Fellas, just wanted to post that for the first time in 4 brake jobs I went non-OEM in the rear. The pads were not that cheap as they were the best Bendix pads and around $10 cheaper than OEM.

For the first time in 8 yrs. on the road (original rotors) my brakes squeal. I hope that someone out there will learn from my mistake!

 

The squeal, nearly a week later, is getting worse and worse. Man, this is what happens when we don't follow our own advice. If my car were newer I'd go back in, take these pads out, and return them and get my $37 back. But I just don't feel like it. I am a believer now in someone's previous post where they said the mfg. does extensive research with pad/rotor material to eliminate noise, and aftermarket just cannot do that because they don't have the necessary resourcres or even any incentive. The mfg. has an incentive--people would be bringing their cars back under warranty if the OEM brakes were noisy.

OEM!!!!

 

On my car, I had to have some anti sqeek shims but behind my pads, that took car of the sqeeking completely, but next time, I'm going with oem pads over aftermarket, just because of the hassle of getting them quiet

 

I replaced the front pads on my Nissan Kingcab with OEM. They cost $70 but I got almost 120,000 miles out of the originals. I buy OEM most of the time.

 

that sucks that your having problems.

ive used cheap $15 pads with good results. I run a business and if i was having probs with noise i would be having comebacks. I also use more expensive $40-$60 pads with no problems as well.

From a business standpoint, its hard to go OEM because youd have to have access to all the different dealerships vs 1 or 2 big suppliers, plus why would you want to go OEM when you have no problems with aftermarket.

 

OEM pads were awesome compared to my aftermarket PBR Axis Metal Masters. They didn't dust, they didn't make any noise, and they lasted 100,000 km. I think my next set will either be OEM or Raybestos Quiet Stops.

 

My friend got 4 new rotors and pads on her Subaru and done by a tire store. I just noticed the other day that the rotors are entirely rusted everywhere except for where the pads make contact. That includes the part that sits over the hubs. There's something to be said about varying quality on auto parts...obviously a tire shop will use a $27 rotor, not a $70 one (can you imagine that's retail? So they use a rotor that costs around $14 on a $600 brake job)....

 

When I did my rears, I used the cheapest napa had to offer and no problems. I used anti squeal stuff on the backs of the pads though...

 

The problem with the OEM pads is that they're so soft (as well as the iron in their rotors) that they have mejor warpage issues. go with good aftermarket pads and rotors and most of the 5th and 6th gen rotor warpage issues go away.