Well, once I bed them in.

 

I usually stick to semi-metallic on my daily driver's, and ceramic on my weekend, sporty cars. It's kinda the recipe I prefer, after experimenting a few years. One of the reasons i went back to OEM pads after the Pro ACT's.

Main time i used to notice it was if i cruised on the highway for 30 mins or so without touching the brakes, then took an exit a bit too fast and noticed the brakes weren't as responsive. Wasn't like i had no brakes at all.

 

Yeah ^ I had left work the other day and not used the brakes at all, went to press on the pedal and had to push them almost as hard as possible to get the damned car to come to a quick stop. It's not the tires or the conditions, it was the cold crappy brakes.

These Akebonos are ceramic - that worries me - if the initial bite is not great as described by their specialist I am gonna be very unhappy!

It seems OEM or bust... but I have to trust those with more knowledge than me on this subject because I just don't know much. I'll follow the bed in procedure and hope for the best! It's 400-500 street miles driving like a 50 year old retiree for me... fun.

 

I've never had cold stopping issues with any ceramic pad I've used. Pretty much every time they are an improvement over the OEM pads under every condition.

 

Hey I'm 54, not retired and drive like a madman sometimes. Watch out young man or you'll be looking at the:

 

Help I need a safe space.

 

set em straight Blue Bear

 

I could never really tell a difference with my butt-o-meter. In the end, I had to look at what I was using the car for and make a choice based on that like I would with my tires. Since most of my driving is highway commuting, I just went back to OEM. I need the brakes to be great for that one panic stop, and felt the OEM pads responded better at this.


Now, sustained performance driving where I'm beating on the brakes? Well I have Ceramic on my Mustang with C5 brakes and they just bite hard no matter how toasty I get them.

 

No difference between the OEM pads and the Akebono ceramic, hot or cold. But the wheels are still clean after 4 days and the squeal I had the last foot or two of stopping is gone.