I believe some have installed Porterfield brake pads. I have a couple of questions:

(1) Are the pads installed directly applicable to a 5th Gen or are these really 4th Gen Pads? The Porterfield site does not list a 5th Gen.

(2) What is the dusting like with these pads?

(3) I am sure the pads would be better than stock, but how much better, on a scale from 1-10?

(4) Are front and rear applications available?

 

1) Works on both gens.

2) A decent amount... you'll have gunmetal rims within 2 weeks (semi-gunmetal after 1 week)

3) I can't really say because I have Z brakes.

4) Yes.

You'll like your gunmetal wheels.

 

well they do fit but...

if you take a look at your caliper, there is this little clip on the top towards the rim side of the caliper...this holds in the stock brake pad which also has a clip...the new pads do not have this clip and stay in just fine but...

the old pads clip worked with the clip on the caliper and pushed the caliper clip in...without a pad there, the caliper clip is pushed out and is interfering with the rim so when installing new pads you must cut this clip off (well...part of it, whatever interferes w/ the rim)

so they do fit and work just fine, but they do require a tiny custom job

 

1) I do believe the 4th gen pads will fit on 5th gen brakes.

2) I've had my porterfields for a month now. Dusting is actually rather minimal. I am impressed with the pads in this respect.

3) Remember, these are high performance pads. They need to be warmed up a bit in order to bite hard. For me, I need to make a couple moderate stops in the morning before these pads begin to cooperate. In that aspect, these pads annoy me. I thought they would be easy to modulate like the stock pads, but they are not. The pedal feel is very firm but I also need to step down harder to stop the car! Overall, I would not rate the porterfields to be better than stock pads in street driving, but I'm sure when properly warmed up, these are great RACING pads for the track.

4) Yes, both front and rears are available, but you will see most performance gains by getting the fronts.

 

I talked to a brake guy and he explained that the Porterfields are good racing pads but require heating up to their operating temp. thus not making them very practical for everyday street driving. The Metal Matrix pads I heard can actually tear up your rotors due to their abrasive nature but they do stop well and also require a heat up time. The EBC "Green Stuff" pads are made out of Kevlar and have virtually no brake dust, require no heat up time, and can with stand up to 1000 degrees F. Unfortunately EBC only makes the pads for our front rotors but then again the front rotors do 80% of the braking. The brake guy said that it wasn't a big deal and in fact is good b/c since the rear brakes don't do most of the braking (thus not generating very much heat) it is better to go with the OEM brake pads that will work fine and not require the heat up period as is the case with Porterfields and MetalMatrix. He also suggested getting SS brake lines and running stock brake fluid. I know a lot of the guys use Motul 600 brake fluid or other synthetics but in order for you to get to the point where your brake fluid boils you would have to do some really hard core driving (Autocrossing) for about 30-45 minutes. So unless you are doing this type of driving there is no need to bleed your brake system and put in the Motul 600. Just my .02. Good luck. I'm going to get the EBCs and they run $69/set and SS brake lines are $119/set.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback and useful information!

BTW: I thought Avalon Racing had the SS lines for around $90...

 

Diederik... please check this thread out before deciding on the EBC pads: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=59662