Owner reviews for brake pads

I've had good experiences with Akebono Ceramic pads as well but they are on the expensive side!

New brake pads and rotors (EBC Greenstuff + DBA drilled/slotted rotors) All suspension components in good shape

Textar is the OEM brand..which of course you can get from 1stVWparts.

I took the car to the dealer and they put new rear pads and rotors on.

I used ATE pads, ECS Slotted Front Rotors/plain faced rears, and did a brake flush with ATE Type 200 fluid. Now that my brakes are good and bedded, I can tell there's a significant improvement especially in the rain.

EBC Green Stuff pads.

The R32 brakes are A LOT better. You'll like them!!

I'm happy with EBC red, better braking by less fade but I don't know if can be much better with other combinations

I have tried the following pads (and still have them on my shelf): Stock Pagids, Mintex Reds, HPS, HP+, Ferodo DS2500 (fronts), Carbotech P+ (fronts). I have used each for several thousand miles after breaking each in per manufacturers' recommendations. And yes, this means I was changing brake pads at least every few weeks. Rotors too, I also have 3 sets of front rotors. This was all in pursuit of GREAT braking at autocross, then on track. I don't know if the HPS are the best street pad, but they're decent. That's how I meant it. Call them a 7 of 10. They aren't what I want in a street pad, but for someone that never does autocross or track days - they're good. Personally I thought they were very similar to the stock 20AE Pagids. (I originally went from Stock to Mintex to HPS to Stock and back to HPS again, btw) The HPS dusted as much as the stockers and had similar bite. I didn't test their fade resistance. With a stock braking system, I think HP+ and DS2500 are both IFFY track pads. The HP+ are great as long as you don't overheat them and replace them every 2 or 3 events.

I put in some new rear brake pads today. The frist brakes I had were Autozone brand. Well, they went on fine on the driver side. On the passenger side It was near impossible to push the piston back far enough to get the pads on. I still needed about another 1/16th of an inch. I even bled brakes a little to make room for the piston compression. Still no luck. So I went back and bought some Bendix that were about 1/16th less in thickness. So, I put them on the passanger side. I had to wrestle with the piston again - that mofo would not budge. Finally I got it. So, I go for a drive with Albany brakes on one side and Bendix on the other. A horrible scaping erupts from the driver's side. The side that went on much easier. Visual inspection looked ok. So I took them off and they were all scraped to heck. Strange, as that was the easy side. So, I put the Bendix pads on that side and everything is fine.