Toysrme

Third set in slightly less than one year.
Last April I went from OEM everything to original rear rotors + Autozone pads and Slotted Brembo's + EBC Greenstuff. That lasted all of 4,000 Miles (three months) The EBC pads were dead. I will never buy those again, nor do I recommend them to people I hate. (Eric buy a pair! LoL!)
Swapped those to Autozone front pads. Sometime around July/Aug???

Now; year old rear pads wearing down fairly well (3/8" left) front left pad worn completely & scoring the rotor, front right pad at 1/2 life. (Don't ask... Anything I could come up with I couldn't prove, so anything is only speculation...)

So off to TireRack we go! Such great service on the website! (Do I get paid for that?)


1 Hawk hps street/sport pads In Stock $66.00 $66.00
2 Brembo replacement rotor (ea) In Stock $49.00 $98.00
2 Brembo replacement rotor (ea) In Stock $53.00 $106.00
1 Akebono pro-act ceramic pads In Stock $51.00 $51.00

**********
There is one more thing that you should keep in mind. Due to the fact that it was a pain in the A** to cover the rotors with newspaper when I was going to paint them. I simply let the high temp silver Duplicolor I got from Autozone overspray onto the contact path on the front rotors. (back went unpainted for reasons of not wanting to wast $100 shoud that be bad)

If you want to see how this should NOT be done, see HERE

To anyone wondering: No it doesn't burn off. (high temp paint) No it doesn't affect braking. Yes it wore off while backing into the culdisac the first time out the driveway. Yes the rear rotors allready have rust due to light rain yesterday. (I will be spraying them this weekend...)
**********

To not follow my own advise about rotors; going home tonight I did test the panic braking.
As a side note, I did do quite abit to warm up and cool down the rotors gradually to try and stave off any warpage. (I agree with what I've read. New rotors should NOT be called upon harshly for more than 3 seconds in the first 1,000 miles if you want to play it safe. Don't worry about not using the E-Brake in the first few hundred miles btw. Note our E-Brake only engages drum the inside of the rear rotor hat.)

No numbers, so seat of the pants... (I'm not walking it off on an interstate LoL!)
110-0 is a noticeable bit better. Second stop was longer, but not quite so long as with the previous setup.
On five 60-0 stops there seemed to be favor in the first few, but became even as before.
**********

Two things should be kept in mind at all times.
1) The old setup WAS using cheap Raybestos Autozone pads(one of which DID have slight metal contact with the rotor)
2) I am using dot4 fluid and not dot3. The fade over time on the Toyota/Brembo front rotors after the first few stops has a bit to do with fuild boiling than the rotors absilutely being overworked.

Obviously with the OEM size rotors that's an extremely tall order not filled by some big brake kits on smaller cars. When I swap to a high end dot5.1 later on I'll post an update.


**********

In closing, there is nothing useful in here other than:
1) Painting rotors doesn't hurt. (And I am going to do the rear... Tomorrow)
2) IMHO EBC sucks
3) I STILL don't think slotting improves braking AT ALL unless you need pads resurfaced, but is better than drilling/rotor forged with holes... Eric! (Slotting resurfaces pads, drilling can evacuate gasses that DON'T build up in modern pads under non-NASCAR braking, but drilling helps in the wet)
4) Our rotors are easy to change. I did four in less than an hour and a half. <g>

5) Just for anyone wonder(I have posted TWICE on this forum about it...

You can bleed an ABS system without any special consideration... The first bleed I did on this car when Is wapped to the first set of EBC/Autozone pads I pulled air out front and back. I HAVE NOT had any in the last two go arounds.

6) When they don't fall apart? Cheap AUtozone pads don't suck by any means & have a lifetime warrentee!<g>
7) I rule
8) TireRack is kewl, can I have free wheels?

Toysrme

9) I'm tired and have been rambling on while trying to eat, hurl and zone out for the last hour...

lexusk8

Toysrme, don't take this the wrong way, but after reading about your harsh remarks regarding your experience with aftermarket brake pads (EBC, Autozone), have you thought about just going back to the OEM Toyota brake pads? Personally I think they're the best and most reliable of all pads. They don't squeak (well, with the help of the anti-squeak shims), they provide a decent bite to the rotors, and they don't give off any brake dust. I've never tried any of the aftermarket brake pads, but considering the minimal price difference between all the pads put together, I would definitely stick with the Toyota brand

Quote:

Now; year old rear pads wearing down fairly well (3/8" left)

BTW, 3/8" is equivalent to 9.5 mm. I believe the pad thickness for the ES is 10 mm. If you say your measurement is correct, it sounds like you have plenty of life on your current brake pads. Just so you know

Toysrme

Not to be too harsh on EBC, but when every other post about them on every forum on earth complains of *horrid* service life, something is wrong.

