brake pad time

[wymjym]

Hi,
I have put @ 15K miles on a set of Hawk HP pads (97 SHO). The fronts are just about gone and the backs aren’t far behind. I suspect that the drilled rotors have shortened the life span of these pads a bit.
The brakes work fine but I have never been overly impressed…………so my question deals with the braking performance of less expensive pads. If I am not gaining much of anything (street driven) I would rather pocket the +/-$40 difference between these pads and some other hiperf pads.
What would you all do?
wj

 

[stephen newberg]

The Ford OEM pads for the Gen III are actually very good.

pax, smn

 

[Izzmo]

I was wondering this myself as I have the Hawk pads too and don't really see much of an improvement over stock and brake dust even though it says minimal brake dust, but I haven't seen that.

Too bad the stock pads won't work for me anymore..

 

[Eric VerValin]

Well.. I have a 96 upgrade on mine, and I used the PFCM pads... Preformance Friction Carbon Metallic... granted I don't have cross drilled rotors but I have almost 20k on mine, and they still look pretty damn new.

I'll have my car up on the hoist today doing some stuff and I'll get a picture of the pad wear I've accumulated since then for ya. It'll be later on tonight when I get the pictures for ya.

And PFCM pads can be found at AZ... HERE

$70.00 for the front set... And FWIW, I 'seasoned' a set of new rotors when I installed them.. not sure how much that helps. But normally when I drive it only seems to take the weight of my shoe to stop the car. The tires will lock at about 1/3 to 1/2 pedal... so I dunno.. maybe there is a big difference in pads... ?

 

[SHOZ123]

EBC Greenstuffs would be cheaper than dealer pads for stock brakes.

 

[Ict_Lx]

EBC Greenstuffs would be cheaper than dealer pads for stock brakes.

Hijack: I have heard people talk about pads before and have heard that motorcraft pads and Ford pads are different, Ford being better. I have motorcraft pads on my pbr's with stainless steel lines and I cannot get my abs to engage during a panic stop. Pretty sure that I need new calipers in the rear but that shouldn't effect things too much. Plus they dust like crazy and squeel like mad when stopping. Drives me nuts! Since we are on the topic of pads, any thoughts?

Hijack over...

 

[SHOZ123]

Motorcraft pads are to be avoided. Ford OEM pads are great and about inline with the other top quality pads price wise.

 

[wymjym]

I decided

and for what is worth, thanks everyone for your thoughts on this subject.

I did more searching and found several comments that suggested the AZ Duralast Gold Cmax were good pads and very, very similar (in all respects to performance/dusting/.noise) to the hawk pads I currently have. So 59.99+tx and pick them up…a bit more searching suggested that the Satisified GS6D598 pads were also very, very similar…………Amazon 55.95 (and with my Amazon prime membership, no tax and free shipping).
I ordered the Gs6 units and if they perform the same or better then I’ll be happy to have saved @ $30 for the front axle….if they are less than the Hawks, I’ll swallow hard and order the Hawks and offer up the GS6 units to anyone that wants to pay the shipping for them.

I’ll probably do the pads right before the 4th…so stay tuned.
wj

 

[38SHO]

aren't those ceramic?

the only ceramic pads I've been halfway impressed with are Wagner thermoquiets.... I've put a few on in the 598 size at work and they stop pretty good with a bitey pedal... suprisingly.......

I currently have Ford OEM pads and they are decent, I've also had the PFC pads and approve of those, although mine were a bit dusty.......

I would just get some regular cheap rotors while you are there, maybe 20 or 30 bucks a piece.... at autozone or discount auto parts, something like that.... grease up your pins in the bracket real good and make sure they move freely.... make sure the caliper is not sticking...... pick up a tire off the ground and make sure it spins relatively easy........

are the old pads worn evenly between the inner and outer pad? or at an angle from top to bottom?

