Brake pads and rotors

[NTIman]

I'm going to have to change the brake pads on my car soon. I've been looking at Hawk ceramic and Hark HPS pads, but I'm not sure which would be better. These are going on daily driver, but see spirited driving and may see an autocross or 2 before the year is out. Opinions? Suggestions?

Same with rotors. I want to replace those as well. Stock rotors? Cheapest aftermarket rotors?

[Mike]

cheapest aftermarket rotors. i've got nothing on pads for you.

[Jake]

Go to Advance or VatoZone and buy whatever is on sale.

I have some fancypants Hawk pads on the Miata and it stops just fine with those and Duralast rotors.

Edit: Since you're talking Hawk pads, too. I think I have HP Plus in the front and HPS in the rear. The HPS are 'street' oriented, HP+ are more track. The HP+ squeal like a stuck pig around town. As it's a track car that sees maybe 100 street miles a month, I don't really care about the noise. The HPS's have been quiet in the back though.

That pad/rotor combination will STOP the car. If the brakes are cold, I can lock dem shits up at 100. Get some heat in everything and it's very solid, confident braking from 100+ down to 30, no sweat.

[D_Eclipse9916]

HPS all around, or Performance Friction Z-rated (preference to these). HP+ suck on the street, and on the track. I have a set lying around here that the previous owner gave me, and I wont use em aside from backup backup pads.

And yes cheapest blank rotors you can find.

[ScottyB]

HPS all around as well on my subaru for the last 30k miles at least. don't fade and won't dust too bad, plus they're cheap.

had HP+, squeeled and dusted like hell although they stopped awesome when hot. Ferodo DS2500 is a better option for street cars at that level of stopping power but a little more money.

never tried Carbotech bobcats but some people really like those.

[Jake]

HP+ suck on the street, and on the track.

Why do you say that, for track use? I'm obviously not pulling quite the speed you are, but still interested to get some explanation. I've been happy with them so far aside from the massive squeal when cold. I can't see the brake dust as my wheels are spray-bombed gunmetal.

[D_Eclipse9916]

HP+ suck on the street, and on the track.

Why do you say that, for track use? I'm obviously not pulling quite the speed you are, but still interested to get some explanation. I've been happy with them so far aside from the massive squeal when cold. I can't see the brake dust as my wheels are spray-bombed gunmetal.

They are a compromise pad. Enough said, they overheat incredibly easily (hell I gave them to mike damico for a track weekend and he overheated them as well as ate through them quickly). Pads in higher temps than they should be will just kill themselves quick. Their torque rise sucks as well, ever notice how initally you have to use more pedal, and then halfway through the braking zone, you have to quickly use less brake pedal travel as they "build" into their bite?

It may not be an issue on your 2200lb car, but my 3200lb beast does not do well with HP+. (And they dust like a bitch). Hell I preferred my EBC yellows I got for free over the HP+. With you so light though, you may not experience any of these problems as my pig! :lol:

It may also not be an issue for you right now because initial newbies are very hard on their brakes cause they use them too much. Medium agressive drivers are easy on brakes, because they compress their braking zones, but they arent tweaking everything out for higher speeds and higher deceleration rates. Racing and TT you start to notice again how you burn up pads that arent to snuff cause your eeking out every little bit you can.

The move to PFC06s was the best move I have ever done with brakes. Yeah they may be $450 for a front and rear set, but they wear like iron. Even through all the track days and the massive amount of abuse I do...I went through one set for the entire year. I will be doing PFC01s just for a bit more initial bite during actual racing, but ill keep a set of PFC06s for open track days/TT.

[Ken]

+1 on HPS'. Had them on the Ralliart, nice improvement over stock (for me anyway). And yes, cheapest rotors you can find.

[ViPER1313]

I will go against everyone saying to buy the cheapest rotors you can find. Higher quality OEM rotors for my talon really helped pedal feel and fade resistance at the track. From what I have read many cheap rotors are thinner than premium blanks. The cooling vanes on my cheap rotors were significantly thinner than the OEM ones, and the OEMs probably weighed 5 pounds more. Ymmv....

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[HAULN-SS]

I kinda disagree with cheapest rotors too. even for street use only, ive had warped rotors twice after buying the cheapest ones, and wont do that again. I am not sure what I will get next time, but my malibu seems to want to eat the cheap ones up

[D_Eclipse9916]

I kinda disagree with cheapest rotors too. even for street use only, ive had warped rotors twice after buying the cheapest ones, and wont do that again. I am not sure what I will get next time, but my malibu seems to want to eat the cheap ones up

99% of warped rotors arent warped rotors, they are rotors with pad deposit on them. Ive used rock auto cheapies, wilwood rotors, and OEM European BMW 2-piece rotors. Noticed no discernable difference in how long they last nor pedal feel.

If you feel you have a "warped" rotor, I would try (not saying it works lal the time), but to actually overheat the rotors/pads again and then do another hard 60-20 and then roll doing 20 never touching the brakes for a good long while and dont come to a stop. This works for me 100% of the time when I feel the pad deposits start to build up again.

[HAULN-SS]

Ehh, I dont know. Ive tried that before. The pedal feels better right after it then 2 weeks later right back to suckin

[NTIman]

Right now I have drum brakes on the rear, and there is jack shit available for that. So I guess I'll give a whack at cheap rotors and HPS pads.

[BLINGMW]

Right now I have drum brakes on the rear, and there is jack shit available for that. So I guess I'll give a whack at cheap rotors and HPS pads.

Good call. I'm a fan of the HP+, but they're overkill for street/autocross. HPS is good and non-noisy. Recent GRM article comparing many pads on a Miata confirmed that for autocross, aggressive track or race pads don't really buy you anything. Which isn't shocking.

[NTIman]

I'd like to do a track day in the future, but I'm sure I wouldn't need anything more than HPS to start with. I would like to find a dedicated track car anyway, so I don't total a DD.

[Evan]

for street cars, the house brand ceramic pads from napa or advance have worked fine for me. quiet and stop well. they are usually the top model of the house brand line.

i think they have a lifetime warranty too, so you'll never buy street pads for that car again

[NTIman]

I ended up ordering and installing Hawk HPS. I didn't really want to change anything before the AutoX this weekend, but it's a good thing I did, 2 of my pads were pretty close to being gone.

I installed the pads, new rotors, and cleaned and adjusted the rear brake shoes, and there is a huge difference between what I had and what I have now. The brakes seem have have quite a bit more bite than before, even when cold.