Like many of you, I’d about had it with the stock brake pads on my ’05. Why Ford specified a pad made out of Charcoal, Carbon Black and #2 Pencil Lead is somewhat beyond me. I was to the point where I was wiping the brake dust from my front wheels once a day! Oh yea, and on an Oxford White truck, guess where else it showed up?

So, after 30,000 miles, I installed a set (front only) of the Porterfield R-4S pads so many of you have talked about here. I did not re-surface the rotors even though I really believe one should almost always do so. Mine were in really good shape with no heat checking or scoring, so we went with a basic “pad slap” job. It took all of 30 minutes to install the pads.

Now for the information you’ve all been waiting for. How’d they work? After bedding in the pads a few increasing severity stops, the pads seemed to have a really nice, solid feel to them. Braking distance seemed comparable, if not slightly improved. Brake dust was still somewhat of an issue, but I knew the pads had to wear in to match the rotors before I’d get a good read on that one.

I’ve now got almost 1,000 miles on the new pads and here’s the scoop. These babies stop! There is a definite improvement over the stock pads. I towed a 5,000-pound boat approximately 180 miles last weekend and was truly impressed how well they stopped. Brake dust, after the initial wear in period, is way down. It’s still there, but I’d say it’s about 20% of what it used to be. I can live with this! The only nit I might pick is a very slight squeal just before I come to a stop – and only when the brakes are warm. I chalk that one up to not resurfacing the rotors. Overall, I’d give them two thumbs up!