Need recommendation for brake pads

[RubyRed15]

Pads are shot... what's the best thing going for street pads?

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[thumper]

http://www.opmustang.com/store/p60/...5__Mustang_EcoBoost_PP_-_GT_Non_PP_Front.html
http://www.opmustang.com/store/p62/G-LOC_Brake_Pads_-_2015__Mustang_EcoBoost_PP_-_GT_ALL_Rear.html

 

[RubyRed15]

Thoughts on Powerstop Z23 and Z26? Found a nice sale on the full kit with drilled rotors.

 

[Norm Peterson]

The Z26 is aimed a little higher up on a 'hard use' scale and might be the better choice specifically for hilly/mountainous driving where you would be demanding more of your car's brakes. But it's still not a track day pad if you've got any thoughts of getting out on a road course. Z23 is aimed more at cars that are typically more moderately driven than Mustangs and such.

On drilled rotors - you don't need them for street driving and I won't ever suggest running them on any road course track. Let's just say I'm not a fan of making brake "mods" that compromise performance for an appearance change. No, not at all.


Norm

 

[RubyRed15]

I am not looking for a track day pad at all. Strictly street use. Looking for something that will perform as well as stock but last longer than 14k miles of light use. I'll get dedicated pads for tracking.

 

[mikes2017gt]

On drilled rotors - you don't need them for street driving and I won't ever suggest running them on any road course track. Let's just say I'm not a fan of making brake "mods" that compromise performance for an appearance change. No, not at all.


Norm

Hi Norm,

I'm curious as to how drilled rotors are a performance compromise? I agree that they are not NEEDED for heavy street use, but as drilled rotors cool faster/better, how is this a performance compromise? Unneeded expense? Possibly. But "value" is very subjective. If someone wants to spend $$$$ gold-plating their wheels to make the car look better in their eyes, it's their money. I don't see the negatives, aside from expense, of drilled rotors.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Holes means there's less metal acting as a heat sink, so rotor (and pad) temperatures tend to increase slightly.

You don't get much airflow through the holes. The rotor's internal vanes act as a centrifugal pump and accelerate the air radially outward from the hub side. Once the air gets moving radially, there's very little incentive for any of it to slow down to make the sharp 90° turns into those little holes.

Not that you really want it to anyway - the slowing down in the radial direction necessary would then interfere with the rest of the airflow that's not going through the holes and make the venting less efficient overall.

Don't forget that for a quarter of the time or so, the escape route through any given hole is shut off completely by the pads. So whatever air is in the holes has only a few dozen milliseconds to get moving again - starting from zero velocity - before the pads shut off the flow again. Keep in mind that the holes were originally intended as pad outgas exits where the flow would have been into the rotor from the pad side. Not out of it from the inside. Any outgassing that remains in today's pads (I'm sure there's still a tiny bit under some conditions) is still going to want to go into the holes from the pad sides.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

There is also the matter of local stress concentration caused by the holes as structural discontinuities. Compounded by rapid temperature changes that are applied at the surfaces of the rotor faces. Heat flow is a 3-D phenomenon, and the holes can disrupt this. Locations that show high local tensile stresses in a finite element analysis are locations that will be likely to crack (and rotors aren't terribly ductile - if you read through http://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCE2010/WCE2010_pp2322-2326.pdf ductility is hardly mentioned). Cracks themselves happening . . . maybe sooner, maybe later, this depends on many factors.

I used to do thermal transient analysis for piping systems in the nuclear power industry. Different components but the principles of heat flow remain the same.


Norm

 

[mikes2017gt]

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out, Norm. There's some seriously smart people on this forum and it's great that everyone shares what they know.

I'll be keeping a very close eye on my drilled rotors. I've got a pretty finely tuned right foot and I pick up on the slightest tomfoolery happening in the brake pedal. If things go south I'll put the stock PP rotors on there and be done with it.

Thanks again.

 

[BmacIL]

I am not looking for a track day pad at all. Strictly street use. Looking for something that will perform as well as stock but last longer than 14k miles of light use. I'll get dedicated pads for tracking.

How did you do that? I have the same brakes as you, have 6 autocrosses and nearly 45,000 miles and mine are needing to be replaced soon, all with 200 lbs more car. Do you live in an area where you're constantly going downhill? Do you engine brake?

 

[RubyRed15]

How did you do that? I have the same brakes as you, have 6 autocrosses and nearly 45,000 miles and mine are needing to be replaced soon, all with 200 lbs more car. Do you live in an area where you're constantly going downhill? Do you engine brake?

:shrug:

I'm actually not entirely sure the pads are actually the problem, anymore, because the hideous, metallic squealing I thought was wear indicators abruptly stopped today, in less than 100mi of driving since it started. It'll be a while until I can get a wheel off and find out for sure.

Regardless, I'd still like some impressions/advice for when I do need to order, whether now or in the future.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Couple possibilities here.

Piece of grit got stuck under a pad (a really hard stop or two usually dislodges it).

A dust shield has distorted enough to be rubbing on its rotor. If this is the cause, it can be pried back away from the rotor. But you can count on the noise returning. Been fighting this issue on the Maxima in my sig for at least 10 years now and while I know right where to head for a temporary fix I still don't know why it can suddenly show up.


Norm

 

[RubyRed15]

Total silence all day today. I'm thinking small rock in the caliper. Never had that happen before.

 

[Mixedup]

Need brake pad recommendation

Did a search and last post on topic is from June of 2017.....

Looking for new pads for 2016 brembo calipers ...good bite low dust ... for street driving.

Is ceramic better, and what brand and model number recommended?

Thanks for info

 

[BmacIL]

Powerstop Z26

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