The Akebono ceramic pads give off a low-visibility tan dust...but on occasion, I miss the grip of the stock pads. Was definitely a worthwhile tradeoff though: Much less to no dust for a barely perceptible reduction in initial bite/grip compared to stock VW brake pads.
Definitely upgrade from stock pads as that will give you the most improvement. Just this morning I was looking to see if Carbotech (absolutely love their pads) made anything for the GTI, but they only have pads for the PP GTI. I sent them an email to see if they have their 1521 pads available for a non-PP GTI. Since Carbotech is not an option at the moment there is EBC green or red stuff. You would probably be just fine with EBC Green Stuff. ECS sells it and I just checked and fronts are on sale for only $57 for a set. Hawk is another good brand but I can't seem to find anything from them for our cars yet. Unfortunately there are not many choices out there at the moment for upgraded pads.
The EBC Red pads are one of the best set that they make, are quiet, and stop great.
Akebono in particular seems to put out an OEM quality pad.
I had the same issue on my SQ5, ended up putting on the EBC Red Stuff pad after 700 miles... The EBC Red's still dust, but I can go about a week before you notice the dust, with the OEM pads it was less than a day before you could tell.
I also currently have EBC red installed with golf R retaining clips and tyrol sport brake caliper stiffening kit and tyrol sport stainless steal brake lines and the noise was not present until maybe around 8,000 miles into the new pads. The car still stopped on a dime, thats all I was really concerned about.
I'm actually amazed how little these pads dust considering how well they work. Coming from my S6, where the wheels needed cleaning after every ten minutes of driving, I'm impressed!
All I have to add is that I like Akebono Euro Pads.
Just beware some of the cheaper off brand brake pads will put out a lot more brake dust than OEM or akebono pads.
I just put on Akebono ceramics and Zimmerman coated rotors and I hated them for the first few hundred miles. They took a very long time to break in, and this was after a) paying attention to the instructions that say no break-in is needed and b) ignoring that advice when the stopping distances were so bad initially that I bedded them in... and yet the pedal effort was so high that I could barely engage the ABS in the dry. So I'd recommend staying away from that combination.
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