New guy here. Front rims are always dusty, so I thought I'd upgrade like I did on my PT. No hotrodding, just a 2006 non-S mostly around town driving. Any recommendations would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

I believe Asbestoes brake pads were federally outlawed many years ago.

You are looking for low dust compound pads like Mintex, EBC, Hawk, and if you will find plenty info. if you do a few searches around the tires, wheels brakes.

Also check out the vendor directory and you will quickly see what quality pads are being sold.

The stock pads are very dirty, most aftermarket pads will get rid of 90% of that.

 

Here's a link about a dust test done with the AutoXCooper Bobcats by Carbotech. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=137921

 

Even if asbestos was available I'd tell you run & hide from them. Asbestos is deadly stuff. Thank god that stuff is no longer used.

I run Hawk Ceramic pads & have almost zero dust. What dust you do get is a light color. If you get them you will be as amazed as I am.

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...mic_brake_pads

 

You mean Raybestos?

They don't make very good pads, certainly not recognized as "Performance" pads.

As for asbestos, as others said, unless you want to be giving everyone that inhales your brake dust cancer, I'd probably stay away from those...

I'll give another plug for Carbotech Bobcats.

 

What are your thoughts on the stopping power of the ceramics vs. OEM?

 

I put in EBC Green Stuff in replacement of the OEM pads. Dust was basically gone. I just put in Hawk HPS with new rotors, same result, almost no dust.

Dolemite, when you initially replace the pads, you will see a lot of dust as they bed in, a week or so later it will diminish to nearly 0 on any of the 'low dust' formula performance pads.

 

Here is a response that you might not hear around here. LOL Go to your local Kregan's or Autozone Napa etc., or whatever you local auto parts store is in your area. You do not need to buy the top dollar pads from a MINI only dealer/vendor. there are many excellent pads available some with lifetime guarantees, dust free and even performance pads out there at those parts stores. And I believe almost all of them meet or exceed OEM requirements for warranty specification and quality. Check it out you will be very surprised. And for the record I use Ferodo DS3500 on the street. Full of dust lots of noise and eats rotors. But stops on a dime all day long.

 

They'll have a higher friction coefficient and almost always higher resistance to fade.

FYI, Greenstuff pads will pretty much disintegrate if you drive them hard. You'll be replacing them after 10-15 laps around the track, or a few hundred miles of hard street driving.

 

IMO they are better than the OEM pads. More progressive in their braking & easier to modulate. I also believe they take abuse better than the OEM pads. That being said they aren't the best track pad, but have done OK for me in track use. The only downside if you want to call it one is the initial brake bite is less than the OEM pads. For me it's not an issue.

 

Wow, thanks for all the responses. I WAS talking about low dust, I think I put Raybestos on the PT. I'll check the link and search the Wheel Forum some more.

Sorry for the Toxic Waste mis-post ; )

 

I beg to differ. While you may not find the exact cross overs, they make the majority of pads under the Polymatrix series for Wilwood. Quitestop for example is Poly Q. Not the most all out racer pad but a very nice street performance part. From there other such as the D, B, H compounds for dedicated applications in many aftermarket brake kits are very worthy products.

 

I didn't know they made the Polymatrix series. The only info I found on their site was for stock replacement pads that last tens of thousands of miles and commercial truck pads.

 

Can't tell you really what is what but here's some data on some popular Poly pads.


http://brakeshopper.com/raybestos_brake_pads.shtml

 

Once they are hot, my Hawk ceramic pads bite better than stock, but cool off quickly.

 

carbotech 1521 (bobcat) street pads are a better pad al the way around over the others. i run them on my wifes r50. to give you an idea about dust, i have more dust on my tv after a week then she does on her rims.

 

+1...

I ran the Hawk Ceramics for 25,000 miles... very low dust, and no fade, but not as much bite as OEM in my case....

Have run the Bobcats for a few thousand miles now including a Dragon trip... similar to the hawks in dust, no fade, etc. but better bite. I love them.

 

A question for you Blimey. Carbotech says that you have to either resurface your rotors or buy new ones when switching to Carbotech pads. Did you do this?

