I'm considering buying new brake pads for the front to help with the dust problem. Has anyone ever used ceramic pads? Any recommendation on what brand? Also, I only have 9000 miles on the car, if I replace the front with ceramic can I leave the backs alone? GF

 

Oem pads are ceramic in that they contain some ceramic materials in the compound.

High content of ceramics cause serious problems at high temperatures........never change compounds without studying the friction vs temperature vs rotating speed curves [graphs] of what you think is better.

"Why so much emphasis on ceramics? Because the aftermarket follows the original equipment market, and the domestic and Japanese OEMs have been using ceramic linings for years on many vehicles. One supplier estimated that some type of ceramic pad is now used on 50 to 60% of all new vehicles. If you count only those applications that use "real" ceramic pads (those where ceramics are a primary ingredient), the figure drops to about 40%, but is still a significant portion of the new vehicle fleet."

"Ceramic compounds can be very complex and may use 18 to 20 different ingredients in a formula, including various fillers and lubricants that are added to help dampen vibrations and noise. A typical semi-metallic compound, by comparison, might contain only eight or nine ingredients."

"There’s also disagreement over what should and should not be called a ceramic. Ceramic materials include a variety of substances including potassium titanate fibers as well as clay fillers. Many brake manufacturers use clay filler in certain friction linings, but do not call their product a ceramic lining. Others do. Consequently, the type of ceramic compounds used in a brake supplier’s ceramic product line may vary significantly from those used by another brake supplier — along with the performance characteristics of their linings."

 

http://people.bath.ac.uk/en9apr/mt1-1.htm
http://www.automotivedigest.com/Whit...ction_Tech.pdf
http://www.braketechnology.com/techinfo.html
http://frictioncenter.siu.edu/rArea2_2.html


An interesting test of brake pads on Police cars [Ford, Chevy, other types] showed NO pad [of dozens of brands] was better than oem and many were significantly worse to the point of being dangerous [over heat]. 200's of pages of data.......
http://www.justnet.org/pdffiles/brakepads_epr2000.pdf

Yet US companies still have their problems:
"The Intrepid failed to catch on as a police vehicle partly because it was not on the market for very long - two years - and largely, we suspect, because of the much-publicized brake fires which occured not just during Michigan State Police testing, but also during use by police departments. Chrysler claimed that the brakes simply hadn't been broken in - the police responded that they expected cars to be ready for use when delivered, and nobody else made squad cars whose brakes burst into flame."

"The '94, '95 and '96 Chevrolet Caprice LT-1 engine cop package was every bit as good as the late '60s Dodge Police Pursuits"........took GM 30 years to build a decent police car!!!!!!!!!!!!

My point is really hard to beat the engineering of JAPANESE oem brake pads from factory.