I bought Raybestos Element 3 Hybrid pads and couldn't be happier. They squeal a tiny bit when very cold but I trust these brakes to get me down a mountain.
With the XP8s I had, I left early and bed my pads in on the way to the track.
Running Carbotech XP8 and XP10 here. They’re great on track, and also very usable on the street. I’m currently not switching back to my EBC Yellowstuff pads because the Carbotechs aren’t bad enough on the street to justify me switching pads (yes I’m a being a little lazy). They dust like mad though and are quite squeaky.
If you're keeping the vehicle (make sure you're keeping it), then I second getting the raybestos from Rockauto. Make sure you get the raybestos element 3 fully coated rotor and pad sets.
Even if your friend's dad does it free, maybe drop him $100 or $200 for the labor.
So $200 total. And less dust than OEM with decent stopping power. I went with this combo cause it's balanced stopping power and rotor longevity.
The OEM rotors wear very quickly. The OEM pads are Akebono semi organic which are actually pretty good. However the OEM pads create a ton of brake dust which makes the wheels look terrible. When I replaced mine about a year ago I went the aftermarket route and used Raybestos rotors and pads.
The best overall for my use are Raybestos “Truck and Medium Duty”.
The xp12s are beasts. I pulled brake bias 1-click from full rear to get them balanced on level braking. This gives me one click for more rear, which was really enough for the track. I love late braking, and I can hammer these on a 20min session with NO change in performance.
I sometimes daily drive on Carbotech XP10 front XP8 rear, and they’re totally fine but they dust and squeak like mad. First braking when cold isn’t super grabby but totally doable for a daily driver pad. They’re grabby once warmed up on the street but nothing to be worried about. I’ve gotten ~10,000 miles of driving and two TNIA track nights on a 450hp 3500lb car, and i suspect they can last a lot longer than that based on the pad wear I’m seeing.
I replaced the pads and rotors on my Jetta this past spring. I put on Raybestos Element3 pads and coated rotors, and I've put maybe 6k-ish miles on them since then. Everything was fine for a while, but lately a squeal started to slowly develop until now it's every time I use the brakes. It sounds exactly the wear indicator noise I'm used to hearing when pads are low.
I ran into some brake issues. The pedal started getting squishy even in wet conditions. It never got dangerously deep, but it was still unpredictable. In the last session, the track dried up and I was able to push. I experienced somewhat serious fade. I had to absolutely stand on the brake pedal to get the car stopped. After pulling into the paddock and circling around to let the car cooldown, I still smelled brakes for the next 20+ minutes. The pedal firmed up on the way home.
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