BRAKES PADS - good vs. bad

[CHOUKI240]

My 240 is about ready to get new brake pads. I've searched the forum for threads on which pads are good and bad, but didn't come up with much. A few that came up were Axxis, Hawk and Project Mu. What pads do you guys recommend? include prices if you know them.


1992 240sx Coupe SE w/HUD
81,XXX miles
5spd
Aztec Red

[AutoRnD]

ENDLESS VITA NUOVA $120 0-570 Farenheit
ENDLESS SSS $180 30-935 Farenheit

I would rock these if i were you =)

[skatanic28]

i run hawk hps. good street pads for me. great initial bite, low dust, low noise. with my driving style i dont get any fade either. how hard do you drive?

[CHOUKI240]

Ard josh - can you hook it up! i'd be going for the endless vita's. how much can you get them for me? i'm up in vallejo. also what are they made of?

skatanic28 - i've seen the hawks and they're cool, i just wanted to get more opinions on different pads. lets just say i like to drive enthusiastically.

[orion::S14]

Hawk HPS, Axxis Ultimate, or Axxis Metal Master...can't go wrong, and they're reasonably priced.

Great street / track pads, good all around use.

- Brian

[msaskin]

Hawk HPS/HP+ or Porterfield R4S.

Endless and Project Mu pads are nothing but a waste of money. Same (sometimes worse) specs than equivalent american made (Hawk/Porterfield) pads. Granted, you don't get the "mad-JdM y0" bling, but then again, you end up with more money in your pocket.

~matt

[s14srpilot]

In this case more money in your pocket > "mad-JdM y0" bling

[AutoRnD]

msaskin.. have you ever used endless pads? believe me.. ive used them.. compared them to hawk and porterfield.. and its a world of difference...

[misnomer]

I just got some axxis ultimates from nopi. . . $35 an axle or so. Rediculous performance for the price. I had my Brembo blanks glowing red, pads on fire, and it still didn't fade (long story). . . They are a bit dusty-- think of it as encouragement to clean more often :P

They have great bite off the bat, very predictable. I loves them.

[kandyflip445]

I bet you're just trying to push your products again.

I like the Hawk HPS.

[ZodiacSR]

Axxis Ultimates are awesome "bang for your buck" performance. Misnomer is right about the brake dust, theres quite a bit.

Axxis Metal Masters are good, not as great as Ultimates I think.

KVR no good. Requires warm up and can be very dangerous in very cold weather. Sufficient when warmed up.

I run them with KVR crossdrilled rotors if it matters. These rotors are good as well with almost 3 years of track and mountain abuse.

300ZX 26mm calipers up front
stock calipers in the back

[aznpoopy]

msaskin.. have you ever used endless pads? believe me.. ive used them.. compared them to hawk and porterfield.. and its a world of difference...

lmao... everytime brake pads comes up you push endless pads... are you telling me the japanese have some super special pads that are so superior to the ones we have on these shores?

hawk hps have good bite, but they dust alot. they are also a little slow to bite in the morning when cold. overall they are more then decent pads for the money.i've heard good things about axxis ultimates. any of these pads would be fine for street or some light track duty.

[the240sxer95]

which project mu pads? and how do they compare to ENDLESS?

[Sirikool]

I'd go with HAWKS.

[nissantuner22]

im running hawks, love em.

[meatish]

Ive been using hawk HPS for a few months now and I love them. Great performance for the value. Try Shox.com for low prices..

[TurDz]

I use Porterfield R4S on a Maxima and they've served me great. With a big, open spoke wheel, the extra brake dust they generate is easy to clean off. Sufficiently well in cold weather too.

[TheSnail]

The >Green Stuff<

[kandyflip445]

I've heard EBC Green Stuff suck from a lot of people but I don't remember why. What were they like?

[Var]

buy Endless but dont buy from josh :p

I got carbotech on my car they seem to be kickass pads.

[TheSnail]

I've heard EBC Green Stuff suck from a lot of people but I don't remember why. What were they like?

I dont know, I never had them. But its a catchy name. Actually, I might of got them a long time ago when I had a dodge stealth. They were like 160$ and had a lifetime waranty, how the hell do brake pads have liftime warranties? I guess you would later be changing rottors instead of pads.

