one autox/race on the pads. This is a place to be wise with the cash, don't buy more brake than you're going to use.

@Carver: I have no idea what kind of driving you're going to be doing, but I'd rather put the big money in tires than pads. Most all pads stop about the same, it's fade resistance where most of them differ. With that in mind, I'll let you make your own decision.

My blanket recommendation is off the shelf ceramic pads.

Disclaimer: I'm not a racer/pro mechanic or a particularly fast driver, I'm just an amateur mechanic. If I'm wrong about anything, let me know so I can fix it.

This is where you are assuming too ( for the lack of better knowledge, but it is still assuming ), where did you get the idea that I would be upgrading brakes but not tires?

That's the main reason I got snows last season, so that I would not have to run all seasons anymore. I got my new summer rims already, picked to be a cost effective set of comparatively light rims.

I was going to make a summer tire thread, but am having second thoughts now...

Why would I, for people like Spaz to post "hey, you're not going to drive the car hard, just buy some shitty no name All-Seasons"?

Is enjoying driving a bad thing now?

I have never seen such negativity ( or elitism, if you will ) on most of the car forums I frequent.

Hell no it's not.

I wasn't assuming anything about your tires, just stating my preference. I do like the idea of swapping between snow tires and summer ones though. That's what I do, though my summer tires are crappier than the Nokians, heh.

My blanket tire recommendation is Dunlop Direzza Star Spec tires for the summer. 240 treadwear rating, I think, so it's limiting if you want it to last more than one summer, but they grip very nicely wet or dry. I don't know what you're looking for, but these are my go to for price/performance ratio.

I was looking at those exact same tires, or the Yokohama Advan AD08. I really have to find someone local who runs them so I could find out exactly how "noisy" they are. Tread wear scares me a bit, but that's a given for tires of this class. Those 2 tires are very comparable in performance and reviews, the Yokos getting slight edge in noise, the Dunlops in wet handling ( or I might have that the wrong way around >_< ).

If Yokohama ES100's were still available, I would get those ( if only for familiarity with them ).

But that is going off topic a bit, so I looked up the difference in cost of using OEM over HPS.

It came to US$10 for the fronts, so saving that money would be like saving money to buy 5-6 large coffees, not even a weeks supply of coffee.

Haven't checked the difference for back set, but I am guessing it would be even less of a difference. All in all, $20 difference in pads, won't go very far to getting a better set of tires. That would be $5 more to spend on each tire, if I would be inclined to penny pinch like that. I would be very, very sad if that made a big enough difference in cost for me to consider going with the cheap pads.

The problem with street pads is that you don't typically heat them to the point of fading, I don't, anyway. So it's hard to see the advantage in spending the extra dosh. On a race track, particularly for an endurance race, it's a no brainer to get the best possible brakes. The law of diminishing returns is very applicable in this case.

But an extra $20? I'm not sure I'd miss that a thousand miles down the road, let alone the 15 I'd expect them to last.

Your pads only last 15k?

Mine are at least 30k into their life.

My old LHS was a big 4000 pound sedan, it tended to chew up one of the rear brakes pretty quickly, like 7thousand mile quickly. And I mean the rotors, not just the pads. Only on one side at a time though, which was weird. It was a Chrysler, so you just budgeted for repairs like that as normal driving wear.

Nearly 3thousand miles into my 528e, and I don't have any reason to replace the brakes yet. I was told, when we had it in for dealer service (mostly a checkup and timing belt replacement) that the clutch and brakes weren't messed with, because they still had some life in them, but the brakes would need to be replaced kinda soon. I haven't had a problem with the brakes yet, but if you watch how often I double clutch and heel/toe, you wouldn't be surprised. The clutch is nice and slippery though, just the way I like it.

When I change the oil, I'm going to gank the wheels and actually check the brakes.

The wear surfaces I'm most worried about are my synchros. I don't think the previous owner knew how to rev match at all.

Apex, I really don't see why you're getting offended. You do daily drive an economy car of some variety (please excuse the fact that I have no idea what it is), do you not? And you have your awesome project car that you can drive during the summer. So is there something I'm missing? You seem to be a fairly down-to-earth and sensible person, so I made the assumption that you're going to be driving your economy DD like... Well, an economy DD. Excuse me if I was incorrect in that assumption.

