Akebono Ultra-Premium Ceramic Brake Pads, very well known in the racing community to be the best of the best OE Replacement pads that run on your stock calipers. The only better pads than these require a full Brembo caliper conversion. Buy Japanese. More expensive, doesn't mean better. For reference: I drive a 2007 Subaru Forester, Akebono is the Original Manufacturer for the OEM "Subaru" Brake Pads from the factory.
I have always gone with Akebono pads and centric rotors. It's a great combo.
I've used Akebono Euro Ceramic pads on my MK7.5 R and S5 Sportback and they were great and basically no dust.
I used to have an IS350 and with the genuine Lexus pads on, an insane amount of brake dust and squealing. Replaced with Akebono Performance ultra premium ceramics and never had an issue with noise or dust afterwards.
My Mercedes is much older W210, but for the brakes I went with Zimmerman Coat Z rotors and Akebono Euro ceramic pads. The front pads have been on for about 30k miles and are not even close to needing replacement. And they leave almost no brake dust, so my wheels look clean all the time now. Only real downside is they have a bit less initial bite than the oem pads, but I have actually come to prefer the more linear braking feel and haven't had any problems with stopping power.
Buy pads and the sensor from FCP Euro. Use their lifetime replacement warranty for the next set. Went to the dealer in July for an alignment and they recommended pads for a similar price. I bought pads rotors and sensors for front and back, total was $1000 for BMW parts. You could save with Jurid which is listed as OE and OEM. My pads are at 4mm all around so I'm actually waiting for the sensor to trip before doing the job.
I have been running Akebono on most all of my cars and have 3-400k worth of driving on them. I tried some semi-metallic pads once. Loved loved loved the initial grab, but hated hated hated the dust and the way they wore the rotors. If I was tracking, I wouldn't run the Akebono's, though. There are better pads for that. As someone mentioned, the Akebono's don't have as much of an initial grab as they need to heat up. I did try the Pagid pads once that I got from the now defunct BavAuto. They were just OK.
I run AkiBono pads with Brembo rotors on both of our E39’s and both E46’s ( and Volvo xc90 ???? home depot use-free vehicle) and love the setup. On the E46’s very similar feel to OE Jurid or Pagid and on the E39’s ( US spec 2003 540/6 and 2001 530 sport auto) softer initial bite yet excellent braking with great modulation and stopping power, quiet, long lasting, minimal rotor wear and the light dust is barely noticeable, easily rinses off and is non-caustic.
I replaced mine with Akebono ceramic pads, i paid just under $600 for all four corners, parts and labor (i replaced mine at 9k miles).
Will they fit? Probably. But without the slot you can't use the anti-rattle springs. I purchased a set of Akebono's from ECS a few years ago and ended up sending them back because they don't fit as the car was designed to work (if that makes sense?).
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