[loser101]

I got Hawk Hp + best thing that i have tried

[msaskin]

msaskin.. have you ever used endless pads? believe me.. ive used them.. compared them to hawk and porterfield.. and its a world of difference...

I have actually. At various track events on my car I've use the Hawk HT-10, Porterfield R4, and Endless MA22b's.

All of them need to be warmed up (as you can expect with race compound pads) but once there, I've found the Hawks to have a much higher initial braking torque, and generally better "feel" under hard braking. The Porterfields and Endless pads don't seem to offer the same amount of modulation, then again, that could just be my driving/braking style.

Either way, even if the endless pads were a bit better, the fact that they're $300 (!!!!) compared to the $100 I pay for the R4 or HT-10 immediately make them not worth the cost.

~matt

[chuy]

HP+ the only down side is the dust it turns red on my spray painted black wheels. Have yet to see brake fade at a race track, stayed on track for 45 min had to get off the car started to overheat.

[CHOUKI240]

yeah...200-300 is alot for pads... i think i'm just gonna get some pepboys pads for now and get some better pads in a few months when I get my tein he coilovers and big brake kit. thanks for all the opinions.

[coldfire07]

My Axxis Ultimates (from www.cobaltfriction.com - one of the best customer service I've dealt with) kick ass on my zenki. I got them for $117 shipped and that included a bottle of SuperBlue fluid. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

[KA24DESOneThree]

Axxis Ultimates coupled with Ate Superblue. Great combo.

[skatanic28]

i switched over to ate when i did my pads too. huge difference in pedal feel along with my ss lines. 200 bucks is a lot of cash for pads, but you can get pretty good performance for around 100.

[myleftlung]

KVR no good. Requires warm up and can be very dangerous in very cold weather. Sufficient when warmed up.


Strange, I ran the KVR Carbon Kevlar pads on my old car and I NEVER had a problem. They honestly felt stock beyond the fact that brake fade was almost non-existent. I would be running them on my new car but old car was ABS, and new one is not; therefore my new setup will be HP+ F and the KVR R. You guys think the brake bias will be funky?

[aznpoopy]

yeah...200-300 is alot for pads... i think i'm just gonna get some pepboys pads for now and get some better pads in a few months when I get my tein he coilovers and big brake kit. thanks for all the opinions.

meh... pepboys sells ebc and hawk hps around where i live. check em out.

[JaeTea]

DO NOT get Axxis.

IMO, they're horrible.

[Jeff240sx]

EBC greens. Night and day comparison to Hawk HP+ (which I currently run, and am DYING to change out). EBC = no dust, massive initial bite, no fade, just great pads. A few years ago EBC sucked, but since then they've gotten alot better. My only *slight* disagreement with the EBC was I only got 14k miles out of them. My Hawks = dust, squeal in the morning, lower bite, no fade, and have been going for 8k miles. Seems like I'll get 15-20k out of them. But i'm still getting the greens when I can.
-Jeff

[AutoRnD]

yes buy endless but dont buy from me... =)

[autobahNESSA]

i got the Axxis ultimates up front, and metal masters in rear. since I put on ultmates, the initial bite is much stronger. I havent had a chance to test brake fade yet. It took a lot of highspeed stopps to heat up my Metal masters when i had them all the way around. Even then they still worked fairly well.
what this ATE blue brake fluid. Is it that much better? does it firm up the pedal more? i run z brake up front, with stock rears.

[Luke]

First I used KVR Carbon Kevlar pads. They worked well without warmup. They would fade pretty badly after maybe 5-10 min of hard mountain driving. Pretty scary to lose your brakes like that.

I just recently installed Hawk HPS pads. I like these much more than the KVR pads. They grab much better over all temps and I haven't experienced brake fade on them yet. Try to avoid the KVRs, not worth it...

[Nismo_Freak]

EBC greens. Night and day comparison to Hawk HP+ (which I currently run, and am DYING to change out). EBC = no dust, massive initial bite, no fade, just great pads. A few years ago EBC sucked, but since then they've gotten alot better. My only *slight* disagreement with the EBC was I only got 14k miles out of them. My Hawks = dust, squeal in the morning, lower bite, no fade, and have been going for 8k miles. Seems like I'll get 15-20k out of them. But i'm still getting the greens when I can.
-Jeff

HP+ are really more like track pads that "can" be used on the street. They don't really bite till warmed up to track temps... HPS actually works better on street and autocross.