Brake pads Hella Pagid or Raybestos
The best overall for my use are Raybestos “Truck and Medium Duty”.
I always buy from Rockauto, but check if the part is on Amazon for comparable price for the free shipping. With brake parts especially I highly recommend buying the best you can afford. Cheap pads and rotors will be noisier and more likely to warp and give vibration when braking. The cheapest pads are also usually bonded meaning the friction material is only glued onto the backing plate, and I’ve seen them separate, especially a risk if you drive where rust is an issue. Also cheap pads don’t always include abutment clips and good shims.
I just changed my rear pads and rotors. Bought raybestos from rockauto. $80 shipped.
I've been researching brake pads recently since I was looking for something to replace my awful Akebono pads up front. What I've learned is that Textar and Pagid are OEM pads and will have the "BMW brake feel". Textars are usually on the rears and Pagid on the fronts. Bosch is supposedly not quite as good as the other two. I bought the Pagid pads and man, what an improvement from the Akebono. I can stop again without having to jam on the brakes.
I run pagid rsl29 (yellow) and i have been a big fan -- but it seems like you either love them or hate them, no in between.I still have over 75% brake pad left after 11 days on track-- with that said, factory brake cooling is pretty good on my car's front brakes (M2 Competition). I think most folks whom have issues have inadequate cooling which leads to very high temps, which the rsl29 do not like
Like the previous comment said, akebono is their oem supplier, imo I like raybestos the best because they’re super cheap on rock auto and they produce a lot less dust if you go with ceramic pads instead of metallic
I have Raybestos Element 3 pads on 2 of our 3 cars and brake dust is next to nothing.
Pagid have done me surprisingly well on track days.
I just put on Raybestos R-line pads and rotors on a 2010 Town and Country. Those vans are notorious squealers. The trick is to use the spray version of disc brake quiet.
I've used Raybestos before on VW GTI. They had a distinct feel and reminded me of... Literally every other set of brake pads I've ever used. Just save your money bro.
Write your review
Help others - share your experience with this part.