What are people using for stock brakes these days?
 

Its been a while since I've had to do brakes on the car, but my rear pads and rotors are getting really thin. What's everyone using now for stock replacement parts? Hawk HPS used to be pretty popular but I haven't heard anyone talk about them in a while. Plus they were known for a lot of brake dust. Anyone have opinions on Centric? Or Raybestos? I could always go Motorcraft but was thinking about something coated.

I usually use Wagner but I live in a colder climate where higher performance pads, I feel, require more heat to get them to optimal efficiency quicker. Plus I usually find the Wagner therm o-quiet don't dust too much.

I used Hawk on my 06 and they lasted and worked very well. I didnt notice much dust either

I think the coated rotors are worth the few extra dollars for sure. I'd take a look on Rock Auto to see what they have for premium/coated rotors; Centric are usually real good. I bought some Raybestos rotors recently that looked great but had a minor fitment issue (on my wife's Honda)

for pads, I don't know -- there are way too many options!

What sort of fitment issues? I was actually looking at Raybestos.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...432173&jsn=499


I used their brake hardware kit a few years ago and I was really impressed with the quality and fitment. They even had a rubber coating on the backside of the clips.

If I remember correctly, it was on the rear brakes of our Honda CR-V; which have integrated drum parking brake on the back/inside. There is a groove on the back of the rotor, that mates with the edge of the parking brake drum. This groove was not deep or wide enough, so there was rubbing; I had to do a little grinding with a dremel to eliminate that rubbing.

Other than that, the rotors were gorgeous.

I also used Raybestos pads and shoes on a Honda and if I remember correctly my old 92 Lincoln LSC and had fitment issues as well. I had to grind small areas to get them to fit correctly. That was at least 10 years ago so I'm a little cloudy on the exact fix I made but I do remember having to clearance them better. Here I thought I was just getting a bad batch.

We actually put Raybestos rotors on my wife's Mazdaspeed3 and didn't have the fittment issues you guys had, but the brakes do squeak first thing in the morning. Not sure if it's the Raybestos rotors or the Akebono pads we used. I'm looking at Stoptech slotted rotors (thinking about doing a track day this year)

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...11b7c25903.png

My '06 is a DD so I didn't go the high dollar route. I bought a set of "Wearever' carbon ceramic pads from my local Advance store. They had a 20% off coupon pop up on their web site when I open the site. I used that, and got a good deal on the front, and backs. The pads work as advertised with very little brake dust. I'm quite happy with them.

The set I have on the rear now are Wearever, at least I'm pretty sure. It was the typical brand they sell at Advance. Anyway, they always threw noticeably more dust than the Motorcraft brakes I have up front. I can't remember if they were ceramic, but the quality never impressed me

After some research I went with the carbon ceramic, because of the reported low dust. And they are. I've been quite impressed.

Nice, I'm really looking forward to not having dust on my rims. With the set I used to have on the car, the rear wheels would be brown a week after washing it. I just got my set installed today, Stop Tech rotors and Power Stop pads (carbon ceramic), total pain in the *** because Autozone didn't have the caliper tool available, so I bought a caliper rewinder for $35. Really cool idea (the more you tighten, the more the tabs clamp inward), but you really have to press the thing into the piston to keep the tabs from popping out of the notches on the piston. And even then, I broke it. I had to use a combination of needle nose pliers and the 3 prong one below to finish the 2nd caliper. My hands are still sore typing this 5 hours later.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...166e33f3a2.jpg

Glad I got the Raybestos hardware at least, night and day difference from what comes with the Power Stop pads.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...ee225f582c.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...27d13f50bc.jpg


As you can see, it came with new rubber boots for the slider pins too. Mine were in good shape, but I always pull them apart and regrease anyway (good thing too, one of them was starting to seize up), so swapped them out.

Really happy with the bite so far, although I can always feel more flex in the brake pedal after doing a new set of pads, probably because they're so much thicker than the old used up set.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...a608fc1bb1.jpg


Oh and here were the basic Advance auto rotors (~ 10 years, 60k mi on them). Pretty badly scored. The front rotors (Motorcraft) had about half that mileage on them, but even still didn't show any appreciable lip.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...29ef98cf1e.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...9e303be0d4.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...274e20a925.jpg