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cheap brake pads

11K views 50 replies 15 participants last post by  Urabus23 
#1 ·
There are brake pads available for 2015+ STI's for $5CAD on rockauto. They are semi-metallic. I assume that the pad material on my (2ndhand) car right now is also semi-metallic as they are dusty and noisy. Who cares if the $5 pads wear out faster? Why pay over $100 for pads that might last longer when I can get these pads nearly for free? Random manufacturing defects aside, do you think these people could sell brake pads that that will fail?
 
#2 ·
Depends on what purpose you're driving your car for, first and foremost. If any sport driving at all, repeated hard braking, i'd say why risk it?

Also, just because something is cheap, doesn't mean it's worth your money.

For me, when it comes to a safety device (brakes, anything to do w/ fuel, tires, seats/seatbelts), i'm not into saving a buck at the cost of safety. YMMV. Your car, ultimately, do what you want tho...
 
#4 ·
So where does one draw the line? Buy the $15 pads? $20? $50? $100+? I wish there was a way to tell at what price point the parts become questionable or sub-par; (that is, if they even become sub-par at some point). I believe that the consumer often overpays for things that are the same product wrapped in a different package.
 
#6 ·
Ideally I would find something trustworthy that has a good bang for your buck ratio. Any suggestions there? Leaning towards semi-metallic because they should have more stopping power than ceramic, or so I'm told.

There are sooo many options. Rock auto has wagner, bosch, power stop, bendix, dynamic friction, centric...
 
#8 ·
My rational is that brake pad friction material probably has the largest effect on the pads coefficient of friction, so shouldn't two pads that are both semi-metallic offer you the same stopping power? There are semi-metallic wagner brake pads for $45. I wonder if the wagner's would be less susceptible to brake fade compared to the $5 API brake pads? Then again there are carbon fibre-ceramic pads also for $45. Did they make them out of carbon fibre because they know car enthusiast drool over anything carbon fibre, or because carbon fibre excels in this application? Is it a red flag that the company selling the carbon fibre pads is called "power stop" lol?

The last thing I would want to do is neuter the brakes. I also don't want to be the fool who will buy something because it's more expensive but not actually get anything better.
 
#10 ·
+1 to this for a good source for brakes, and i "think" he ships to Canada as well. If nothing else, check out his website for some suggestions on brake pads/manufacturer/different available compounds.

Also, there are a ton of "recipes" for brake pad materials (the "brake pad friction material" as you stated"), so don't just go by type of material. Think honestly about what your use case is, and then look at the different brake options for those categories.
 
#16 · (Edited)
An ME associates who had actually designed aircraft brakes told me CF pad have to get race hot to actually bite and that when OEM cars use them they must be vastly oversized to compensate for street use. You cant do that and keep the same rotors and calipers. On the track they'd work well once warm.

I generally pay for premium pay pads. Haven't used that many even with a couple hundred K street mi in STIs. I liked Projectu BForces the best, and Hawk HP+ the least - and they were the least expensive.
 
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#13 ·
Since safety has already been hit on, gonna let it lie.

pad material is designed temperatures in mind- operating ranges. So if you drive your car for ANYTHING other than city/commuting/speed limit following.. go for it. Why do you have an STI for that though?
so with that in mind, I want to know what you think happens when you have a cheap pad at double it’s designed operating temp.
From an engineers perspective, I can promise you the factor of safety on something like that isn’t too high either.
 
#32 ·
That's a great video, thank you. Those graphs were especially great to see.



Dont cheap out on brakes. This isnt the car for that. I dont think you should ever want to downgrade from what the car came with. Especially something as important as brakes. You may not be hitting the brakes hard often BUT that one time (oh shyte moment) when you do, you will be glad you didnt get the cheap stuff that let you down. There are plenty of options for brakes. Check out KNS brakes, they are a popular vendor on here. They have all kinds of options and combos available. There are also plenty of other places to shop around for brakes for our cars. Nothing against Rockauto, just not really a performance aftermarket spot.

My recommendation when it comes to pads, Project Mu B-force. Low dust, amazing bite hot and cold, quiet, long lasting. They are just a bit pricey but so well worth it. So worth it in my opinion that i will be going with these again in a couple of weeks.

