ok I went on rock auto.com and saw some power stop pads that are daily driver ones and high performance. all i do is drive to work on the freeway everyday, does it make that much of difference to spend the money on the high performance ones? can someone give me some insight? thanx

 

Just run to autozone and get their brake pads. Good enough for streets and has warranty. Anything more is a waste of money

 

That's actually a pretty good question.

Here's how you have to look at it....

"Performance" pads (NOT race pads) will help to stop your car quicker in all situations - some aren't so good until they're warmed up but overall, have better, more controllable and predictable performance.

So ask yourself, "Where do I drive my car the most?" In OP's case, that'd be on public roads, AROUND LOTS OF PEOPLE. Half of which aren't even paying attention to their driving. So, you be the judge.

Me, I want all the braking power and control I can have at my behest when I need it.

How much are you going to save by going with garden variety? $25? $50? $100? That's peanuts over the life of a set of good pads. And could be the difference between saying "Whew, that was close!" versus "Hello, Geico, I just had an accident."

To reiterate my first line, "NOT race pads...." whole different animal. But good street performance pads, heck yeah.

 

Thats debateble, because after the first initial bite and once the brakes locks up (or abs kicks in) its the tires thats doing the stopping.

I find most brakes pads are suitable for streets but not all tires are. Personally, theres too many variable to accurately say which is best for which. So i rather rely on good tires and decent pads than great pads and bad tires

 

Of course, T'bo, "good tires" goes without saying.

I would, however, tend to disagree with your assessment that "beyond initial bite" it's all tire beyond that. One decent panic stop and the "ordinary pad" will heat up to the point of diminished stopping power no matter how sticky your tires are.

And that's the part of the equation that I would seek to even out. Bringing the pads up to the "decent pads" capability of the tires. I think we're saying the same thing.... that all the components need to be up to snuff to do the job right.

 

Obviously in the perfect world everything would be the best. But i feel like, if you have to make multiple panic stops, maybe youre YOU that needs driving school(hehe).

When i broke in my autozone pad, i did 10 60-5mph stop and it did fade a bit, but wasnt too drastic. Infact, i think my tires were starting to heat up and worn out more than my brakes were.

But again, but what you need and no need to overspend. I wouldnt recommend 100 buck pads, but i wouldnt recomend 10 bucks pad either. Find the personal comfort that youre happy with.

Beside, the person infront/behind is probably using cheap worned squeeky brakes. So even if you have good stopping, the person behind you might not lok

 

I think most "ordinary" pads will stop a 350z plenty fast. Faster than most other cars on the road. if you don't need high performance pads for spirited driving or auto crossing/tracking I wouldn't overthink pads too much. Just my .02 cents.

 

just get a good name brand set of pads. check the friction coefficients on them (it will have 2 letters, like EG or FF). i believe the pads for our cars (usually) are FF, which has decent resistance to fade at semi-high temperatures.

heres a chart on the letters and what they mean.




by the way, i have Centric Semi-Metallics on front (FF rated) and cheap AutoZone pads on the rear (also FF rated i believe...id have to check to be sure though). never had a problem stopping, even in emergency situations. never noticed any fade either, but i dont run them hard. i did bed them in pretty well though, and they did get a bit fadey, but thats normal when bedding pads in (called Green Fade).