I personally run hawk pads, HPS on my vehicle, and Ceramic on the wife's. I have been very pleased with the results I have had across numerous vehicles.

My comment was targeted to the poster using them as street pads in his Stoptechs. The comment not a track pad, I agreed with, and you can upgrade to a race formula for track days.

I am sorry the pads didn't work out well for you,

 

I've been happy with the HPS pads on my MINI.
Much less dust, quiet, and about the same performance as stock cold, slightly better
than stock warm, and better modulation.
From the recent comments, I wonder if there's been a change in the compound
since I put them on about 5 years ago?

 

I had a wife that I'd let drive a car with Hawk ceramics. I wouldn't let my present wife near them.

 

I take back anything positive I've said about these pads. After a panic stop on the freeway and yesterday's autocross, they are coming off the car. I feel that they are unsafe. Yes, that bad.

 

Car is in the shop as we speak to check, once again, the brake fluid, brake system etc to make sure it is not something else besides the pads. I will follow-up with an update.
I've actually managed to get the ABS to chatter as of late on intentional panick stops.

 

 

Got a call back. Checked the lines, checked the pads, checked the ABS module, did hard stops, ABS chattered, the system is fine, there is nothing wrong with it.
The pads are continuing to suck, especially in the morning when they are stone cold. Putting pressure on the pedal, all that seems to accomplish is get the pads to slide on the rotors, minimal grip.

 

Additional information. Now that I reflect back on all of this, I seem to be looking at this:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/wheels-ty...al-travel.html
I do not recall having had this problem before. Or rather, even if the pedal was down, the car still bit and would stop on a dime. The Hawks just drag.
This is what I meant when I said I can get the pedal to sink.

LE: Who was this one guy on these forums? Come on, speak up :D

 

Fishbone. Glad it is resolved.

 

I can say that I have bled my brakes a 2nd time after a couple weeks of stop and go and see much improvement. I found a bit of trapped air in the system. I can get the ABS to kick every time I try now.

 

For that reason, just to be 900% sure, I am having another flush done at the indie shop I go to and trust completely. I'm having them go through the entire bottle of Valvoline DOT3/4.

 

Fishbone, this maybe be a bit of an overkill, but yoi can consider using ATE TYP200. It is a pretty good brake fluid.

And get a shop with that ABS recycling equipment for the brake flush. It does a really fantastic job.

 

What I always use on any Euro car with a DOT 4 spec. Both wet and dry boiling points well above many other well known brands.

I use the Gold (normal light color) rather than the Blue, since the Blue is both a give away it's non-stock, plus apparently not DOT legal because of that blue color.

 

I had HPS pads installed in my JCW. At the same time I had brand new JCW drilled rotors installed and the place that did the install bedded them in properly. (BR Racing in Los Gatos, CA) Bottom line is that they do NOT have the same "bite" as the stock pads. Period. What they do get you, though, is supreior hot performance.

As for the OP stating that the pedal went to the floor, that indicates a lot of air in the lines. The car should not be driven until that's addressed. Even with the worst biting pads out there, the pedal should not go to the floor. Not even close.

 

You actually let a place bed your street brake pads which is to smoke them; i.e. to make them red hot to transfer pad material to the rotors.

Yes, the bite is different from OEM. I think the op is talking about no bite not less bite than OEM.

 

Want great initial bite, try the Hawk HP Plus pads.

 

Picked the car up yesterday, pedal feel improved somewhat but nothing groundbreaking. Not sure if it's due to valvoline being better than whatever they used at Meineke, or me having borderline boiled the brake fluid when hitting the brakes like a jackass, either way they will never feel as good as I expected them to be. The tech did comment he was expecting better from the set himself, he is a fan of Hawk, he wasn't sure why I'm not having that much luck on the Mini, he did make sure they were mounted right and all, must be that the compound simply isn't working as good with the OEM rotors? But he did say the car seems to be stopping as he would expect, so ...

Since the car does stop, just not as good, I'll leave it up to the wife to decide what she wants me to do. Needless to say it will be the last set I will buy.
Oh, and when cold, so at first start-up in the morning, I can still squeeze the pedal all the way and bottom out the brake booster. After driving a while, this goes away or at least it is nowhere near as easy to do it. If the brake pedal is slammed, it is impossible to get it to bottom out.
Can someone clarify how a set of pads can change the characteristics of the brake pedal travel?

 

It can't. Look elsewhere.

 

Then my best guess is that I was never this conscious about the pedal, not before the pads. We've looked, the tech and I. There is nothing wrong.

 

Not that I think this is the OP's issue, but a pad can effect pedal travel / feel.

The material of the pad itself can have a higher compressibility factor, giving a softer feel to the brake pedal.

Insufficient backing plates can flex, giving poor / uneven contact area with the rotor and also a softer pedal.

And a non-pad issue:

If your rotor or hub is out of whack, you could have high runout, which backs the pads further away from the rotor when the brakes are released. This would also cause a soft pedal.

And back on topic:

I'm going to try a fresh set of rotors on the car before I give up completely on these pads. Having them fade by the end of an autocross run is completely unacceptable.

 

Please report back, I for one am curious.

 

Since the pads are basically new, if I were to replace them I should be able to do so without having to compress the pistons, right?
Do any of you have a favorite vendor on here for your shopping needs? I am currently evaluating my choices and prices for getting a set of OEMs.

 

Drove the car this AM to work. I still don't like them very much. I am going back to stock. I need to find a vendor here that sells the OEMs for cheap and without the sensors.
I don't think I will have to mess with compressing pistons a whole lot since these pads only have around 1K miles on them right?

 

Replacing fronts? Which model? Are rotors new or worn (with a lip basically)?

Post is now long to try to pull this info out and I didn't see it on quick glance.

 

It should be an easy job but with the amount of bedding you did, perhaps some compression may be necessary. I would suggest getting the Carbotech CT 1521 bobcats if you still have a desire to get low dust and good brakes.