$5 brake pads 🤦‍♂️
Rockauto has been my go-to for the past decade, but I guess it's time to move on. So now that I've moved on, I'm leaning toward the project mu B-force pads that you recommended. The material is super graphite metallic and they have a temp range of 0-400 *C. It's nice to know they work well at lower temps, some other manufactures seem to gloss over the lower end spec for operating temperature.
 
#14 ·
Dont cheap out on brakes. This isnt the car for that. I dont think you should ever want to downgrade from what the car came with. Especially something as important as brakes. You may not be hitting the brakes hard often BUT that one time (oh shyte moment) when you do, you will be glad you didnt get the cheap stuff that let you down. There are plenty of options for brakes. Check out KNS brakes, they are a popular vendor on here. They have all kinds of options and combos available. There are also plenty of other places to shop around for brakes for our cars. Nothing against Rockauto, just not really a performance aftermarket spot.

My recommendation when it comes to pads, Project Mu B-force. Low dust, amazing bite hot and cold, quiet, long lasting. They are just a bit pricey but so well worth it. So worth it in my opinion that i will be going with these again in a couple of weeks.

$5 brake pads 🤦‍♂️
 
#20 ·
Dont cheap out on brakes. This isnt the car for that. I dont think you should ever want to downgrade from what the car came with. Especially something as important as brakes. You may not be hitting the brakes hard often BUT that one time (oh shyte moment) when you do, you will be glad you didnt get the cheap stuff that let you down. There are plenty of options for brakes. Check out KNS brakes, they are a popular vendor on here. They have all kinds of options and combos available. There are also plenty of other places to shop around for brakes for our cars. Nothing against Rockauto, just not really a performance aftermarket spot.

My recommendation when it comes to pads, Project Mu B-force. Low dust, amazing bite hot and cold, quiet, long lasting. They are just a bit pricey but so well worth it. So worth it in my opinion that i will be going with these again in a couple of weeks.

$5 brake pads 🤦‍♂️
I agree on KNS Brakes & they are very helpful and knowledgeable. I ordered my GLOC GS1 pads from them several months back.
 
#15 ·
I think I paid $40 for a dead pedal on my STI...no chance i'm spending less than that for a major car component like brake pads.

Find a brake pad vendor, input your car, see what they recommend and gauge from there what people like and don't like. I was a big fan of Stoptech pads.
 
#18 ·
Well most pads arent going to be 400+ unless you are including both front and rear. Even then im not sure if it would be $400+ unless you are looking for something super expensive.

Stoptech is a cheaper pad and a slight improvement over oem. I had stoptechs once for a couple of thousand miles. I thought they were ok, definitely less dust than oem and felt kind of the same bite so to speak. That was also on my 2011 sti and not on a newer VA chassis car.
 
#25 ·
2018 STI put on 140,000km before I changed the front brake pads, they still had 2mm left too could've been milked more. OEM parts have been nothing short of amazing.

I didn't want to replace front rotors so threw on some FactionFab F-Spec Front Brake Pads Subaru STI 2018+ – FactionFab for cheap and put 13,000km on them, so far so good for daily driving.

Can you believe the subie dealer 12 months ago gave me a quote for $2800 at the 100,000km service for front rotor+pads, said they needed changed asap...criminals.
 
#26 ·
2018 STI put on 140,000km before I changed the front brake pads, they still had 2mm left too could've been milked more. OEM parts have been nothing short of amazing.

I didn't want to replace front rotors so threw on some FactionFab F-Spec Front Brake Pads Subaru STI 2018+ – FactionFab for cheap and put 13,000km on them, so far so good for daily driving.

Can you believe the subie dealer 12 months ago gave me a quote for $2800 at the 100,000km service for front rotor+pads, said they needed changed asap...criminals.
Yeah, dealer prices can be criminal, bur brakes are so easy to do, so why bother? Just do them your self or ask a mechanically inclined friend or family member and toss them a couple bucks. I usually charge ~$150 per axle for friends.
 
#30 ·
Yeah, ^ that.
The stock brake pads are actually quite good but they're not the greatest for a track car...you need some aggressive hawk style track pads for that. But pedal feel can be improved with fresh brake fluid and/or the upgraded brake lines.
 
#38 ·
The previous owner had the rear brakes done a few months before I got the car. My rear rotors are a bit grooved / have a medium amount of waveyness to them. So obviously they ran the rotors as is without turning them. Looking at the front its nice to see the rotors aren't grooved badly, but I felt them with my finger and there is still a wavey surface finish. It definitely wouldn't hurt to have them turned or replaced. Do you guys ever choose to run rotors as is when they are not smooth to the touch?

