Brake pads Akebono or ATE

With some research I decided to order Akebono EUR1348. Just for the rear. I think the fronts are ok for now. I know the fronts usually wear out sooner, but I think they were originally replaced by the previous owner - just not the rears.

I have Bendix/Zimmerman rotors and stock ATE/Brembo SM pads and pound the living s**t out of the brakes on Track Days and HPDE ( instructor ). Other than a bit of fade after about 6 laps of HARD braking I've had zero issues. Pad life and condition is still excellent.

Upgrade Discs Front Drilled and Slotted hyperventilating of ECS 312mm Geomet Rear Drilled and Slotted Discs ECS Geomet Akebono Brake Pads front and rear

The stock pads on my 3.6 4-motion were made by Pagid and were very sensitive and dusty. I changed out the fronts only to Akebono Euro Ceramics and I like the feel much better. Plus, they don't dust at all.

Akebono Euro Ceramic has great cold bite, even in cold snowy weather. The downside? It lacks a "linear" feel.

All pads have been bed in right. I have Porterfield R4S on rear and Akebono Cermacis on front.

I'm definitely sold on ATE parts. They are the OEM on my GTI and have 49,000 miles on all the original pads and rotors, plenty of life left.

I've had Centric rotors and Akebono pads on my MINI Cooper S for almost two years now. Since then there has been 40,000 miles, 3 track days, and a season of auto cross. I'd say they perform on par or above with the OEM step. The pads are definitely a step up with less noise and hardly any brake dust.

I have a set of unknown, but probably OEM pads on the rear brakes on my wagon and they spew dust like crazy, when the fronts wore down I replaced them with akebonos.. no dust, no noise, no issues in 20k miles.

I've run the Akebono ceramics on a few cars. They don't have a great initial bite but they do have good stopping power in most conditions. My only note against them is that it can get scary with heavy braking while driving long distances on the highway in sub-40 degree rain - I've had multiple times in two different cars where there's a solid 2 second delay between pressing the pedal hard and them actually biting in those conditions.