Regardless, an economy car does not need race brakes if it is not being raced, period. The reason being that cars these days already come equipped with brakes that can lock the tires from factory. To counteract this (or rather, to counteract the idiots behind the wheel), they also come with ABS. Effectively, without upgrading anything more than the brakes, you don't gain anything because the tires will still lock at the same point and you won't be using the excess braking power you've installed, save for a stronger initial bite (which'll just make ABS kick in sooner, anyway). In order to make it worthwhile, you also need to upgrade the tires (both in rubber quality and in width, which also usually requires a wheel upgrade as well) in order to take advantage of the excess stopping power.

Also do not make the assumption yourself that I would recommend running all-seasons, because there is no advantage other than a cost-savings. You get the worst of both worlds, and you're always better off running summer and winter tires from a safety standpoint.

Yes there is. Quit making your assumptions, I think I posted this a couple of posts up.

You've just lost a bit of respect there, just looking at the bolded part. HPS and Redstuff are race brakes?

Since when?

Neither need to be warmed up, and neither will take the heat of racing.

You do know Redstuff is not the same as it was a couple years ago ( the old redstuff was a race pad, the new one is a premium street pad, but that's going off the top of my head ), and HPS is not even close to being a race brake ( review that say that a single day of autocross chewed them to nothing ).

If they are race brakes, what are Yellowstuff and Hawk Blues ( just to name a couple off the top of my head) ?

ROFL.

That's like saying the Star Specs are race slicks...

They can lock stock tires from factory. And that says nothing about brake fade, but you probably know that already.

That is, if ABS is not disabled. But thanks for the idiot comment as well.

You're wrong on 3 points:

1. No one said not upgrading anything more than the brakes ( and I've actually posted the contrary, and as it shows later in your post, you did read where I posted that ).
2. ABS can only kick in sooner if it is still functional, and
3. It's not the initial bite I am concerned of, but more of brake feel and brake fade.

Did I not post this as well?

Why are you repeating what I posted?

Do I look dumb to you?

Or are you just having fun trying to one-up me ( even though you are failing at it)?

You choose to go out of your way to try and insult me in every way you can ( like in this post I just picked apart ), and you get offended at that?



Come now man, either you read that post where I posted that or you didn't. If you have read it, then you would have known that I was not planning or brake upgrades alone, and if you haven't, then you would not have anything to get offended at.

I gave you a chance to walk away from this, and you chose to post more of your condescending assumptions in an attempt to insult me even more. Word of advice, you are coming dangerously close to baiting ( you have actually passed the point, I am letting you off easy ).

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Within the Evo community, they've been viewed as suitable replacements for the stock tires (Yokohama Advan A046s), as they grip just as well and last as long, if not longer... which says a lot, seeing how my stock tires lasted just beyond 25,000 miles (32 months for me), with enough tread still on them to sell the set for $70, just to get rid of them. So unless you have a 20+ mile commute, a set of these should see two summers, unless you brutalize your car at the track regularly. Their pricing is really good, though it looks like you may be eligible for a $50 mail-in rebate if you purchase four of them between now and April 17, 2010, according to this:

http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/sp_ev...tion0210_TR.pdf

While the document was available through Tire Rack's website (and I didn't see it anywhere else, like on America's Tire Co/Discount Tire), there isn't anything on the rebate form stating that the purchase must be made through Tire Rack.

@Apex: we have a thread to discuss here. Can you please heed the forum guidelines and keep petty squabbles to PM?

@Nuts: never ran them on the street personally. Slapped them on a 24 hours of Lemons car and it lasted the entire race, albeit worn down to the cord, and past it in a couple spots, on the rear. Frankly, down the line when I actually get that performance car I'm dreaming about, I will brutalize them at the track, and not daily drive it.

Summer tires for my daily are currently the firestones that came with it. I can't remember if they're any good (bagged up right now, gonna swap them out in a month or two) but they get the job done.

This post has been edited by Cactus on Feb 19 2010, 05:11 AM

I am talking about brake pads.

You need to take your own advice.