I recently installed new StopTech slotted rotors and Carbotech 1521 pads on the wife's MCS. The system was flushed using a Motive bleeder (dry method) with new ATE Type-200 DOT4 fluid. The car is a 2013 manual with roughly 29,000 miles. I took the car out for a test spin last night, the pedal was firm, but I almost glided through the first stop sign. I then began a light bedding process 40mph to 10 mph about 6 times then gave the car a little time cool, then repeat. The pedal effort and stopping bite got a little better, but still not what I would call feeling better than factory. Additionally given the amount of pedal effort and lack of grip, I seriously doubt if I'll be able to have the ABS engage when I take it out for a follow up today. Need some help here, the wife is going to be none to happy with the amount of time and money that I spent on this project, with sub par results.

 

When you say "light bedding" does that mean mild stops? My only experience with Carbotech pads was their XP10s, which is a mid tier track pad and not a street pad like your 1521s, but the bedding process for those called for 10-20 hard stops from at least 60mph. They really want you to eat the steering wheel and blue the rotors. Did the pads come with any instructions for a specific bedding procedure or did you just do what you thought was okay? Also did you clean the rotors with any sort of brake cleaner before driving the car? Stupid question but just covering all the bases.

1521s from what I understand are very high performance street pad, more or less equivalent to a Hawk HP Plus or ECB Yellowstuff. So they aren't going to be quite as dusty or noisy as a track pad but they will still need a bit of heat in them to stop to full potential. A bit overkill for an stock daily driver in my opinion. But if the wife is doing any spirited driving in the mountains then they'll be perfect for that.

 

The new rotors were cleaned with brake cleaner prior to installation. There were no instructions include with the pads and my understanding is that they are "pre-bed". That being said- I did find a few references to bedding the 1521s that ranged from 40-10mph stops to 60-20mph stops.
Therer were two goals that I was trying to achieve with this brake change... reduce the brake dust and improve stopping performance. The slotted rotors seemed like a no brainier. The pads were a variable. My understanding is that the 1521's are supposed to be in the same ballpark as ECB Redstuff. The key reason that I went the 1521 route is that they consistently receive high remarks from Corvette forum members. I've even consider swapping my stock pads on my C7, but now have doubts. At the end of the day- the wife doesn't drive the Mini hard and it is highly unlikely that she will ever auto-x or HDPE the car. I really need a good biting pad with factory modulation that ideally makes less dust than OEM pads. Thoughts?

 

UPDATE- I took the wife's Mini out for a re-test this morning. Spirited driving- 40-10mph stops and 60-15mph stops. I let the brakes cool 2 minutes between stopping session or 6 reps. The bite still isn't great. Additionally- after about 30 mins- I brought the car up to 60 and gave the brake pedal everything... it stopped OK (not what I would call great)- I do believe that I felt slight ABS modulation when the car approached 10mph on the deceleration, but certainly not above. ...AND I never saw the ABS light on the cluster. Thoughts?

 

Go out and give the brakes “everything” for a round of 5-8 stops, then let them cool off.

Also, if the Carbotechs are a street-track pad, they aren’t going to work well until they get some heat in them. Cold bite might just not be there like you’re expecting.

 

Well... I took the Mini out his AM, same procedure and the gave the brakes everything- same results. After searching and reading hours of posts on this forum, I've determined that my results are typical for these pads. Excellent grip when heated up , but nowhere near OEM bite when cold. So leads me to two options- A) go back to the OEM pads and deal with the brake dust or B) try the Akebono ceramics and have 90% of the cold bite like the OEMs. Any want a deal on a set of Carbotech 1521's with less than 60 miles on them?

 

The G-Loc GS-1 street pads I have on my
2009 JCW Clubman have great initial
bite, even cold in mid-winter, excellent
modulation, great overall grip with
good fade resistance (although it’s
NOT a track pad), and low dust and
noise. I’ve had OEM, Hawk HPS, and
Cool Carbon street pads over the years
on my old R50 and my R50 and the
G-Loc GS-1 are by far my favorites
for a high performance daily driver.

 

In my opinion, the Akebono pads grip very close to the same as OEM, but with much less dust. I’ve been very happy with them for a daily driver brake pad.

 

I have experience with EBC Redstuff, Yellowstuff, Carbotech XP10s, and whatever the stock compound is for the JCW Brembo brakes. Out of those I would recommend Redstuff for a daily driver that sees limited performance use. I've overheated them on hard mountain driving, but outside that they have decent bite even cold. In fact I don't recall any significant change in bite or stopping power from cold to hot until they started fading. My issue with them is they are advertised as "low dust" but are hardly so. They dusted just as bad as the Carbotech track pads however the dust is just easier to remove.

Considering this is for your wife and the car may not even see hard spirited driving you may even be able to use EBC Greenstuff, which have a lower temp range than Redstuff but dust way less.

 

Unfortunately this is a common complaint about the Carbotech 1521 pads. It is a very “hard” pad, without a lot of bite. When I first started taking my MINI to the track I went with these pads for street use as Carbotech says that you can’t mix pad material types (eg: can mix, say, a Hawk pad with Carbotech pads). I would then switch to a Carbotech race pad (XP10s) for the track. Ugh, the 1521 pads were horrible. Exactly what you described. My MINI track friends had similar experience with them. At that time, one of my friends told me they contacted Carbotech about this and he was told, for the street, use the AX6 if you don’t like the 1521 pad. The AX6 is an autocross pad which is designed to work when cold and has really good bit. However, it can not be used on the track.

For the street, I would look at the other options suggested here. Red stuff is popular as noted above. Green stuff too. If I remember correctly these pads come with a thin layer of abrasive on the pad face that, when bedding in the pads, will clean off any previous pad material from the rotor which will all them to bed clean onto the rotors you have.

 

I’ll make someone even a better deal on a set of 1521s...

Sorry to hear that you had to go through this. I never experienced good stopping with these pads, even when hot. I tried them for autocross once (I was being lazy and didn’t want to switch pads). That was a mistake. Their full on race pads are far better cold than these are. I am not sure why Carbotech still sells them, except for the fact they produce no dust. But maybe that is because they don’t do anything when the are used... Carbotech makes a fantastic race pad; one of the best on the market (G-lock, too, which is basically the same pad). But IMHO Carbotech really blew it with the 1521s.

 

I'm in agreement with you guys about the 1521s. Disappointing for daily use, though held up well for a track day. Currently running Redstuff, they're OK but I'm not super impressed with them. Might try the G-Loc GS-1 when it's time for new pads.

 

Not sure whether this information is helpful in the US:

Brembo standard, european aftermarket replacement pads are a lot less dustier than the OEM factory pads. Haven't noticed any change in breaking behaviour.
Part numbers:
P 06 067
P 06 052

 

2009 MCS -

Akebono is way to go
front: AKEBONO EUR1204
rear: AKEBONO EUR1309

Much less brake dust then OE and IMHO, same braking performance.

Good luck!

 

Agreed....I run Carbotech pads front and rear on my Track MINI and they are really good when hot. I warm up the tires and brakes before giving it the beans