Brake pad suggestions

S

SCY7H3

Member
Car
2012 FX35S AWD
Hey guys, it's the time again for me to do the brakes on the car and this time I'm trying to change it up in terms of what pads I'm going to use.

I've done some research and honestly there's too much variation regarding reviews and its hard to make a decision as to what pads to go with.

The reason I'm choosing to get away from OEM Akebono pads is because they create a ton of brake dust and the inner part of the caliper has black dust caked on which is just insane. I've never seen this.

Anyways.. So what my ask is, can everyone who has the Akebono Sport brakes to give me your opinions and experiences with pads, OE or not.

I've done around 20K miles on each set of OEM pads I've used. I'm not tracking this vehicle, it's just a daily driver. I'm semi hard on the vehicle but mostly just highway cruising.

Anyone ever have issues with caliper pistons sticking? (Just thought I'd ask).

The aftermarket pads I was looking at were Akebono ProAct and Akebono Performance. If anyone has any experience on these, please do tell :)

Thanks guys!!
 
I'm curious to see the responses. Looking to move to the Infiniti Akebono FX50 setup on my 35G2.
 
I just did the brakes on my 50. I went with the Hawk High Performance Street 5.0 brake pads front and rear, the Centric High Carbon Plain 125 Series Cryo-Treated front rotors and the Centric Plain 120 Series Cryo-Treated rear rotors and I'm very happy with the stopping force of this set up. The initial bite is good and I haven't experienced any fade under pressure, as a matter of fact you can literally feel the brake force increase at a nice even pace in conjunction with the pedal pressure you apply under heavy braking. If your not careful, you can definitely force the ABS to kick in without slamming the pedal down. I am coming from a StopTech setup of pads and plain rotors all the way around and I hated the StopTech setup, the brake fade was ridiculous under pressure. This Hawk/Centric setup makes the StopTech set up feel like a joke.

All that being said if brake dust is your major concern, I'm assuming you will not like this setup. The performance is great and I haven't had it long enough to evaluate the brake dust but my major concern was performance so I'm willing to deal with brake dust. If you want little to no brake dust then your probably going to be looking for a ceramic pad. It's going to be the only way to keep the dust down. However you are going to sacrifice performance for low dust so it's a trade off. I was going to go with ceramics until I read a few reviews talking about the noticeable difference in brake performance and that in the winter they can be a little scary until they warm up. I'm not tracking my car either but I don't care how little the noticeable difference is, if I felt like the StopTech set up was trash when some people say it's decent, I know I will feel the decline in performance with ceramics. Ceramics is the way to go for low dust though.

---------- Post added at 09:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 PM ----------

Tire Rack gives a decent list of results for pads and rotors when you put it the make/model/year of your car and search brakes. You can use that as a starting point then Google reviews for the pads and rotors you may be interested in.
 
Thank you for the insight. It's definitely difficult to make a decision based on varying reviews and website ratings because everyone has their own interpretation. Seeing that you have the stock Akebono calipers, you must've had the stock pads and rotors at some point. Then going to stoptech and then Hawk with Centric, you have a better idea of how quickly characteristics change.

The Hawk pads you have are something I haven't seen before so I'm going to look into them. I've looked at the Hawk HPS pads and they had mixed reviews and complaints of red dust accumulating after little driving.

Ceramics will definitely be different though I'm curious about the performance line from Akebono since they stated they put a different friction modifier or compound that grips better/faster. Hard to say without any reviews since most people go for the ProACTs. Yet event with reviews for the ProACTs, everyone loves them and then a few say they don't grip as much. So it's either most of these people never had varying types of pads to compare against or they are just that good.

Curious, how do the Hawk High Performance Street 5.0 compare to OEM Akebono pads? Do the Hawk pads grip right from the get go or they require warm up time? I see they are Ferro Carbon. I wonder what OEM Akebono pads are? Someone mentioned semi metallic, does that translate to Ferro (metal) carbon?
 
