Brake Pads - Regular or Ceramic?

[Sy Haw Wong]

I would like to get some feedback from fellow DSM members on brakes.

I am planning to get Hawks Performance Brakes.  Which ones are preferable for daily driving?

Regular HPS brakes

or

Ceramics?

[Dave Ingraham]

What kind of driving do you do?  Some pads will be hard on rotors so you will have to replace rotors everytime you need brakes.  If you have nice wheels you don't want a pads that are very dusty that shit can be hard to clean off.  Daily driver stock stuff is great it cheaper and you can get it at any Lordco.

[Sy Haw Wong]

Thanks Dave.

I know this topic has been covered many times.  My purpose is for daily driving so right now whatever works well and is affordable.  I guess HPS is the way to go for me.  Just need to wash my car more often when the dust starts to cake on the rims ~ 

[Remi Raymond]

Thanks Dave.

I know this topic has been covered many times.  My purpose is for daily driving so right now whatever works well and is affordable.  I guess HPS is the way to go for me.  Just need to wash my car more often when the dust starts to cake on the rims ~ 

 Ceramic don't really have major downsides if you find actual ceramic pads, and not just a blend that the maker calls their "ceramic pad". Well, except the price. They wear slower, they're quiet, they fade less and the produce less dust. They're just pricy and it's possible to find bad ones cause they're not as commonly produced yet. Oh, and from what i've read Hawk uses something they call "ferro-ceramic" that apparently makes lots of noise.

[CamWeiss]

I've got a set of Satisfied Gran Sport 5's on the front (They didn't make a rear application for the 1g, I'm not sure about the 2g). It's a 'carbon-ceramic' pad. They operate just as well hot as they do cold, and produce considerably less dust than whatever was on the car before - Most likely an organic pad.

Keep an eye on the operating range for the pad, as far as temperatures go. Personally, I'd go ceramic every time - Even if it's simply for the (significantly less) amount of dust generated.

[Sy Haw Wong]

So I called into Lordco to order my Hawks HPS brake pads.  Apparently the sales said that Hawks may not have the proper brakes for FWD Turbo Eclipses, cause it didn't indicate in the database but will contact the Hawks representatives for inquiry.

This is super odd.  We will see.  Maybe the Lordco Sales rep wasn't sure what he was doing and didn't want to sell me a product that didn't fit my car.

[Dave Ingraham]

Go to a performance shop that carries hawk pads.  Lordco isn't the greats place for stuff like that.  I would try mopac before lordco.

[Sy Haw Wong]

Lordco is ok.  But its a fact that not many people know what they are doing.

I had to call in Hawks corporate headquarters myself to find out the part number.

Now I can order my HPS ~ 

[KevinBuckham]

Try HP Plus.  I found the HPS kind of soft, especially with the stock calipers on these cars.  You will get a little more dusting, but a lot better bite for basically the same price.

The old Axxis Metalmaster and the Porterfield R4S are also better options than the HPS.   Personally if I was buying right now I'd either get the HP Plus or R4S for street duty.

-Kevin

[Drew Sale]

which lordco did you call?

i put stock pads in my '93 fwd/na and they work wonders. once i put in OE pads, bled the lines and machined to rotors they handled like brakes in brand new cars (trust me, i work at a dealership). all that for under $80 is a pretty good deal if you ask me. or if you know someone who works at a dealership/mechanic shop you can usually get em to machine the rotots for free if you just bring em in yourself

[Sy Haw Wong]

which lordco did you call?

i put stock pads in my '93 fwd/na and they work wonders. once i put in OE pads, bled the lines and machined to rotors they handled like brakes in brand new cars (trust me, i work at a dealership). all that for under $80 is a pretty good deal if you ask me. or if you know someone who works at a dealership/mechanic shop you can usually get em to machine the rotots for free if you just bring em in yourself

I ordered my HPS from the performance division because my local store didn't have em in stock.  They didn't cost my under $80 even with a discount
Yeah it would be nice to machine the rotors, but I don't know anyone at the moment who can do it in such short notice.  I am planning to change my brakes this coming Saturday so we will see.

[Drew Sale]

take the rotors to any mechanic and they'll do it. they just need to strap em in one at a time and it takes like 5 mins per rotor. they should be able to do it right there on the spot. if not, try the next closest mechanic. their everywhere. good luck

[KevinBuckham]

It costs me about $12 locally to machine my rotors when I do a swap.  I take the bits apart in the morning, drop off the rotors and then they are done a couple of hours later.

[John Hartman]

make sure that the rotors are not too thin.  They can only be cut so many times before they are actually illegal to use on the road.

PS, it takes longer than 5 min per rotor

PPS, look for RPS Ultimate Ceramic pads, VERY good.

[Drew Sale]

PS, it takes longer than 5 min per rotor

your prolly right. i stopped paying attention to my stopwatch after a while so i thought i'd just take a shot in the dark. but thanks for clearing it up for us