Choose wisely on your brake pads

[extralarge]

Got a set of front pads installed several days ago. Did the bedding in procedure, and haven't been braking hard either.

Pads are Bendix Advance.

Experience as follows:

Very minimal dust. Wheels are as i washed them before i took them to the mechanic.
Brakes ok, distance about same as stock.
Brake feel not great. You need to apply more force to the pedal, whereas the stock ones gave a nice 'spongy' effect.

These are long life pads, so ill be getting good milage out of them.

Probably would have forked out more for more better feeling pads, but these days everything is a compromise - long life pads, poor brake feel. Nice pads, tons of dust.

Hope they bring back abestos and make good brake pads again.

[Shazza]

I was considering these for my Astra also, do u recommend them over stock? Dust doesn't really worry me, but I used to love the brake feel on the standard pads.

What car do u have them on?

[Jass]

Go EBC i had them before and they worked great

[ultim8DTM5]

Last service I was told pads were at 30-40%, I'll be going with RaceBrakes RB74s again (and yes I harp on about them, because I believe in rewarding good product and excellent customer service)

[RK]

Got a set of front pads installed several days ago. Did the bedding in procedure, and haven't been braking hard either.

Pads are Bendix Advance.

Experience as follows:

Very minimal dust. Wheels are as i washed them before i took them to the mechanic.
Brakes ok, distance about same as stock.
Brake feel not great. You need to apply more force to the pedal, whereas the stock ones gave a nice 'spongy' effect.

These are long life pads, so ill be getting good milage out of them.

Probably would have forked out more for more better feeling pads, but these days everything is a compromise - long life pads, poor brake feel. Nice pads, tons of dust.

Hope they bring back abestos and make good brake pads again.

EXACTLY my experience!! word for word!

Thought about EBC, but everyone says they eat your standard discs.
My dads stock astras brake feel is MUCH better than my Bendix advance. But heaps of brake dust. Which i dont want due to my chrome wheels.

One thing though, after about 10mins of HARD braking, the astras brake feel deteriorates a lot. So i dont think the standard pads are that good at high temps. I've yet to try the bendix with constant hard braking.

[BUGEYE]

I use Bendix Ultimates on my WRX and am not very impressed by them. There dusty little mofo's and are a bit unbalanced if that makes sense. They just don't seem to grad as well as a top of the range pad should.
I'll be going to RB's once they are shot.

[ultim8DTM5]

A lot of WRX owners seem to go between Ferodo DS2500/3000s, Pagid Blues and RB74s

[Jass]

Ive heard Ferodo are really good

[extralarge]

The reason i got them was because Bendix is a large, known manufacturer for brake components. As such, i expected good quality pads, on par, if not better than stock. They are also fairly cheap.

Shazza the pads are on an astra g. I had the rears replaced with lucas pads which gave identical brake feel and distance to the stock ones. i believe the rears are lucas or bosch by stock.

I would recommend them for high milage, and very minimal brake dust if at all. The dust thing is a plus since im not a true fan of washing your wheels and having them grey straight after popping down the road.

i was used to the stock pad brake feel. I found myself pushing my foot firmly down on the brakes when this car in front of me saw he couldn't rush the light and hit the brakes. I wasn't tailing the car so i had plenty of time, but usually stopping the car is a breeze, but after applying the brakes in these bendix's my car seemed to keep going. Had a nice moment of panic there. Naturally ended up pushing slightly harder and the car came to a jolt stop.

Brake feel just isn't as good.

[Mr Cali]

Brake feel not great. You need to apply more force to the pedal, whereas the stock ones gave a nice 'spongy' effect.

Probably would have forked out more for more better feeling pads, but these days everything is a compromise - long life pads, poor brake feel. Nice pads, tons of dust.

Hope they bring back abestos and make good brake pads again.

Nice spongy feel.... I've never heard of a good brake feeling spongy, thats the worst thing to feel in a bake. You want it to be nice and firm.

Compromise?? Brakes is the one thing that I that I wouldn't compromise about. my life and others certainly isn't a compromise to me.

And abestos???? you've got to be kidding aren't you???

[ultim8DTM5]

You can increase bite just by placing new brake fluid and the brake cylinder on stock pad, so it isn't always an indication of how good brakes are.

I've driven very large saloons, like AMG Benzes with very soft pedal, but it pulls up like anything, it comes down to pressure not by the foot but the reservoir and cylinder.

[Mr Cali]

agree that a brake can still stop on a dime, but if it feels spongy you don't have much feed back through the pedals hence loosing the accurate control of the brake.
It's like saying that a car handles well but the steering is too light or not responsive, you loose the feel of what the car is doing.

[mr_sikma]

yeah harder on the foot the better.

i am used to driving my daily driver sigma with shitty brakes, so when i hopped in the corsa for a test drive i was amazed how good they were!!!

[extralarge]

progressive pedal feel is what i meant.

[extralarge]

used the pads for several weeks now.

brakes are not as good as before.

what i said before stands firm

(1) lack of progressive pedal feel. getting used to it is the only way to overcome it.
(2) no noticable dust if at all. dirt accumulated from driving is only road grime and dirt.

[RK]

again..exactly the same thing as me. when i wear these out, im getting Lucas pads.

[dan_kind]

my experience with EBC has always been good, the standard replacement pads are easy on discs, but tend to be a bit more of a push to get them up to temperature..

greenstuff is nasty unless you have after market discs

[blackSRi]

Don't hard pads glaze more easily than soft?