I recently bought myself an 03 6-speed Coupe; stock with the Brembo set-up. I need to get new brake pads for my car, and don't know if I should stick with the OEM Brembo pads(expensive) or an off the shelf brand (Hawk, Akebono, PBR, etc.). I am reluctant to buy off the shelf pads because of a potential loss of performance and reliability. Anyone have any advice? What pads would work with the Brembo calipers? Know of any good places to buy? Thanks guys!

 

id stick with the brembos

 

If you go to our MARKETPLACE under verdor brakes there's several sponsors selling quality pads at a great price. I just ordered a set of HAWKS HPS pads that I'll be installing very soon. My first set of HAWKS lasted over 20K miles, not bad for our cars. They do make them for BREMBOS too....
Gary

 

yes hawk pads are good... make sure you get the HPS and not the HP+ (a mistake i made on my 240sx)... the HP+ is for race applications and squeal a lot during daily driving...

 

Not sure where you live, but if you live in a northern climate where the temp gets below 45F degrees for any length of time, you will not like the Hawk HPS. It is a higher temp pad and as such will have poorer cold "bite", which means the pedal response will be worse than OEM on initial stops, and especially in the rain. It is for this reason that I have stuck with OEM pads on my Brembo coupe. Yes, they dust more (visibly) but they bite like crazy and have held up pretty well for me. I'm only my 2nd set in 5.5 years. I have also not managed to fade my Brembo pads in my driving experiences, including a couple of autocrosses.

I have read decent reviews about the Project Mu NS on the Brakes and Suspension forum (on this board) but have never tried them myself.

If you buy the pads from a forum sponsor you can get a little better pricing on them and do them yourself - it's really not hard to do at all.

 

Ive had good luck with Akebono on various vehicles. Little to no brake dust at all.

 

None of the Hawk pads will make noise if you "Bed/Break" them in correctly, here's the process. You don't want to come to a complete stop while doing this as it shows....find a quiet side street for the first two.
3 runs 35 mph to 10 mph
2 runs 45 mph to 10 mph
1 run 65 mph to 10 mph
upon completion of this process let your car sit and cool off for a while, several hours if possible. You'll be able to smell the new pads but that's a sign the process of bedding them in has worked.
Gary

 

Thanks for all the advice, I sent some PMs out to sponsors in the marketplace, but no word back yet on pricing for OEMs shipped out to 33647.

 

I will also recommend Hawk HPS. I heard good things about axxis (sp?) as well but they do squeal

 

I have Mintex pads I got from Stillen. Expensive, yeah. Lots of dust (more than stock), yeah. Crappy wear, yeah (I think partly due to the fact I got slotted rotors). Performance? Ohhhh yeah. They do have to warm up a little to get full braking power but that usually takes just one good stop. But once they are warm they bite hard and have great stopping power.

 

I've been told to be careful of what you buy.. certain brake pads eat away at your rotor faster which is costlier. =T But it's what I heard. I ended up with OEM pads and there's a lot of brake dust.

 

I have had a good experience with EBC Green Stuff pads. They do have a fair amount of dust, but they are reasonably priced and brake well with the Brembo setup.

 

I recommend Hawk HPS. Been running them on my STi for over 30K miles. They squeak a little bit, but so did the OEM Brembo pads. They dust A LOT LESS though. Never recall having an issue with biting in the cold. Coldest I've driven in is probably high 20's though.