Brake Pad decision help
 

Its time to change my front brake pads--should I go for Mazda OEM or aftermarket EBC Red Stuff? I currently have the old brake pads and not the TSB'd ones.

The RedStuff are spendy but I'm looking at them for auto-x/light track use. I had good luck with GreenStuff (low dust) and am wondering if the RedStuff pads will also reduce the brake dust. But I don't see any performance advantage going away from OEM pads unless you are going to track the car.

I'm considering some greenstuff at the moment. I wouldn't go to redstuff, as they work less effectivley than OEM pads under there design temp. So unless you get up to 200 degrees (celcius) you are not going to get good braking performance. OK for track work, but you have to remember to put heat into them first.

The amount of track work I do I think I'd go with the greenstuff. Unless I can find a better recommendation.

I do hear that they wear the rotors faster then OEM pads. That looks like the biggest downside.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Anyone else who has changed ttheir pads would like to commemt ?

Whats the price for stock pads front and rear ??

Hymee you have 50,000km and only changing your pads now ? mine are 75% gone after 35,00km . ;)

cheers
michael

The TSB'd replacement pads are very good. Very little break dust, no noise and a good feel. And you can get them for free!

I have put a set of Endless on my car at the moment. They are very good. It has only been a couple of days so far, but they were brilliant out on the track.

I'm looking at stocking these, or something with the same/similar compound.

Cheers,
Hymee.

if any of you guys are doing the job yourselves, Id greatly appreicate it if you could weigh as many parts as you can after you take them off...

Spoke to Mazda they want $155.00 for the front pads .

Should you also machine your discs ? it seems a bit much i dont see any visual wear at this stage i was quoted $275 for new pads machining the discs and labour .

WE NEED SOMEONE TO DO A DIY thread on changing the pads ;)

cheers
michael

$155? They must be real shitty then. Perhaps Supercheap ones might even be better.

The Endless pads I put on retail for about $400 a set.

No wonder Smoothy said his brakes felt softer after the dealer changed them. What is the bet the "dealer fitted" pads are not as good as the factory fitted ones? There is a good chance they are not the same. You never know what deals go on behind the scenes for the spare parts.

Fitting is pretty easy. I had some tips from an expert. Plus I did it in his workshop :)

I'll post some details when I get some time. I didn't bother getting my discs ground.

The car brakes very well now. No squeal. Works very well in the wet. No fade. No doughy pedal after a few laps.

Watch this space!!

Cheers,
Hymee.

Does the brake TSB apply to Aussy vehicles?

I can replace the pads in 15 mins(US)

;)

Is a US minute longer or shorter than an Aussie minute ?? ;)

I sure we haven't had a recall on the pads, AFAIK. I'm not sure if that is the same as a TSB though.

Changing pads was pretty easy. I love how the pads can be changed with the removal of only one bolt, and the caliper swings out. Bottom bolt on the front brakes (caliper swings up), top bolt on the rear brakes (caliper swings down). The bit that tricked me was winding the rear piston back in with the SST (pliers). Last time I changed my own pads was on a '74 model car that had discs on the front (remove whole caliper :( ) and rear drums. So the special thing for the handbrake on the rear pistons got me. Therefore I copped a few http://www.hymee.com/smilies/sm_nutkick.gif and http://www.hymee.com/smilies/sm_slap.gif from Phil for a few minutes... but only until he needed some help with his computer. Hahahaha.

BTW - the new pads are have an operating range from 0 - 500 degrees C.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Here's the skinny on performing a brake job.

If you are replacing your pads because they are worn out then you most definately need to machine your rotors. i reccomend having the rotors turned at a shop that does it with the rotors ON THE CAR. the machines that turn rotors ON THE CAR are designed to do the difficult work that needs to be done to PROPERLY turn a rotor. if you take your rotors off and have a shop turn them on a bench lathe i will bet you the cost of the brake job that you will experience a pulsing brake pedal in a couple weeks - if you want to know why feel free to ask me.

ok, so now that you KNOW that you NEED to machine your rotors there are a couple more things you need to take care of as well to ensure a quality job.

use a quality pad, for my vehicles i prefer either OEM or parts store "ceramic" pads. for the 8 i'll stick with OEM pads.

along with turning your rotors you need to do some maintinence to your calipers. wash 'em down with soap and water and a good scrub brush or just spray 'em down with a can of brake parts cleaner. now this is the important part. you need to remove the caliper slide pins and their rubber dust boots if you can. clean the slide pins - they should be coated in a greasy substance. a good wipe down is all that is required for this step as long as there are no petochemicals in the grease. now that the slides are clean they need to be coated with a SILICONE based greased. silicone is used to prevent the rubber parts of the caliper slides from swelling and preventing the caliper from sliding - if a caliper can't slide it can't do its job!

the next step is to get the piston(s) back into the caliper. unless you are at the race track i don't advise just pushing the pistons back in - this can realy do some damage to expensive hydraulic and ABS parts. when you do push the pistons back into the caliper, be sure to release the bleed screw to let the old brake fluid out of the caliper.

now that the calipers are squared away its time to lube the pads and the pad carriage. moly lube paste is the preferred lube in our shop. hit all the contact points with a thin coating - don't confuse contact points with FRICTION points (where the pad meets the rotor).

the latest theory in brake service to reduce noise is to allow the parts to move freely against each other instead of previous methods of trying to hold them tight with a bonding agent.

the final step is to reassemble everything.

if you guys want me to i'll put together a nice write up with pictures when i get around to swapping the pads on our 8. PM me if you are interested and i'll see about getting the ball rolling on that project.

Ray

You are making me spending too much money on the Hymee Enhanced Pty Ltd.

..... :o

Should you stock the DBA rotor as well Hymee?

GTRay

Great info thanks. ;)

cheers
michael

http://www.porterfield-brakes.com/

Porterfield has been in business for several years.

At this stage I don't see much point in changing the already big rotors!

Remember, the BACK rotor on the RX8 is BIGGER than the FRONT rotor on a Commodore / Monaro / GTO

Cheers,
Hymee.