brake pad suggestions

[John Hartman]

Hey, need front brake pads for the Mazdaspeed 6.  It is a  heavy awd car with more than decent power.  Still on the stock pads(its an 06), but they are getting thin.

Got Centric(made by Stoptech) rotors.

I have Hawk HPS on the Talon and while I like them, they are not always the best when cold, and initial bite isn't quite were I'd like it for a true daily driver.

I have used Delco Ceramics in the past on many cars with great success, but they don't make them for my car.

Any suggestions?

[Travis Koch]

I quite like the Bendix pads I'm trying out right now. 

[CamWeiss]

Hm. My go to would have been HPS.

HP+ are far too dusty and aggressive for street use, but the bite is astounding.

I threw a set of the new Raybestos element3's on my e30 when I did the front brakes a few months back. Not terrible I guess, they are definitely low dust. But the initial bite isn't there, they feel like a run of the mill shitty pad for drivers who don't know nor care. Would not recommend.

[kevin derhouson]

+2 for HPS

[Tony Leong]

I'm a big fan OEM parts.  Your OEM brake pads gave your Mazda eight years of service.

[Eddie ly]

I'm a big fan OEM parts.  Your OEM brake pads gave your Mazda eight years of service.

+1,for DD street driven car, I perfer oem. I have oem 3000gt vr4 pads, low dust, works well for DD and occasionally high speed stop. Good 75% of life left after couple years.

[John Hartman]

Thanx for the warning on the Raybestos element, I was sorta looking at them, they felt ok on a Chev truck I did recently.

As for OEM, the stock Mazda pads are pretty much $200.  they can suck it for that price.

I suspect the HPS would be ok, especially because they are nearly 12" rotors, but I don't wanna buy em and do it twice if I don't like em.

[KevinBuckham]

I personally dislike HPS and HP+.  I have tried about 8 pad types for my DSM and none of them are great for the autox/daily driver duty. 

I used to like Axxis Ultimate, and Porterfield R4S, but the later has a moderate amount of dust. (Same as HPS)

I just purchased OEM Porsche (Pagid) for my Brembos, although I had been eyeing up Ferodo DS2500.

[John Hartman]

I don't really care about moderate dust, I can pressure wash them every day if I want to.   Other than the dust, how is the R4S? 

[Calvin Ng]

akebono?

[Ivan Skare]

Akebono. They have an oem and more aggressive line.

[Ryan Singh]

I beg to differ on the Raybestos, I've ran them for years with no complaints.

I can't speak for their latest as my car has been parked for almost a year now and the last time I did my brakes was about 2+ years ago.
I was very happy with them however, low dust and they had bite. I did not go ceramic nor metallic; they had an in between that I'd opt for...just can't recall off hand.

[John Hartman]

oh, not saying they are bad per se, just rather mundane.  I am putting Centric rotors on it, but maybe I will look at those fancy pants ones they had

[KevinBuckham]

I don't really care about moderate dust, I can pressure wash them every day if I want to.   Other than the dust, how is the R4S? 

They were my daily driver pads for a long time and I still like them.  They seemed to work better cold than the HP+ and had more torque than the HPS.

[John Hartman]

cool, thanx Kevin.  I think I will hunt down some Porterfield R4S for this thing.