I have Hawk 5.0s in the rears, so there's not much going on there. They work well the fronts with good bite. Not ceramics. For those fronts, the perfect pad so far are the Project Mu B-Force that Zebra sold me.
Not excessive, but dust is a non-issue for me. I like to see it after a good drive. Says they're working.
Also no Fade & I play them hard . . on track

& btw, Centric is parent of Stoptech.
Both are good rotors, & I'm sure the ST Sports are better than the base centric rotor
 
SCY7H3 said:
Curious, how do the Hawk High Performance Street 5.0 compare to OEM Akebono pads? Do the Hawk pads grip right from the get go or they require warm up time? I see they are Ferro Carbon. I wonder what OEM Akebono pads are? Someone mentioned semi metallic, does that translate to Ferro (metal) carbon?
Click to expand...

Oh they grip right out the gate, just pulling out of the driveway the stop to check for traffic is very sharp. IMO they grip right away and are very consistent throughout.

---------- Post added at 12:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 AM ----------
gto said:
I have Hawk 5.0s in the rears, so there's not much going on there. They work well the fronts with good bite. Not ceramics. For those fronts, the perfect pad so far are the Project Mu B-Force that Zebra sold me.
Not excessive, but dust is a non-issue for me. I like to see it after a good drive. Says they're working.
Also no Fade & I play them hard . . on track

& btw, Centric is parent of Stoptech.
Both are good rotors, & I'm sure the ST Sports are better than the base centric rotor
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, I've heard very good things about those Project MU pads. That's the setup I was actually going to go for but the Project MU pads are not as easy to come by as the Hawks and I played myself and needed my pads off before they cut into the rotors. As far as how the StopTech rotors would have performed with any other pad, I can't say. As a matter of fact I still have the rotors in my garage, they weren't even worn enough to be changed. I was just so disappointed with the StopTech setup that I didn't even want to know how they'ed feel with other pads, I just wanted them off. I know Centric is parent to StopTech IMO that doesn't mean much though a lot of companies have subsidiary companies whose product is no where near the quality of the parent company. I know this Hawk setup is the truth and while I'm not tracking my car I do drive super hard. Curious to see how the Project MU fronts perform though because if it's better than this setup I think that would my permanent setup. Next time I'm trying the Project MU fronts.
 
@neva4self how long have you had your hawk pads for and how often do you replace them? Hows the noise level? I dont care for all the dust in the world if its the best pad ever. Right now I have DBA T3 and Yellowstuff; no noise or dust, but not the greatest bite. Had this setup for about a year now (25000 km)
 
I'm using Hawk Ceramics and very pleased with the performance. PM me if you need any pads. We have most brands available.
 
nima said:
@neva4self how long have you had your hawk pads for and how often do you replace them? Hows the noise level? I dont care for all the dust in the world if its the best pad ever. Right now I have DBA T3 and Yellowstuff; no noise or dust, but not the greatest bite. Had this setup for about a year now (25000 km)
Click to expand...

Mine are fairly new, literally a month old, driving about 30 miles a day during the week and a little more than that on the weekends. I have no noise whatsoever and the dust seems average. Other than the StopTech set up I mentioned above I've always ran a stock set up on brakes, so I can't say how often the Hawks will have to be replaced yet because this is my first set. I will say that after a month of driving hard on them I'm still surprised at how good they feel. I did break in the pads properly using Hawks recommended break in procedure. I also used (even though a lot of people don't) the red brake parts lubricant (grease) that hawk provides and I applied 1-2 grams on each side of the brake pad shim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlR3OhFZMes

I am extremely pleased with the set up though I'm not sure if the High Carbon Cryo-Treated Rotors are playing a part in the stopping power or if those features of the rotors are all hype. I've heard that the Project MU pads are also excellent as gto said above. Again I was going to go with the Project MU if I didn't need the pads asap. Hawks are easier to get IMO.
 
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