Brake pads Akebono or WAGNER

I just changed my rear breaks and rotors on my 2018 limited and will be doing the fronts next week, I have always used Wagner Breaks and rotors. I have been using them for 20 years and 5 of those vehicles have been jeeps with zero complaints.

My Mercedes is much older W210, but for the brakes I went with Zimmerman Coat Z rotors and Akebono Euro ceramic pads. The front pads have been on for about 30k miles and are not even close to needing replacement. And they leave almost no brake dust, so my wheels look clean all the time now. Only real downside is they have a bit less initial bite than the oem pads, but I have actually come to prefer the more linear braking feel and haven't had any problems with stopping power.

I have been running Akebono on most all of my cars and have 3-400k worth of driving on them. I tried some semi-metallic pads once. Loved loved loved the initial grab, but hated hated hated the dust and the way they wore the rotors. If I was tracking, I wouldn't run the Akebono's, though. There are better pads for that. As someone mentioned, the Akebono's don't have as much of an initial grab as they need to heat up. I did try the Pagid pads once that I got from the now defunct BavAuto. They were just OK.

Wagner OEX. It's built on a galvanized steel backing plate so it doesn't rust like the painted ones. It also uses a mechanical attachment system to hold the friction material instead of glue, so it won't crack/detach like the cheap pads.

I run AkiBono pads with Brembo rotors on both of our E39’s and both E46’s ( and Volvo xc90 ???? home depot use-free vehicle) and love the setup. On the E46’s very similar feel to OE Jurid or Pagid and on the E39’s ( US spec 2003 540/6 and 2001 530 sport auto) softer initial bite yet excellent braking with great modulation and stopping power, quiet, long lasting, minimal rotor wear and the light dust is barely noticeable, easily rinses off and is non-caustic.

Just replaced mine with Akebonos and no complaints so far.

Akebono ceramic pads with OEM or Zimmerman rotors is an OEM+ solution. They produce almost 0 brake dust and maintain OEM feel and performance.

I just did Akebono ProAct pads and Advics ultra-premium rotors from Rockauto. I'm pretty happy with these. Was using Wagner pads, the initial bite was better but the amount of brake dust was pretty substantial in comparison.

I was told that these pads and rotors won’t have that intial brake bite like BMW pads do but goddamn. I had to change my entire braking habit just because it really wasn’t biting like I thought it would.

Will they fit? Probably. But without the slot you can't use the anti-rattle springs. I purchased a set of Akebono's from ECS a few years ago and ended up sending them back because they don't fit as the car was designed to work (if that makes sense?).