Brake pads Akebono or OEM Mercedes

I use Brembo rotors and Akebono pads.

Best combo I've found so far

I'm going with Akebono ProACT for less dust.

In prepping the car for sale they spend $10,000 on \"all 100k maintenance items and known chronic problems,\" including brake pads and rotors

Akebono is Toyota OEM, plus they're the best pads on the market in my opinion, super quite and the dust is super fine

I used the Akebono pads because Scotty Kilmer recommended them and they are made in America. No complaints so I’ll probably buy them again.

My preference is either OEM, or Brembo rotors and Akebono pads. I have had good performance on multiple cars with the Akebono ProACT ceramic pads.

Ceramic Akebono. Never had a problem with them, and they last you a long time

I kept hearing good things about Akebono. Had been using random brands for years. I switched to Akebono and was blown away how much less brake dust is on my rims!

I'm in the "Akebono are not better" camp and I have done some extensive testing.For a ceramic pad, yes, the Akebono are better than ceramic competitors. However, they do not have as much bite as the semi-metallic pads. This is something that can't be debated, they can't bite as hard as the semi-metallic compound.I too hate brake dust and tried the Akebono pads on my wife's VW and I immediately noticed that they didn't bite as hard as the OE pads. That same week, I ordered the OE pads and it fixed the problem.I've also tried the Akebono on an E350 and I came to the same conclusion. I actually think the EBC Red ceramics may bite a little more (when new) than the Akebono. However, the EBC reds always left this weird deposit on rotors that would make it feel like they were warped and they would need to be turned down.

About a year ago I bought some Akebono ceramic brake pads for my 2016 and they have given me nothing but grief, notably the fronts whose retainer clips just straight up didn't fit into my caliper so I needed to reuse the stock ones and I also had to grind down the pad ears to fit properly. The fronts were particularly bad (part no. ACT1539).