Brake pads Akebono or R1 Concepts
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.
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.
Just replaced mine with Akebonos and no complaints so far.
Akebono ceramic pads with OEM or Zimmerman rotors is an OEM+ solution. They produce almost 0 brake dust and maintain OEM feel and performance.
I used the R1 concepts drilled and slotted kit with pads. Front and rear total was like 500 bucks. Did it myself. They work great.
I've had mine for like 60k miles. 87k ish on the clock. Just changed everything. Yearly inspection and the shop rejected it for brakes. Brake installer said the weren't that bad. I bought an R1 Concepts kit. Front and rear rotors plus pads all around. $220 shipped on Walmart+ (also found on Amazon or Rock Auto). The shop had a brakes special: $160 installed for new pads. Since I had the parts and rotors take like 30 seconds to swap out, they charged me for two brake installs at $150 each. So all in installed was like $550 after taxes.For reference: the shop that rejected it quoted something like $500 for the front and $500 for the rear. And I don't think it was all new everything.
Red doesn\u2019t have much dust. Same with green. I don\u2019t recommend the R1 concepts sport pads. They are very dusty. Almost worse than stock. Bite and feel is good though.
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