Owner reviews for brake pads

Just turned 30K on my 18 SE 4 MO, oil changes at dealership every 10K and just replaced the rear brake pads myself. That's it - has been a reliable, comfortable car with a great size to mpg ratio.

The oldest I've used as a daily is my '55 Ford. Could stand to get some brakes on it, but otherwise it was fine.

I got Hawk HPS pads recently on my 987.2 Cayman and they definitely have less dust and equal or better braking power.

I used my stock tires 15k mi + 6 track days + 2 driver skill courses - brake fluid (Motul RBF600) - brake pads (I used Ferodo DS2500 on the fronts)

I think I figured out why the brakes are so weird feeling. Even after I got them to firm up, they never really felt like I'm used to in my old STI or 911. I bought OBD11 to make some changes for track and had an ah ha moment. The last change to make was for hydraulic brake assist, but I couldn't get it to work in OBD11 because I didn't have the correct security code. Took a couple of days to find it, but I drove around with the other changes and brakes felt the same. I finally found the code and deactivated Hydraulic brake assistance in the 03 module and they brakes actually work like a normal car now. Holy cow, night and day difference.

I've used the cheapo Wearever rotors/pads from autoparts stores, and the Bosch Quietcast. Hands-down, as long as I can afford it, I will be using QuietCast if it's available.

On my heavier vehicles I've used Akebono ProACT pads and gotten better than OEM life out of them.

I highly recommend akebono euro brake pads, especially on DSG cars to remove the grabbiness at low speed. Great cheap upgrade for new car.

I had the same problem, thought it was the suspension. Took this video to diagnose it and the dealer figured out it was the EBC pads rattling in the calipers. Too bad, I really liked how quiet they were (no squaks!) for street duty while giving no fade issues for 25 mins track sessions.

Had new front brake discs and pads in June as the factory set were starting to vibrate pretty bad while braking (uneven build-up on rotors); discs were 75% worn. Initial pedal feel was horrible - soft and no feedback. Did not improve over time. Returned and requested garage do an ABS module brake bleed, no improvement. Drove someone else's ST with Motorcraft components and yep, they're bad on his car as well. I did an initial brake bed-in (several big almost-stops from low, moderate then highway speeds) allowing plenty of cooldown between cycles. Brake feel did not improve - just made the pads stink and did nothing to improve the stopping power. 2000 miles later they feel just as bad. Factory pads had great initial bite with just tiny pedal application - could get to threshold of ABS with less than half pedal. Motorcraft brakes are soft with no initial bite, stopping distance about twice as long with equivalent pressure on pedal, and zero confidence. They're horrible brakes. Worse still, in less than three months my front discs have become badly warped requiring replacement and the stopping power from pads has not improved.