I've been told that ceramic pads are much harder than stock and therefore put premature wear on stock rotors, ultimately leading to warpage. I'd leave the ceramic pads to high performance cars or the Lightning guys. The way I see it, if the stock brakes have been sufficient thus far, then there's really no need to mess with them.

-Craig

 

Ceramic pads are not "harder" they actually are softer or "kinder" to rotors. If they were one solid piece of ceramic they would be harder, but they only contain ceramic compounds, along with about 20 other materials at varying levels, which give them braking effectiveness. Ceramic pads brake more by "adhesion" and less by "friction" this is why they don't dig into rotors as much and produce as much dust, (much of the dust is actually rotor material).

 

When I replaced the rotors and pads on my 2000 ORP, everywhere I went told me that it came with ceramic pads. I ended up going w/ PowerSlot rotors and Hawk HPS pads, which put out A LOT more dust the stock setup.

 

Not familiar with Hawk Pads, but I do know drilled and slotted rotors really chew some pads, especially ceramic. Some pads wear rate is accelerated by 5 times, so if you normally get 30,000 you would get about 6,000. In theory the holes and slots are suppose to increase air flow and keep the rotors cooler, but the removed mass limits the material for heat sink and contact surface area is reduced, so 2 negatives and one positive?, its a toss-up if you ask me.

 

So far my NAPA Ceramic pads and cryogenically treated rotors from Diversified Cryogenics are excellent. These pads really stop better. My truck came with rear drum brakes so I need all the help I can get. Also I just put on a Supercharger so I am really testing them out lately. No dust and excellent stopping power. Too soon to tell about the longevity of the rotors but I suspect they will be excellent as well.
The truth is this was a very good bang-for-the-buck upgrade. Not much more then stock equipment.

 

I have NAPA ceramic on front and back with stock rotors. The rear are orrigional rotors that were turned. The front were new OEM rotors my neighbor gave me (long story with his brake problems in warranty, 6 brake jobs - dealer gave him new set of front rotors for good faith - he got rid of his truck). After intall I had a vibration in the front - turned new OEM front rotors as they were not true. I had a lot of scrubbing sound coming from front and rears for about 1k and it calmed down.

I was going through front pads about every 20k miles. At 60k I needed front and rear and switched to the ceramic. I have 19k on the ceramic with no issues. They are quiet, it stops quicker, and they are not dusty.

PS: I had Just Brakes do the 40K brake job - they finger tightened the bleeders on the front. Three times their advertized price and screwed up wheels because of brake fluid all over them. Absolutly no follow up customer service as I carried their screwup all the way up the corp ladder.

 

I installed the ceramic pads (raybestos) and have been happy with the lack of dust, about 10k miles now, rotors are warped (factory rotors), plan is to get rid of the ceramic, might try carbon friction metalic.....

 

I had the same problem with my mustang. I assume that you are using the QS ceramic pad series that raybestos makes. I ended up getting Brembo rotors and didn't have a problem. I put 21,000 miles on them without problems (I traded the car in, but the brakes were still good.)

 

I installed the Bendix Titanium pads on my wife's Voyager yesterday and I am amazed. No more noisey brakes and the van stops better now than when it was new! Well worth the $50 for the front pads. I am going to install these bad boys on my F150 at the next brake job.

Jeff

 

http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...otors_myth.htm


"In fact every case of "warped brake disc" that I have investigated, whether on a racing car or a street car, has turned out to be friction pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation (TV) or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures."


Matt<---using $9 rotors on his car for a year, with *GOOD* pads. Not one bit of "warpage"...

 

FYI, I have worn out a bunch of pads in my high miles '98 2WD.

The best pads I used were Bendix Titanium, as they really had good braking power. No fade under repeated stops. Lots of dust though.

The worst were the OEM pads, as the truck would not stop fast, no matter what, while towing my jet ski. The OEM pads did not have enough braking power to lock the fronts at any speed. I thought this odd for a new vehicle without anti lock.

I just installed a set of Ceramic pads, they feel OK and stop well enough to be considered good. The dust is minimal. However, brake fade is a big factor with these pads. 3 hard stops from 70MPH resulted in massive brake fade due to pad outgassing and lack of high temp friction.

I have Panther Plus Carbotech pads on my turbo Miata. They are simply the best street/track pads I have ever used. The braking power is fantastic. Too bad the boys at Carbotech sent me the wrong pads for my F150, as they make some seriously good pads.

Chris

 

My truck got fresh brakes when I purchased it (29K). I developed a pulse in the front end after about 6K, so I machined the rotors, and replaced the factory pads with ceramics.

Truck now has 78K, no pulsing, no fading, and very little dust (its light colored, so it doesn't show too bad on the wheels). I drive in heavy stop and go traffic to and from work (35 miles each way), so my highway miles are 'severe' duty!

I've been very happy with them, and will replace the rears with ceramics when they're due (I did replace them once, with non-ceramics, and they haven't given me any trouble so far).

Also glad I haven't had to replace rotors - my truck is 2wd, so they're pretty pricey compared to the 4wd rotors.

 

i put Carbotech "bobcat" stret pads and new rotors on my 97 150and BAM, great stopping power these are the best pads i have run on my truck