Originally Posted by justjim (Post 2898442)

"Ceramics" in brake pads is a bit of a marketing hype. Many brake pads have some ceramic compounds in the complex mixtures of various compounds that make up brake pads. As a result just about any brake pad company can make the claim that they have a ceramic pad. Ceramic compounds include a group of compounds, not just a single one, that can be added to modify the friction coefficient, thermal range, and quantity and color of dust. Supposedly, you could have a pad with good thermal stability, good bite, and light colored dust. Ceramic fibers are there to replace some of the metallic or orgainic fibers that reinforce the pad material although they don't replace all of it. I'm pretty sure the OEM has some ceramic in it. However, both the street performance pads I used on my previous car as well as my track pads are carbon kevlar ceramics and they dust like a mofo and will squeal Beethoven's fifth symphony if you don't shim and grease their backs, and the track pads will damage my wheels and even paint if I don't clean off the dust.

Brake pad composition is a bit of black art as well as chemical science and engineering. Trying to get a pad that grabs consistently at -20F and 1600F, is quiet, relatively non-toxic, non-corrosive, easy on the rotors, and inexpensive is a bit of the holy grail. Pads are generally made up of fillers, binders, reinforcing fibers, and lubricants. Reinforcing fibers provide mechanical strength to the friction material and include, metals, kevlar, glass, and ceramic fibers, and formerly asbestos. Just some of the ingredients off the top of my mind in various pads not in any particular order: carbon/graphite, limestone, ceramic compounds (various metal oxides), iron, copper, brass, aluminum, zinc, glass, kevlar, epoxy, phenolic, and slicone resins, clay, silicates, proprietary compounds (secret), rubber, even cork and cashew dust.