 

[hawkeye18]

I like the Akebono ceramics. They don't have the initial bite of the Hawk HP+s but when you dig down in them they certainly don't disappoint. And, they have nearly zero dust and are completely noiseless. And this on slotted and dimpled rotors. (the rotors make a lot of noise, but that isn't the pad's fault)

 

[bacernate]

Go to autozone or checker/oreilly and get performance friction carbon metallic pads, you'll love them. Have a set on my Caravan. We go up 14000 feet to the mountains and down and have yet to cook them. Tried lots of others on it and they burn up coming down the mountain. [No air = hot f#@%ing brake pads].

 

[Eric VerValin]

Go to autozone or checker/oreilly and get performance friction carbon metallic pads, you'll love them. Have a set on my Caravan. We go up 14000 feet to the mountains and down and have yet to cook them. Tried lots of others on it and they burn up coming down the mountain. [No air = hot f#@%ing brake pads].

Thats what I meant by PFCM pads up above.. :wave: :thankyou:

 

[wymjym]

Thats what I meant by PFCM pads up above.. :wave: :thankyou:

when I washed my car every day I used pfcm pads on several vehicles. I had no complaints other than they did dust up quite a bit (with my driving style)...but the daily cleaning kept things in line. The Hawk pads have worked fine for me with a bit better iniitial bite, regardless of temps. I don't have any mountains near me, I've slowed down my driving speeds a bit and quite honestly the hawks have pulled me down from 120-130 with pretty good authority. If the Satisifed units do the same I'm good, others might need/prefer a different approach.
wj

 

[wymjym]

I received the Satisified pads he other day and this AM I was going to replace the old HAWK units. Well.............the pads appear to have another 5 or so thousand miles on then before they require replacement.....so the Satisifed units went into my closet for a future date.
wj

 

[Eric VerValin]

Sorry it took me so long to get this pic up.. was kinda busy.. but here are my PCFM's after 20K pretty hard miles... not crazy, and no track time, but anyway.. here's what I have left.



and a shot of them new...



Hard to tell how thick there.. but this last one is a pic about 500 miles after I "bed" them.. they were catching the lower part of the rotor... but after reinstalling them I never heard from them again..



Didn't really lose any material off them... I'm thinking I'll replace the pins, and caliper before I change the pads again..

 

[bubba]

Nice.... those things really stand up to the beating you give them... I need to get my a pair for my upgrade lol..... and folks he beats the snot out of them brakes too!

Sorry it took me so long to get this pic up.. was kinda busy.. but here are my PCFM's after 20K pretty hard miles... not crazy, and no track time, but anyway.. here's what I have left.



and a shot of them new...



Hard to tell how thick there.. but this last one is a pic about 500 miles after I "bed" them.. they were catching the lower part of the rotor... but after reinstalling them I never heard from them again..



Didn't really lose any material off them... I'm thinking I'll replace the pins, and caliper before I change the pads again..

 

[Eric VerValin]

Another thing.... maybe this is just because my wheel studs are different sized or something, but with slicers.. these rotors are really touchy about being nice and "flat"... same goes for torquing the wheels... If its not perfect.. they make noise.. makes me think the rotor is wobbling..

I also notice the rubber on the sliding pins has cracked... how common is that in a year's time? 20K miles...

 

[Joel17368]

I have a 1999 SHO and I just had to change the front pads and rotors. I went to Autozone and got rotors and pads. I put everything on and took it for a test drive. It was shaking so bad I thought the frontend was going to fall apart. Long story short. the V8 SHO pads I got were to big, they were only hitting the top of the rotors. I went back to Autozone and the pads I needed were for the V6 Taurus model. What is up with that? Any ideas?

 

[Eric VerValin]

There are 2 different pads in the 96-99 line up. Some "SHO" pads aren't really SHO pads. Can't remember the numbers... someone here does I'm sure...

 

[venom]

There are 2 different pads in the 96-99 line up. Some "SHO" pads aren't really SHO pads. Can't remember the numbers... someone here does I'm sure...

96+ front brake pads for SHO's are 598's. 601's are the SLO pads.

MKD598 is the Bendix TitatiuMetallic pads that I get from Advance for the past few years now on both the 96 MTX and the mostly stock 99. Dusting is reasonable but price, performance and longevity are above average, certainly plenty of pad for any type of street tire.