["S62"]

Hey all, just wanted to throw a question out at you guys and see what your thoughts and opinions are.

Im looking at upgrading my brake pads soon and I think it will be a good DIY project. As you all know the BBK's are very pricey and I am not looking to track my car anytime soon. I want a pad that bites better than the stock ones and prefferably one with low break dust(I hate cleaning in between the spokes of the style 65's), pads that dont require to be heated up. My first choice is of course the bite. Ive been looking at EBC's, stoptech, brembo, carbotech and hawks. I want to know what your choices are.

 

[Mfreakin5]

Hawk HPS.

I've been running them on the Beast all around for about 12k. Almost zero dust, better bite than stock, and no noise. I don't track my car but I drive it fairly hard on the street and I love these pads, I've run them on one of my previous cars as well as my M5 and 2 of my family vehicles. Great upgrade if all you want to do is pads.

 

[b757236]

Hey all, just wanted to throw a question out at you guys and see what your thoughts and opinions are.

Im looking at upgrading my brake pads soon and I think it will be a good DIY project. As you all know the BBK's are very pricey and I am not looking to track my car anytime soon. I want a pad that bites better than the stock ones and prefferably one with low break dust(I hate cleaning in between the spokes of the style 65's), pads that dont require to be heated up. My first choice is of course the bite. Ive been looking at EBC's, stoptech, brembo, carbotech and hawks. I want to know what your choices are.

i hate my OEM Stoptech pads. They give me deposits like crazy and Stoptech has been worthless helping me out. They told me that the Stoptech OEM replacment pads are designed not to give you deposits but I am on my 3rd set or rotors and building deposits as we speak. I need new pads as well... Here is their email:


I just received you phone message. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" /><o></o>
<o></o>
You mentioned something about a problem you felt existed with the “anodization” of the brake rotors in the slots. There is no anodization in the slots. Cast iron cannot be anodized. Anodizing is a surface treatment for aluminum. Our rotors have no coating or surface treatment whatsoever on the friction surface or in the slots. <o></o>
<o></o>
After discussing with our engineers, the conclusion that we arrived at, like I told you on the phone the other day, is that your vibration issues are caused by uneven friction transfer for some reason. We went over all of the possible reasons for this over the phone, and none of these seemed feasible based on what you told me. We are concerned about the corrosion in the slot that can be seen in your picture. Without exposure to caustic chemicals (road de-icers, aggressive wheel cleaning chemicals, etc…) corrosion levels indicated in your first picture simply don’t occur. The root cause of the corrosion seen in the first picture you sent needs to be determined and addressed. What sort of condition/chemical was that rotor exposed to that caused that level of corrosion in the slot? <o></o>
<o></o>
You also mentioned on the phone that your vibration is returning with your machined rotors. I’m not surprised at this….based on the chatter marks seen in the pictures you sent me, it was only a matter of time before they started picking up uneven friction deposits. Additionally, the root cause of the corrosion seen in the first picture you sent needs to be determined and addressed. What sort of condition/chemical was that rotor exposed to that caused that level of corrosion in the slot? <o></o>
<o></o>
Since the rotors were machined/modified, there isn’t anything I can do as far as warranty goes.

(I machined the second set of rotors to isolate the brakes as the issue and not the bushings etc.. The car stopped fine and no shimmy so it IS a deposit issue)

<o></o>
I’m not really sure what to recommend to solve your problem….although I would start with either a new or properly machined set of brake rotors, taking care to confirm that they are within BMWs maximum runout specifications, followed by a thorough bed in procedure. Additionally, I would recommend some testing to confirm that you do not have a sticking caliper issue or any residual pressure in the lines while the brakes are released under a range of temperature conditions to assure that we don’t have a dynamic brake dragging issue that’s causing the pads to overheat. <o></o>
<o></o>
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help, <o></o>
<o></o>
Pat McCleish<o></o>
Tech Support<o></o>
StopTech<o></o>

 

[[email protected]]

if interested, for brake pads, one of the brands we carry and recommend is Cool Carbon which is a German-made street/semi-track pad =)

 

["S62"]

Hawk HPS.

I've been running them on the Beast all around for about 12k. Almost zero dust, better bite than stock, and no noise. I don't track my car but I drive it fairly hard on the street and I love these pads, I've run them on one of my previous cars as well as my M5 and 2 of my family vehicles. Great upgrade if all you want to do is pads.

Thanks, did you install them yourself?

 

[Mfreakin5]

Thanks, did you install them yourself?

Not on the M5 but on my previous car (GTi) and my family's cars, yes. Why do you ask?

 

["S62"]

Not on the M5 but on my previous car (GTi) and my family's cars, yes. Why do you ask?

I was wondering if they were hard to install

 

[Mfreakin5]

I was wondering if they were hard to install

No, they're pretty simple. Just like any other car's front brakes. There are DIY's out there but it's really not hard if you've ever done brakes before. If you haven't ever done front brakes before, maybe take a look at a DIY and see if you're comfortable doing it. But if you're just changing pads, most shops will only charge you 1-2 hrs of labor so it may be worth it to just pay the $200 to get it done....and maybe watch the technician for next time.

