As the title says its time to replace my front pads, i live near pepboys, auto zone, advanced auto. I am looking to do semi metallic. What do you guys suggest.

 

I use the OE ceramics from Napa. I deliver papers so I do a ton of stop and go. Installed the pads in October of 2015. I've put about 50k on them so far. Gave them a look over while installing snow tires last month and they all still look brand new.

 

Use ceramic. Akebono or Duralast Gold from Autozone. Are you replacing the rotors? If you are resurfacing, buy new rotors. Its about the same cost. Also, be sure to bed the new pads.

 

Wagner Thermoquiet is a good pad. Available in both semi-met and ceramic versions.

And if you need rotors, get ones that have the black coating to deter rust.

 

I recently replaced my (long overdue) front brakes and used Wagner Rotors (Part # BD61956E) and Monroe pads (Part # CX563) which I picked up on RockAuto.com for a heck of a low price. Whichever parts you decide to use, you should price shop RockAuto against your local stores. I also bought a new wheel bearing, hub, and seals at the same time as the brakes. Shipping to my door was less than $16 and the price difference versus O'Reilly's / AutoZone was huge.

The brakes I used aren't the most high performance, but they weren't the cheapest either. I wanted something "good" for normal daily driving without going over budget.

 

Excuse the consecutive posts, but this thread got me motivated.

I just ordered rear pads and rotors. I went with Monroe DX540 pads and Wagner BD125459E rotors. Like the parts I selected for the front, the pads are in RockAuto's "Daily Driver" section (a step up from "Economy") and are listed as "OE Recommended". The rotors, front and rear, have black e-coating like maximaxi mentioned above.

I also ordered new hood struts. Right now the hood stays up... until a strong breeze comes along, which makes for a rather unpleasant surprise when you're not looking.

 

I just went with pepboys prostop platinum, because they were in stock.

 

Akebono ftw. Oem got too expensive at some point

I never bed the brakes. Imho this is not recommended on Oem setups (BMW clearly states not to do that, have you ever heard of a car mfg suggesting that ha on a new car ). Track pads, yes.

 

I used raybestos with painted hats and they were utter junk. Rusted in about 3 days. Then again this is not a performance car.

 

akebono ultimate premium from rock auto are the best. low dust, and noise free.

 

If you can wait a few days for them to arrive, you may want to consider Hawk HPS pads and Brembo blanks from Tirerack. Stopping power is awesome, but they do dust between low to moderate.

 

I had some nice akebonos that I bought myself few years (somewhere around 100,000 miles) ago. They just went out couple months ago. I had a shop replace them with duralast gold (ceramic?)

The akebonos never made noise but these new ones be squeaking when cold. I definitely like to buy my own brake pads next time.

Changing the rotors are almost as cheap if not cheaper than the pads...that's where half the difference will be felt. most rotors get warped before its even worth machining them...which is never worth it seems...

 

duralast is junk imo, akebono's and brembo blanks is all i've been putting on maxy for the last 7 years. got my last set off of rock auto on a closeout deal for 20.00 each!!! quiet and low dust, performance is ok but maxy isn't as fast as she used to be but still runs well.

 

I'm running Akebono ProAct Ceramics on the Q45. I've have over 45,000 miles on those. I expect those to run 80,000+ easily.

The 99 SE 5MT is running Hawk HPS with the 18" wheels for a more aggressive driver and stopping power. Nice pads. Like Wiz noted, some dusting occurs.

Everything else gets Thermoquiet as a good all around low dust, quiet, long lasting pad. We're fairly easy on brakes with our suburban driving, so a decent pad will last many years.

 

Have used them on the Maxima for years, as well as my wife's car. The BMW gets oem as they are semi metallic and for all I know, Lexus OEMs are in fact ProActs. You really can't go wrong and they don't cost that much. One time my wife's uncle grabbed the Maxima and did the front brakes (didn't ask him to) and he used Mighty pads. They lasted only 6 mos, and about 8k. There's a reason why they were available online for < $5 a set.

 

is a "blank" a "rotor" ?

 

a blank is what most cars have on them, slotted would be a step up and usually for those maxes that are boosted and or race car wanna be's.

 

Hey now, I have drilled and slotted rotors on my wanna be racecar, but my G8 has seen triple digit speeds on the Nascar track in Dallas and the National Corvette Museum road course in Bowling Green.

But the Maxima gets regular old "blanks"
Here are the rear rotors I mentioned above (nearly three years ago) but only actually installed on the car in July of last year.