Brake pad options remain limited for the IS500 (but hopefully options begin to appear soon); at least for those who aren't swapping to ISF or GSF/RCF calipers. If anyone else has done some research/testing, I'd love to know what you've discovered.
Why do I care? I've been looking for a pad that can take a bit more heat to use for light HPDE days. Friends have been fine during light HPDE on DFC Active Performance pads, and certain sites (such as Buy Brakes) listed them to fit the IS500, so I decided to try them. It's frustrating that Lexus online still do not show the IS500 (or recognize IS500 VINs) for parts look-ups. I want to compare part numbers to confirm if we have are the same as on a GS 350 F Sport (and potentially others).
DFC and Stoptech (two examples I've looked into more closely), carry pads for the GS350 F Sport and on some sites will list them to fit the IS500. Looking at photos and at diagrams and now that I test fitted the DFCs, I'm not sure they are the correct pad material shape.
Yes the pad backing plate is close enough if not identical to our OEM pad, and they do install properly and do not have any play in the caliper.
However, I'll show that the contact patch of the pad material to the rotor is different and appears to leave a gap in certain areas. It's not necessarily problematic, unless you were to swap back to your OEM pads and if a lip were to form on the rotors from using smaller contact patch pads - but why wouldn't you want to maximize thermal capacity and contact patch area if you could?
These are the pads I purchased:
lexuspartsnow has a filter for the IS500 and lists this part for the brake pads - which is different than GS350 F Sport Pad part numbers - I'm taking this one with a grain of salt and cross referencing it back to a lexus part site.
On a Lexus part site, cross referencing the part above, this shows the pad to fit IS and RC car models that clearly don't use our pad shape...so that was misleading:
Here's a side-by-side comparison of the IS500 pads (on the right) and the DFC Active Performance pads (on the left). Notice the shape difference at the bottom:
On the material side, you can clearly see the pad shapes are different and DFC is noticeably smaller in total surface area too:
DFC is installed and there's a 2-3mm gap between the pad material and the inner edge of the rotor:
DFC installed and on the outer edge there's less of a gap but still maybe 1mm from the outer edge of the rotor:
DFC on top and OEM on the bottom - the pads are fairly square/aligned by their backing plates.
This is the OEM pad installed in the caliper, pretty much full contact with the rotor, inner and outer edges:
For another comparison, this is a StopTech sport pad that should also fit this car - the shape/design is identical to what DFC is using and would likely result in the same gaps:
If anyone has tested any other pads with our OEM calipers, I'd like to know what you've discovered.
Thanks!
does the IS500 have unique calipers and rotors not shared in any other lexus vehicle? Why are there limited options?
As far as I can tell, we do share hardware with at least the GS350 F-Sport. As you can imagine, the market opportunity for 'performance pads' on a GS350 is small for manufacturers.
Sorry my reply isn't IS500 specific but I run these DFC active performance pads on my 2011 ISF and a few of my buddies do as well on their cars. (2016 Audi S3, 2018 Infiniti Q50S RS, 2014 Subaru BRZ) They hold up pretty well on track and should be fine for anyone running in intermediate and lower groups. They are similar to Stoptech 309s. On track they do wear a little fast though. On street the dust is pretty bad but washes off easy enough. They're also quiet.
