Brake pads STOPTECH or OEM BMW

My local dealer has the “value service” pricing on BMW USA’s website, front rotors/pads/sensors on an 18 330 x drive for $419.95 front and $435.95 rear.

I'm extremely impressed with their Sport pads, when compared to their closest Hawk competitor, HPS. I ran Hawks for quite a while and they were ridiculously loud. The Sports give me similar bite, maybe a tad more, but no squeal whatsoever. These were on a Focus RS that I used for DD/autocross.

I installed R56 front brakes.

Centric Premium Rotors front and rear: left as is Stoptech Street Pads: left as is

Just did all 4 of my rotors and pads(rear pads were gone no warning and destroyed a rotor)

Went centric premium rotors all around, they’re nice and painted black on the outer surfaces

Stoptech sport pads all around, quite abit of bite I’ve been able to drive them in pretty cold temps and rain now with no issue

Stoptech front slotted rotors (upgraded to 340mm) & rear, Street brake pads & stainless steel braided lines

I got rid of my ceramic set due to noise and squealing so just wanted to throw that in there to consider. I drive the car mostly on the weekends so surface rust, cold rotors and the dust build up were the main cause. After 5-10 minutes of driving no problems with noise - but it was annoying reversing out of the garage with high pitched squeal. I switched to StopTech Axle Pack - Street and those have been quiet and low dust without breaking the bank.

EBC brake pads have always let me down. I refuse to use them now. The best street/light track pad out now is the Stoptech 309 Sport. Non-abrasive on the street, they dust a bit, but it’s not crazy, and they have a reasonably high max operating temp (MOT). The best thing is they won’t smear brake pad material and give you the judders if you exceed the MOT. They’re also pretty cheap.

I love Centric (more specifically StopTech, their performance brand). I use StopTech cryo rotors on all my cars, my TL has the slotted cryos. I really -do not- like their pads though. For some reason the stopping power was just not like Akebono or Red/Yellow stuff. They are super quiet and low/no dust which is great.

I put stoptech pads on my 2011 hatch and they have been so beyond noisey they have been driving me insane. Gotta find something else to replace them with. Hope your experience is better!