Brake pads EBC or Hawk Performance

EBC Extra Duty pads. Noticeably better then the Akebonos they replaced.

Hawk HPS or HPS+ pads (I don't remember which I put on my R) but those were a great bang for your buck. They require a little bit more heat so I always get on them a little harder the first few braking efforts but once they are up to temp - Incredible IMO.

I went with Hella/Pagid stock rotors. EBC red stuff pads. All the difference. That's all it took. And there is noticeably less dust on the alloys.

I have a set of track pads for my 2015 STI. Hawk dtc70 in the front. Hawk dtc60 in the rear. I swap them the the day before its a pretty quick job with the brembos. Very loud on the street when cold though.

Just put on new rotors and Hawk pads. Thought I had some squeaking/squealing/grinding because the old ones needed replacing but the problem persisted on the new rotors and pads even after some time.

Last week I applied some Brake Parts Grease that came with my Hawk pads to the pins and bracket on the caliper. It seems to have removed the annoying squeak!!

I have Red Stuff pads and I feel that they have more initial bite than the stock pads, and once you're deeper in the pedal they feel pretty much the same as the stock pads. On the street I feel they are very comparable to stock and dust much less. More importantly, the dust is gray and doesn't turn rusty colored so it doesn't look as bad between washes. Red Stuff wouldn't handle track events like OEM though. Also no issues with brake noise.

If your just daily driving the car, with some spirited back road runs, Hawk HPS 5.0 should do the trick. Low dust, low noise, good bite, and consistent performance.

Went on a track day and the stock brakes would smoke like crazy after a couple of laps. Just switched to ebc yellow pads. I still have less than 500 miles on them but so far so good. Tried them in auto x and felt good, stopping force is a bit better. As far as street driving i hear a very slight squeal from the brakes under light braking. Dont think i'd even notice with windows up, its very slight. Update: ebc yellow pads stop a good bit better than stock brakes on the track. Alot better at handling the heat.

Fwiw I have the ebc yellows with their slotted rotors. I love the improved grabbiness but they do dust up alot.

the brakes on the VB are pretty bad with zero bite in the first few inches of brake travel. I’ve had the past 2 generations on WRXs for OEM brake comparison. Ordered a full set of EBC Ulitmax2 OEM replacement pads to help a bit.