If one has to replace rotors to use the Carbotechs it could be quite costly to switch. Especially if your rotors are good & can be reused. I won't turn a rotor, it removes material & will make the rotors more susceptible to warping.

 

Great question. My Hawk Ceramics had done a number on my original rotors - one of the reasons I made the switch... the hawk pads are very hard... and tend to wear the rotors more than the pads actually wear... but my rotors and pads had gotten very "ridgy".... so I installed a new set of Ate PremiumOne rotors along with the Carbotechs.

If your rotors were nice and smooth and had plenty of wear left, you should be able to just "scuff" them with some sandpaper, etc. to remove any of your old pad material that was deposited on the rotor. Then bed in the Carbotechs and be fine. It's not that the Carbotechs require a new rotor, but they DO require a surface free of any other pad material deposits - because their friction compounds are pretty different, or so I've been told.

In my case... I needed rotors anyway. Four rotors and two sets of pads = $410.

 

The issue about the rotors is how many miles are on them. The OEM pads corrupt the OEM Rotors leaving them covered with a hard to see residue that the Bobcat pads can not remove under normal use. If you have less then 10K on the OEM rotors you should be fine switching to Bobcats.

If more then 10K I would run the OEM setup to 40K and then spend a few more bucks and get a full set of pads and rotors. If you can get the Dealer to replace your rotors under your service agreement and you want much less dust, right after new rotors get the Bobcats out on and that will also give you many more miles out of the new set of rotors too.

FYI The OEM pads and rotors are designed to be replaced at 50K.

 

On my last brake job I switched to Power Slot cryo'd rotors with Hawk Ceramic pads. I know they are a street pad, but they seemed to work well for me.

I did 4 track days last year with 3 of those days being done with 2 drivers. I'm guessing that would be equivalent to 7 track days. I wore the Hawks down to the nubs & that wasn't unexpected. Rotor wearing is just a normal part of using your brakes. But what really go my attention were the heat cracks in my front rotors. IMO a recipe for disaster. That is why I made the switch to the cryo'd ones in hopes of longer rotor life.

My plan was to switch to some Carbotech race pads for track day use, but the requirement for new or turned rotors has put the brakes on that plan. I'd have to check, but my guess is I'm past 10k on these brakes. Guess I'll wait until the next rotor change until trying Carbotechs. In the mean time I'll switch to some more aggressive Hawk pads for track day use.

I'm not expert, but it seems that Carbotech is the only pad I'm aware of that isn't compatible with other pads.

As for stock pads being designed to last 50k, well that gets the car out of warranty which is all BMW/MINI wants. I do know that the real factor on how long pads last is all driver dependent. I have a friend that went 70k on the OEM brakes & I've seen folks post here that couldn't get 25k out of a set.

Thanks you for the feed back. It's very much appreciated.

 

I'm no expert either. I HAVE read where some other pad manufacturers said something similar (but I don't recall which ones)... I don't know how much of it is real test-proven fact vs. CYA/marketing... but given the fact that brakes DO require bedding in, and that means there IS pad material deposited on the rotors... I suspect that there's a potential for degraded performance anytime you use a new pad with a rotor "impregnated" with some other non-complimentary compound.

Within a family of compounds, it seems this isn't a problem. Maybe it's just a way for a pad mfg to sell you both street and track pads... but sounds reasonable to me...

 

I'm a little confused, do you have cracked rotors?

 

Sounds reasonable to me too & I'm not about to second guess a brake mfg on something as important as brakes. Especial since I do track days.

Yes I did have cracked rotors. They were intact, but they were cracked. They were sent to the recyclers.

 

Since Carbotech is the only pads on the market without iron it's going to be harder for the Bobcat, JUST the Bobcat, to eat away the residue left by other pads. IF you want to run the AX6 or any of our track pads you can use your current rotors.

Based on post #21, I"d say you would be better off running the XP8's in the rear full time and XP8's on the fronts for track, and you may also like them on the street, if not run the AX6 for the street.

Hope that helps, D