Brake pads Textar or Mintex

After 70K miles of fun driving, I finally replaced my front brake rotors and pads...3mm left on the pads LOL. I got Zimmermann Rotors($180) and Mintex pads($45) and couldn't be happier. In fact, this set-up feels a lot better than the OEM bite and feel plus the massive reduction in brake dust.

I recently got a pair of pretty rusty 325 calipers for £50 (mine are the smaller ones from a 316) and sandblasted them back to clean metal. Then painted with high temp paint and rebuild kit £30 (pistons, seals, guide pins, bleed valves etc). I was pretty happy with the result which cost me around £100 for the pair. I then went with mintex discs and pads and a full set of braided brake lines my mate had. Full refurb prolly cost me £300 and are significantly better than they were but I don't think they will be as good as a 4 pot setup.

I used OEM replacement Textar pads. At some later date I may go with something a bit more grippy, but for DD duties the Textar/Porsche pads seem to be more than up to the task.

I’ve always used Zimmerman rotors and Mintex pads, and have yet to find a better combo. I’ve tried Brembo, Stoptech, Bosch, but nothing has pleased me like Mintex [pedal feel, stopping power, no noise, very low dust [especially when used on drilled rotors]].

I recommend Textar, great bite and no need of pre-heating. They also don't cause too much wear on the discs and on the other hand don't generate much brake dust.

I did Redbox pads on my B5.5 Passat with 312 rotors, and I loved them. I skimped out when I first did the upgrade and went with CARQUEST pads and absolutely hated them. Maybe that's why I liked the Redbox so much....

Mintex is a step below the OEM Jurid/ATE/TRW pads in terms of friction coefficient. Mintex is an upgrade when it comes to dust. Right now, running Akebono Euro Ceramics... I won't come to my verdict until winter.

replaced calipers with OE ones again, uprated discs with mintex pads. worked hundreds for bout 500miles and now its playing up again like before.

Mintex Red Box pads are crap - the company changed hands a few years ago and quality has sucked since with some folks experiencing large chunks of pad material just falling away.

I had a set of Mintex Red Boxes on my '98 GTI-VR6. Other than producing less dust (or a less-visible dust), I thought they were garbage. The stock pads stopped and felt better.