I was kinda in a jam. Brakes were squeaking beyond anything. When i pulled the pads off i had about 1mm on the inner driver side. 5mm on outer and 5/5 on pass side fronts.

Either way, i wanted to pick up oh so popular hawks since i'm running on 03/04 single front pistons. OEM were great but ungodly dust, dealership wanted $85, i called up nissan ran part # since the maxima uses the same pads $77. Hawks HPS online would be $65 shipped ebay or $60-75 pending on vendor here. I stopped by autozone they had them in stock Duralast gold lifetime warranty for $38. Figure i give them a shot since since i needed it like now. Fitment was great, today is my 2 full day of driving them after breaking them in. It had good bite overall. Feels very much like OEM to me. I'm liking them so far. Lifetime warranty is a great plus if these dont dust up like crazy. Fully ceramic pads. they are listed as AKEBONO calipers on the autozone system, well you only have 2 options Brembo or AKEBONO, i knew i did have either but the AKEBONO pads were the right part number.

Just wanted to let you guys know there is a local option if your in a jam or tight for money. I wasn't but i thought to myself i've done 2 brake jobs, both times using Hawks HPS and both times costing me about $60 for the pads and the 2nd time i bought rotors with it. So i spent $120 on pads so far. Might as well try something out in the front if anything i can always ditch them.

 

i used them before as well lasted me more then twice the length the oem pads lasted and felt like oem and way lest gust overall they are good pads and i will get them when my current ones wear out

 

Those were on my car when I first bought it and I had no complaints.

 

With the 03 brake pads, you either get good braking power and dust or less braking power and less dust.

It's why I upgraded to the 06 Z brakes.

 

I am using them currently. So far so good. Haven't really pushed them hard enough to get a good comparison.

 

I completely agree with you, Jeff. If I had the money and time, I'd probably upgrade to the larger 05+ rotors. Performance geeks like you and I notice minute changes where as most people probably would't notice their car is stopping 15' longer from 60mph and such. I've made the mistake twice of putting ceramic pads in place semi-metallics. At first, everything seemed fine. Then the longer I drove with them, the more I realized brake feel and response was reduced, as well as overall biting power. The pads didn't wear quickly or dust like OEM. In both cases, I went back to OEM pads within 5K miles.

For the 03/04 cars, if you want the best braking ability for daily driving and some light track use (ie auto-x), OEM pads are stellar in terms of feel and performance. If your car is just a daily driver and the dusting bothers you, then something non-OEM will suffice for the majority.

 

in terms of braking performance in my opinion these dont compare the oem pads. i have these on my car right now and the oem pads had a noticeably better braking. however i will admit these are a lot cleaner than oem pads

 

i use duralast ceramic brakes an changed my rotors to slotted i don't really care for them. do you think the gold would be better? i want more grip i like the lifetime warranty but i'm thinking of going with hawks. Hey dave b what kind of semi-metallics did you use.