And about the Raybestos Autozone pads... Why is one worn to metal enough to score the rotor and the other one is perfectly fine? The rear brakes were wearing well is what I'm saying, but then again they only contribute what? 20% of the force needed to stop the car?

cam2Xrunner

The akebono pro-act ceramics are the dealer pads, akebono makes them for toyota and lexus. I have them on my car with 18k on them and they are about 15% worn. There are a couple of reasons why your pads can be wearing that way. The hardware could be worn and not leeting the pad move freely. The caliper guides probably need to be lubed. Or you need to replace your calipers. Keep an eye on your pads to see if they continue to wear that way. I agree ebc is ****. i wore them out in 4k too. You can't go wrong with dealer pads. Slotted rotors DO NOT resurface pads. If that were the case my brakes would be gone in 1k miles. Mine are slotted and i have 18k of hard braking with only about 15% worn. It is normal for rust to appear on the braking surface of the rotor after it has been raining. If you want to go to a big brake setup without spending 2k check this out http://camryclub.org/forums/showthre...threadid=9238, it might fit your car, im not sure if the dimensions are different on an es300 compared to v6 camry.

mcelligott

Thats because people that buy them because theyre "race pads" but people don't realize that "race pads" have a very very very very short lifespan. The people that buy them don't realize that, so they complain when they have no right to do so.

pkchin

I put the Akebone proacts on as well and tI am retty happy with the. Feels like stock so should last me awhile.

Toysrme

MCE, green is marketed as a street pad, red pads and up are for track.

From EBC's page:

Greenstuff - "EBC Greenstuff is an excellent fast A road pad for all road legal cars, but is not for track day use."

V3 - "The V3 material is not suitable for trackday use, please see our Redstuff ceramic pad for track day applications."

Redstuff - "EBC Redstuff ceramic is one of the first pads to be offered that is ECE R-90 compliant and therefore legal for road use and yet is capable of withstanding track day torture."

Yellowstuff - "This material has been extensively tested on the track and well accepted by many race teams as their choice for circuit driving in 2004."



Doesn't look like it's being marketed

mcelligott

They are for HIGH PERFORMANCE STREET CARS aka NOT an ES or a civic. They are for powerful cars that need to stop well from a big distance. Theyre not for rolling around with everyday use. If you want everyday use out of brake pads, you DONT GET HIGH PERFORMANCE ONES! Thats why I cant stand that everyone complains about the life of EBC greenstuff.

"This pad features a high Kevlar content formulation resulting in an ultra high performance road pad which is extremely kind to discs. With a friction so-efficient of around 0.5 and a high resistance to brake fade (650ºC) this pad is a superb upgrade for high performance street cars, high speed freeway use and consecutive heavy braking. If you are experiencing brake fade with your heavily loaded 4x4 or towing vehicle, you should be using Greenstuff!"

George Hsieh

can you help me with picking the right brake pad... I have those brambo drill rotor and my pad squee~~ bad.... can you tell me which pad are the quite and long life.... how about raybesto.... <-- I am not too sure...

Toysrme

Other than 1 pad out of 6 pair being horrid, I got what I paid for on the Raybestos pads. They Dusted alot & thee rears had a habit of squeeling. (on both sets) Other than that, no real complaints.


1100 miles on the new pads all ready in FOUR DAYS. So far the akebono pro-act ceramics are nice. They don't squeel at all. The front Hawks are doing a good job as well. I picked up a bit of squeel after a very hard stop, but it was gone by the next day's driving, so go figure.

Just think... If I were still using EBC's pads I'd get 16 days a set @ the current rate!!!

cam2Xrunner

akebono=dealer pads, so you can't go wrong with either pad. Don't use reybestos. If you're going to use reybestos get the qs pads but those suck too. If your looking for a more performance pad look for Hawk or porterfield pads.