I see the DBA 4000 series Club Spec rotors are available in 2 different flavours depending on if you want slotted or drilled/slotted. Are these considered to be an improvement over OEM? The description on subiedepot.ca states "mid series enhanced performance rotor". It says they fit 2015-2017, are rotors different after 2017?
 
#43 · (Edited)
Subaru dealer (drilled) = $2050/pair
DBA T3 4000 (slotted) = $1250/pair
GiroDisc 2pc (slotted) = $1200/pair
Hawk Performance HTC4914 (slotted & drilled) = $360/pair
oh and don't forget my ex-wife aka rockauto offering it up for $140 like some cheap who...knows what. [Dynamic Friction (drilled) /pair]

Hawk claims they meet OE spec and that these are high performance. Is it true? If they perform approximately as good as the OEM brembos I'd buy these in a heartbeat... even if they are 90% of OEM brembos performance I would go for it because that's great bang for your buck.

What about the rockauto ones? They also claim OEM spec; what are the chances that they are as good as OEM brembos?

*prices in CAD aka monopoly money

edit:

Link for the hawks. It's weird that it says they fit 2015-2017 and 2018 STIs.


 
#44 ·
Subaru dealer (drilled) = $2050/pair
DBA T3 4000 (slotted) = $1250/pair
GiroDisc 2pc (slotted) = $1200/pair
Hawk Performance HTC4914 (slotted & drilled) = $360/pair
oh and don't forget my ex-wife aka rockauto offering it up for $140 like some cheap who...knows what. [Dynamic Friction (drilled) /pair]

Hawk claims they meet OE spec and that these are high performance. Is it true? If they perform approximately as good as the OEM brembos I'd buy these in a heartbeat... even if they are 90% of OEM brembos performance I would go for it because that's great bang for your buck.

What about the rockauto ones? They also claim OEM spec; what are the chances that they are as good as OEM brembos?

*prices in CAD aka monopoly money

edit:

Link for the hawks. It's weird that it says they fit 2015-2017 and 2018 STIs.


My go to for rotors is, and has been FOR YEARS, Adam's Rotors. They let you select metallurgy, an INSANE pattern selection (dot, slot, dimple, hex, hatch, etc), finish (Zinc, etc), and hub color for under $600 for front and rear. (~$350 for front only)

2018+ SUBARU STI (adamsrotors.com)
 
#47 ·
I'm having a rough time finding brake parts for the 2018+ STI.

I contacted hawk who confirmed they don't have rotors for this car, even though many retailers websites list hawk rotors for 2018 STI.

I ordered some project mu B force pads but then started noticing that retailers are listing the same pad for 2017 and 2018 STI's. I contacted the company I placed my order with to clarify and they quickly sent me a refund...

I made up my mind on those damn project mu pads and now I can't find them. Are they available for the 2018+ or am I chasing a unicorn?

Raakaar, I am keeping Adams rotors in mind. Crazy amount of choices between material and machining options.

Jay11sti and crusader89 : I enjoyed the pics.
 
#50 ·
I'm having a rough time finding brake parts for the 2018+ STI.

I contacted hawk who confirmed they don't have rotors for this car, even though many retailers websites list hawk rotors for 2018 STI.

I ordered some project mu B force pads but then started noticing that retailers are listing the same pad for 2017 and 2018 STI's. I contacted the company I placed my order with to clarify and they quickly sent me a refund...

I made up my mind on those damn project mu pads and now I can't find them. Are they available for the 2018+ or am I chasing a unicorn?

Raakaar, I am keeping Adams rotors in mind. Crazy amount of choices between material and machining options.

Jay11sti and crusader89 : I enjoyed the pics.
For US applications Project MU doesn't seem to make any B-Spec pads for the STI past 2010 for US applications according to their website... http://www.project-mu.co.jp/matching/usa/SUBARU_application.pdf

SubieSpeed has the Type NS listed for 2015+ but no B Spec: Project Mu D929 TYPE NS Brake Pads

But I was able to find some places I've never heard of that claim to have B-spec pads:

If the manufacturer doesn't list them, I recommend caution. Personally, I would be careful and just look for a different pad.
 
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