Just dropping a quick note.

These things had a fabulous run. I drive my car pretty hard on my daily commute, which is mostly highway. I ran these pads in front and rear on Brembo slotted front rotors and blank rear rotors. Stopping was a damn sight better than the EBC Greenstuff I had before, which were a TON better than OEM. They worked pretty darn well when cold (considering that they're performance pads), and I never ever felt them fade. Dust is pretty heavy, but what do you expect. They also make a little noise, but certainly not as much as you'd expect for the performance.

At <$100 for the full set, they're pretty cheap too.

So what's the catch?

The fronts are done after 12k miles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems pretty weak to me.

Just wanted to get my $0.02 in. But hey, if anyone can recommend a longer-lasting pad that also provides NO LESS THAN the same performance, please do.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't slotted rotors eat through pads a lot faster than blanks or cross-drilled?

 

whats up Justin? ... long time no talk .... dude I couldnt relly tell from your post whether you liked them or hated them ? .. yeah they sure do dust, ALOT ... i cant put up with that, its rediculous!... its embarassing, every couple days my wheels get dark, I dont have time to wash my car every couple days ... yea and they are definitely noisy .. im surprised that you think they stop well.... they seemed identical to the oem stopping power ... i hated my axxis ultimates with a passion ..... i love my oem pads...quiet, almost no dust with great stopping power ...

 

Haha, yeah... Well, if you couldn't tell whether I loved them or hated them, that's because I can't either. I don't mind the dust or the occasional squeak, and I loved how well they worked for the price -- I have stainless steel brake lines, mind you, so maybe that's why I was able to get more out of the pads. What killed it for me was the mileage I got out of them.

To be fair, my driving must have quite a bit to do with it. And yes, slotted rotors can eat pads a little faster. But I can't imagine that there wouldn't be something better....

Maybe I'll try Hawk HPS or Porterfield R4S.

 

Keep in mind they are performance pads and you run them hard. Performance pads will work well (as you already know) but will wear down fast and need replacing a lot sooner than another brand pad that would give a longer life to sacrifice some of that spectaular braking.

 

Wow. Only 12k? When you did your last brake job, did you re-lub your caliper pins on the torque member? (See here: http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/301)

If not, your pads were probably slightly dragging. I have PBR Ultimate Organics on mine but I'm using Brembo blanks. The pads are wearing normally with my crazy hard driving too...

 

Preformnace pads are made to bite. So they wear really quickly. Plus they chew up rotors. I had the same problem with my Axxis Ultimates. I will never run anything but OEM unless I turn my car into a track car.

OEM > High Preformace for daily driving.

 

What are Hawk HP made of, what compound? They are not metallic correct,
they are ferro carbon.....what is that?

 

Good call! Thanks for the tip.

I just ordered up a set of Hawk HPS, so I will do that when I install them.

 

you some times can get away with not re-lubing them. Its a great idea to do so, but I just removed my calipers and rotor, and the pins still slide in and out very easily. I still will take them out clean them and re-grease them.

 

I had Hawk HP+ before the Ultimates. The hawks stopped better, dusted more, quieter. In terms of longivity, I think about the same so far. I'm guessing u had a bum set of Ultimates?

Jae

 

PERFECT

 

I've got Ultimates on the turbo car (not by choice) and they are OK, better than OEM for stopping power, but not HPS or HP+, of which I've had multiple sets. Next pads will be HP+ again for the turbo car, and HPS for the beater.

Slotted rotors certainly eat pads faster than blank rotors.

Ferro-carbon = fancy name for semi metallic. The 'Ferro' refers to iron.

Oh yeah and EBC Greens suck as you noticed.

 

Doodfood, having ridden with you a few times before, and assuming you haven't changed your driving style, I'd say you're on to something here. How you doin' anyway? Haven't seen you since September or something.

REGREASE THEM!!! It is not worth the incredible hassle if they freeze up. I've had caliper brackets (torque members) freeze up several times on more than one of our cars and they can be a real PITA to fix. Plus, if they're really stuck, Nissan doesn't sell the torque members seperately. They only sell them with the entire caliper kit, which is $200. I mamaged to find them from some Chinese or Korean company.

 

Hey man! I've been alright. I think work is finally getting to me though...

My brother actually said the same thing about my driving one time when we were on the road together. I never thought of myself as a crazy driver... I always try to drive as quickly as reasonably possible, but I always do my absolute best not to disturb other drivers (unless they mess with me deliberately or just have no idea what's going on, in which case I don't care).

I'm sure my slotted rotors have their share as well. My commute is mostly highway, which means that when I'm on the brakes it's usually for long distances at high speeds, so maybe that's another factor.

Oh well. My Hawk HPSs are apparently on the way, so we'll see how that goes.

 

Installed my Hawk HPS and just wanted to drop a line.

I wish I had taken pics, but one thing I noticed is that the backing on the Ultimates is thicker than the backing on the HPSs. Assuming both pads had the same overall thickness, that would mean the Hawks have more friction material and thus would last longer, all else equal. We'll see how they do.

One thing that's for damn sure is that these Hawks take a HELL of a long time to warm up. They feel like they're barely getting there by the end of my commute. That said, they definitely stop well enough even without fully warming up that I really don't care.

My pedal seems to have gotten spongier since I installed the pads, so I'm going to flush and bleed the brakes before giving more impressions.