With a 20% off coupon, it was only $40 more than the other shop, and I got OEM parts. That was almost 3 years ago, and the brakes are still stopping smooth.
Owner reviews for brake pads
Bosch and Wagner rotors and ceramic pads are my preferred brands. I put new Wagner front brake pads on the Frontier 5 1/2 years ago and they still have about 3mm left.
EBC Ultimax produces much less dust than YellowStuff. If you like cleaning wheels constantly...And Ultimax performs very, very well.I used to use YellowStuff for autocross events, on three different cars (Mazda 2, Focus S and NC Miata).
OEM brake pads from Audi are mostly good for day to day braking, and some sporty, but not daily very aggressive driving. But they do a lot of dust and noise sometimes. I found the solution to be just change the pads for "ATE Ceramic" if you don't use your car to do track days and very frequent sporty driving. These don't have ceramic components, it's mostly marketing, but they do have two good characteristics from Ceramic pads, mostly zero noise when heated and almost zero dust! And the low dust it produces, it's not black. Breaking power it's maybe a little better coming from OEM, but nothing crazy. Do not use sport discs with ATE Ceramic, the brand actually advises to use normal discs with these.
I bought stock front rotors from a local dealer. Shopped around to find a dealer with the lowest price (low $90/ea range as I recall). I purchased Akebono Performance ceramic pads on Amazon: They are showing as “currently unavailable.” Maybe you can find them somewhere else. Brake pulsing is now gone, car stops very well, and I have less brake dust than with stock pads.
The pad material composite can be upgraded to extend mileage adding replacement parts like Bosch or Zimmermann (OEM suppliers) that are the same or better than stock.
I've had really good luck after swapping to R1 Concepts pads and rotors on my Taos. no brake dust and predictable stopping.
Swap brake pads for your needs.
They look about par for an economy, aftermarket brake pad. I use TRW on my beaters pretty often. Mine often don't come wrapped in anything other than a rubber band. They aren't OEM quality, but for 20 bucks a pair...I'll deal with it and have never had an issue.
I burned EBC Blues up in a single day, decided they weren't up to it.
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