Owner reviews for brake pads

My brakes on the front went at around 30K. I bought Zimmerman crossdrilled rotors, stainless brake lines, Mintex pads, and new fluid for all four wheels. I had the local Midas shop do the complete install for $200.

I had the wilwood 4piston kit w/11.3" rotors and stainless lines and the biggest difference I noticed was: Firmer pedal (stainless lines) Less fade when hot Better handling due to unsprung weight ABS stayed off a little better BUT: I couldn't use them w/factory wheels Had to take them off and put them on when I changed my summer rims Overall, Save your cash and get some good ss lines, pads and xdrilled rotors. Are you really going THAT fast that you need all that clamping power? Furthermore, your tires (type, tread, condition, etc.) and the alignment have almost as much to do with effective braking as fancy calipers, expensive fluid and the like.

I'm pretty happy with my EBC brakes and pads. They don't seem to fade and the braking efficiency has improved substantially. However, because they are grooved, you can almost hear yourself stripping a layer off the pads when you hit the brakes hard from a high speed. They also make a whirring sound, particularly hard under brakes, which is a little curious at first, but ultimately quite nice. I would recommend them. PS My wheels are also much easier to keep clean.

The Mintex are good pads that hardly dust.

the 'normal' Wilwood/RPI kit has 11" rotors with the 4pot caliper. my stock speedlines D.E.'s fit perfect. it's as close as one could get though. it's sounds funny to downsize in rotor size, but the big advantage to the 11.3's wasn't rotor size but pad sweep. that's where it had a 33% advantage to the O.E.M. 11.0's. but i went from the 11.3 with steel lines and Red box pads to the wilwood 11.0 with Hawk pads and have to say it's totally incredible. they do have a brand new 13.0" kit with the same caliper and an aluminum hatted rotor that still weighs 15lbs less than stock. might have to upgrade to that when my current rotors are toast. don't know if i want to rid myself of my 15's though. it's nice to be able to use both.

Our stock brakes on our 88 16v gti (ita class) used bone stock rotors, ford high performance brake fluid, performance friction pads ( no longer available, but hawk blues worked almost as well ) and a nice cheap duct to the center of the hub to force air into the center of the rotor. We went several seasons with the same rotors and shuffled pads for long life. We also made a spacer out of aluminum to go between the pad and the caliper to help dissipate heat better as well. In 2000 we set 7 track lap records so the car isn't slow. Our motto for racing isn't how much you spend, but what you spend it on. good luck! dave...... p.s. for what it's worth, we sold the ita car and are building a g-production rabbit using wilwoods because they are legal in the class and we got into them for a good price. The key in that purchase was weight.

I had Ferodo pads on an earlier VW and really liked them. Now I have Mintex on this car and they are have better feel than the stock pads and make MUCH less dust.

I have the TT brakes too, and I installed ferodo! the best pad you could buy... performance there is no comparison, ferodo are for racing aplication BUT, they make a lot of dusk....

I have been running with Mintex red box pads with X drilled rotors for the past three years. The rotors still look OK, and there is plenty of life left on the pads. They generate very little brake dust which cleans off the wheels easily. Cold panick stops are great. However, when they heat up there is noticable brake fade

EBC's warped my stock VW front rotors in less than 2000 miles, replaced with Zimmerman cross drilled, warped those within 3500 miles. This is with casual city driving and NO racing/autocrossing. After I warped the stockers, I was very careful about not holding the brakes after coming to a hard stop. Doesn't matter I guess. My wheels were usually warm/hot to the touch after almost zero braking highway driving. Now I have Mintex, and they work great for city driving. Wheels stay cool, and so far no warpage on my third set of rotors..