Have read a lot here about brake kits and calipers- My 07 GT with stock Brembos needs new pads. Looking for objectivity from your past experiences- Stock Z is used mostly for street driving..... semi aggresively with an occasional day at the drag strip. With that said and with my OEM Brembo calipers is there a big performeance difference with Brembos, Wagners, Stoptech and Hawk pads for the money?

I am assuming from what i have read i can use non Brembo pads on my stock Brembo calipers?

Thanks in advance for sharing.

 

Hawk, best for the money. Brembo pads throw insane amounts of dust and are too expensive for what they are.

 

I'm using the stoptech pads on oem brembos.. better fade resistance, however I believe less initial bite. For the price.. (about 100-120 for both front / rears) and performance, I think they are a good deal. Biggest gripe about them is the brownish tinted brake dust they produce.

Had hawks hps before, squealed like pigs..

 

my hawk hps squeals on and off. it's never consistent.

i dont have any experience with others

 

project mu ns series. FTW go to projectnissan.com best prices.

 

Brembo and OEM are expensive and dust too much. Since you're not tracking the car, you don't need high performance pads. Get the generic Akebono/Wagner/etc pads. I'd stay away from Hawks. If I wanted "performance" pads and was willing to spend the extra money, go with Nismo, Endless, Project Mu, or similar.

 

I have hawk HPS, minimal dust, good stopping with minimal fade (also mainly street and a little strip) There is a minor squealing from time to time when they drop below operation temp, nothing terrible.

 

that

if I didn't track my car id buy autozone pads. Those work just fine.

 

My opinion......Stop Tech 309 > oem Brembo > Axxis Deluxe Plus.

 

I heard 309s fade a lot under hard driving?

 

Since your not tracking your car, grab a set of cheap autozone specials. That is all you need for daily use, if you feel the need to spend more money, EBC green will work great for your needs.

 

 

Buy their lifetime pads and you're set - literally for the life of the car. Free pads when they get worn down.

 

If you don't track your car but your car is around 500whp. Would regular pads like the Akebono/Wagner would do the job?

 

Just a heads up, this is true to certain autozones with certain managers.....some will give you a hard time or not even honor the "lifetime warranty". They'll say it's a "Limited Lifetime Warranty" and does not cover normal wear and tear. As a kid I worked for Autozone for like 8 years, policies could have changed by now, but don't be surprised if they don't honor it.

P.S. don't buy the brake grease packs they try to push on you...just get a bottle of it, you get so much more for the money, and you can store it. I never end up using the whole packs and toss most of it away.

 

These are my exact sentiments after switching from OEM Brembo pads to Stoptech Street Performance pads. I will add, though, that they seem to produce less dust than the Brembo pads, and the dust they do produce seems to be less harmful than the Brembo pads. When I was running the Brembos I started to notice some permanent black spots appearing on my wheel lips after a wash, where I never got that with the OEM non-brembo pads (before I installed the Brembo calipers/rotors), nor do I get that now using the StopTech Street Performance pads. That was a biggie for me, because I was essentially paying top-dollar for Brembo pads and the side-effect was causing pitting/discoloration on the lips of my $$$$ wheels.

Also as far as performance goes, while they seem to have less initial bite than the OEM Brembo pads, I feel they provide a firmer brake pedal feel. Might be placebo, but I noticed it right after I swapped the pads and it's not something I was looking for or expecting to happen.

 

Yup, so would the standard autozone pads. Power doesn't really matter for street use.

 

I have done two track days the 309s and after 30 minute sessions they were not fading. I noticed a small difference in pedal feel (slightly softer) from the beginning of the run to the end of the run but not much. Both track days were at Nashville speedway that is not that hard on brakes but I had them hot enough to be putting off a little smoke even after the cool down lap. Heading to my 3rd track day with them on Saturday. I am sure there are better track pads but they are a great performance pad for the money in my opinion.

 

The only time fade would likely be experienced with StopTech pads would be during initial green fade, something most brake pads will do, especially during the bed-in process. If a dedicated bed-in procedure is not performed, green fade would happen during the 1st high temperature braking event but would not likely occur again after that. We have seen that when the pads are used beyond their maximum operating temperatures, fade is not significant, but pad wear will increase significantly.

 

I just finished my 3rd track day on the same set of StopTech 309 pads and still no fade issues (StopTech slotted rotors and Castrol SRF fluid). After a total of 12-13 sessions 25-30 minutes each based on pad thickness I still have ~40% pad remaining. These pads are an excellent product for the price if you are going to do some track events mixed with normal daily driving. Keep in mind they do have less initial bite cold when daily driving though when compared to the stock Bremebo pads.