Brake pad suggestions?
 

Any suggestions on some good brake pads to purchase? I want to improve braking performance on the Honda, and wondering if there are specific brands that I should be looking at?

- Improve performance over stock pads
- Don't care about brake dust
- Don't care about longevity
- Don't want pads that are prone to squealing
- Reasonably priced
- Car won't be tracked, so these don't have to be anything terribly special

Tirerack is listing the following for my car:

Akebono (ceramic)
ATE (ceramic)
Hawk (ceramic)
Satified pro (ceramic, composite, or OEM)
Hawk HPS (composite)

If by "performance" you mean minimum possible stopping distance where heat isn't going to be a factor, you're looking at the wrong part.

If I was to just replace the pads with something "better", is the improvement generally pretty negligible?

I think most people would say that for street driving you'll rarely if ever reach the limits of a stock pad. What you can improve over stock pads with a good aftermarket solution is a pad that performs just as well, but dusts much less and lasts longer.

Alex

So there's no improvement in stopping distances with a better aftermarket pad?

read dis k thx bai

Just seems odd that changing pads won't do anything to improve braking performance, that's all. Reading through the pad ratings and descriptions on Tirerack would lead a person to believe otherwise, for example: "Hawk Performance HPS pads offer 20-40% more stopping power and higher resistance to brake fade than most Original Equipment or standard replacement pads."

If there's no difference, then it sounds like a person would be a fool to buy anything but the cheapest OEM replacement pads.

Well, how often do most people drive such that they experience brake fade on the street?

I think that for the most part OEM pads offer good stopping power and cold bite for general street driving. Safety concerns and magazine testing prolly requires that. What they care less about is dusting and longevity, two of the other tradeoffs when it comes to brake design.

Alex

Guys, ff has a japanese car. While I can't say anything about the S2000 brakes specifically, my experience is that they come with unbelievably bad pads.