I have run the Carbotech 1521 on the street and can confirm they are low dust and noise, but not the most performance oriented.
I just changed my pads and rotors at all four corners asI was always very unhappy with the stock pads and rotors; mostly because of noise in the cold and the amount of brake dust the pads made. Upon inspection of my rotors, with barely 30k miles on them, there was a startling amount of material removed and channeling from the pads. I would totally recommend you replace the rotors at the same time. I too went with the ECS slotted and drilled rotors with Carbotech 1521 pads and love the setup. Very quiet, very little dust and good performance.
Carbotech Pads (F-CT682 & R-CT340 1521 Street Compound)
Carbotech XP12's are going on for this season with RE-71R's, went with XP8's before and should of done at least XP10's
When I did my Civic, I went with Wagner Thermoquiets. But I'm not aggressive on the brakes. They're silent, and clean. They'll still cause ABS to engage if I hit the pedal hard.
I now use the Wagner pads the I can get through Advance. Last set went 60K and I just replaced them before the state inspection in October. Technically they would have passed but I just changed them out just so I didn't have to worry about it for a while. For $60 for an axle set, I can't complain. Cost way less, last much longer, easy on the rotors and don't dust the hell out of the wheels. They take a bit more brake pedal pressure but that is OK because it actually helps on brake modulation.
I stand by Carbotechs. Whether it's my S2000 or heavy E90, they've done great is hard lapping all day long. Depending on the car, XP10s in front and XP8s in the back work well for most. You can call them and they'll recommend the right pad. Their super noisy for street use but brilliant on the track.
2500 pads are a great pad, I dd those and have tracked with them. Carbotech makes great track pads that can be driven on the street, have a set on the Z06 and they take a beating at the track.
Pads: there are lots of options, of course. Generally speaking, the better performance a pad offers, the harder it will be on rotors. I like Pagid a lot, as well as Mintex. Akebono makes some nice ceramic pads that offer no dust and reasonable performance. I prefer a really aggressive pad. Most people underestimate that the pads are your biggest, easiest brake upgrade. My favorite pad is Carbotech. They are out of NC. The panther pad is almost a race brake pad. Constant squealing, lots of dust, and you have to warm them up to get them to work. But when you step on it, you're thankful for seat belts.
Ok, so, at a particular location I worked at we used Wagner Thermoquiets. Decent pads, but this particular location seemed to get the worst quality pads ever. The only way we could keep the customer from coming back was to make sure everything was well lubricated, and we also used some sort of orange goop to stick the brake pads to the calipers. Then we took it out for a break-in session, I believe it was 5 stops from 30mph, gently using the brakes, then another 5 with moderate brake pressure. And if the customer was too hard on the brakes it might still come back.
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