 

[BMVVette]

I would say go with Hawk HPS's. I have Hawk HP+ and honestly, they are awesome, for me. If you want low dust and low noise, stay away from the HP+ pads. If you want awesome cold bite and pads for hard street driving, and can deal with noise and dust, HP+ is the way to go. I would also recommend changing the brake fluid (I just used ATE Super Blue Racing fluid. You can find it for around 12 dollars and I used less than one liter!). I'm not sure on other brands, hopefully others will chip in!

Hope you find what you're looking for!

Ryan

 

[doc$holliday]

I recently did front brake rotors, pads, stainless lines and fluid on the Beast. There were a couple good brake threads going around last summer timeframe and after some research I ended up going with Stoptech stuff from Dave Zeckhausen. Good customer service and pricing, I was happy with all that. The only thing is that I got the Stoptech Street pads, which had just been released last year sometime and were being touted pretty highly for street/aggressive street driving, and I'm not sure I'd get them again.

The reason is not the bite, which seems to be pretty good to me. It's more the dust, which doesn't seem much reduced at all from the OEM pads. Also, when I wash the Beast with this new pad/rotor combo, it sort of "sticks" that next morning and seems to have a little buildup on the rotors, deposits or something. A few times when the pads were brand new, I had shuddering when braking that next morning after a wash and would have to get on the brakes HARD once or twice to clear the deposits off the rotors. It's not as bad now, but it's been awhile and I guess I didn't expect that.

So if some of the others here are saying Hawk has great pads with low dust, I'd seriously give them some consideration over the Stoptech Streets. Just my $0.02.

good luck,

SP

 

[Need4Spd]

That's too bad about the StopTech street pads. BMWs in general are susceptible to brake judder with deposits from pads. I guess I'll stick with Axxis Ultimates, which I've found so far to be the best performing for the street. They are a little lower on dust than OEM, but not what I'd call a dustless or reduced dust pad. Great bite, even when cold, though, and fade-free. I have a brand new set of StopTech pads that I was going to install in my M3 but I may go in another direction.

 

["S62"]

hmmm I may go with the hawk pads

 

[doc$holliday]

That's too bad about the StopTech street pads. BMWs in general are susceptible to brake judder with deposits from pads. I guess I'll stick with Axxis Ultimates, which I've found so far to be the best performing for the street. They are a little lower on dust than OEM, but not what I'd call a dustless or reduced dust pad. Great bite, even when cold, though, and fade-free. I have a brand new set of StopTech pads that I was going to install in my M3 but I may go in another direction.

Well, again, this is just my experience so far and as those Stoptech Street Performance pads are relatively new, perhaps there haven't been many opinions on them formed yet. The OEM pads that I had on the Beast prior did not give me any brake judder from deposits, which is why I commented on these Stoptechs. But I don't claim to be an expert - perhaps any brake pad in the last year or so of its life will not have judder?

As for the dust, it was heavy the first month or two but then backed off a bit. However, I'm not sure it is much less than stock but it is sort of a reddish color, don't know how better to describe it. Brake feel is solid though.

Maybe others could chime in on this pad in particular.

cheers,
SP

 

[Kevin The Clean 1]

hmmm I may go with the hawk pads

That is what I have on my M5 right now. I'm still bedding in the pads so they are just now starting to transfer their film to the brand new rotors. In a few more hundred miles I will be able to report more on them/about them. They do dust up less then the factory pads did. However, that very first or second "initial cold bite" from these Hawk HP units (even though it's getting better) doesn't seem to match/be as good as the factory pads were...

 

[RICKROSS]

dust is mainly rotor metal from the discs and some pads chew rotors faster than others...
are all the suggested pads on oem rotors? any on euro semi-floating rotors???

 

[uniesse]

I've said it before my friends, and I'll say it again now...Pagid.

 

[b757236]

That's too bad about the StopTech street pads. BMWs in general are susceptible to brake judder with deposits from pads. I guess I'll stick with Axxis Ultimates, which I've found so far to be the best performing for the street. They are a little lower on dust than OEM, but not what I'd call a dustless or reduced dust pad. Great bite, even when cold, though, and fade-free. I have a brand new set of StopTech pads that I was going to install in my M3 but I may go in another direction.

I never had one ounce of judder on the OEM rotors and pads ouich

 

[Mfreakin5]

I never had one ounce of judder on the OEM rotors and pads ouich

+1, neither have I.

 

[leviathan]

dust is mainly rotor metal from the discs and some pads chew rotors faster than others...
are all the suggested pads on oem rotors? any on euro semi-floating rotors???

never heard that...you sure about that?

 

[Mfreakin5]

dust is mainly rotor metal from the discs and some pads chew rotors faster than others...
are all the suggested pads on oem rotors? any on euro semi-floating rotors???

I disagree. Seeing as how the rotors wear down VERY VERY little in their lifetime (like a few mm) whereas the pads will go through a lot of material, probably 1/2 cubic inch of metallic substance in their lifetime, it's more likely the dust is 95% brake pad.

But yes some pads do chew rotors, EBC pads for example, at least they used to.