What brake pads do you like for stock rotors ?

[fenrisx]

I'm probably going to be buying pads for mine again soon...and probably rotors. I'm definitely not buying cheap the next time. Running the cheapest Duralast pads and rotors from AutoZone. They probably have about 30k on them, so I don't know if that is bad necessarily, but I know it's not good! They're grinding a good bit when I stop now, and squeak.

Brembo and Hawk pads will be my next purchase.

[paddlenbike]

I am normally a huge advocate of using OEM parts but I think I found a pretty good alternative. I used some "Brake Best Select Ceramic brake pads," sold at O'Reilly's Auto Parts and manufactured by Bosch. When I did an internet search I read quite a few posts on bimmerforums and corvette forums about how much they liked these pads. They do not fade as easily as semi-metallic, they don't squeal and they create no/little brake dust. I put them on my girlfriend's Volvo and they seem great. I've never heard a Volvo that didn't have squealing brakes and I've never seen one that didn't have wheels that were totally blackened by brake dust. Not now, and it stops better too. I will probably try them on the 4Runner.

On a side-note, I also bought aftermarket rotors and the quality of them was so bad I returned them and had her buy the OEM ones. The aftermarket ones were poorly casted, were thinner than OEM and didn't have the cooling slots down by the rotor hat.

[Seanz0rz]

my experience with brake pads is mixed.

when i swapped to the tundra calipers, i put HAWK pads in. they were great. dust was not great, but they stopped great and lasted a REALLY long time.

i took them off (they still had plenty left) to replace them with some autozone gold or whatever the top tier one is. i figured a tiny drop in performance was worth not paying for new brake pads all the time. i had put these pads on my mom's car and the improvement over the old pads (unsure of make/model) was actually pretty amazing. the wife's car was a similar experience, great pads.

on the 4runner, those pads scare me. I was so used to the hawk pads, i nearly blew a stop sign the first time i stopped. i had them in about a year, and hated driving the truck for it. i switched back to my slightly used hawk pads and will never use the autozone pads on the 4runner again.

it is all relative. if you have trash pads now, pretty much anything is going to be an improvement. if you are used to good pads, keep the same ones.

i would recommend the hawk lts pads. anything that is meant for SUV or towing and has decent reviews. the real weakness on the 4runner and tacoma is the thin, warp prone rotors.

[fenrisx]

Sean, are you talking about the Duralast Gold CMax pads from AutoZone? I tried those in my 4Runner, and didn't notice a difference in the pads I removed. Likewise, didn't notice a difference when I switched those out for cheap bottom of the line Duralasts.

[Seanz0rz]

yes, the cmax gold pads. i cant compare between other pads and the cmax gold other than the hawk lts, which is far superior.

[fenrisx]

I will say for the price they are definitely not worth it. You can order Hawk pads online for that price.

[CJM]

I like the hawk lts pads, they work great but do make a bit more dust than others. I also swear by brembo rotors if your not going oem.

[YotaFun]

Have you ever tried the Hawk LTS pads? They've been great on my 4runner and about comparable in price to the factory pads - no noise, low dust, excellent performance. If you buy cheap aft mkt pads, that's what you get . . .

Those pads are the reason that I am sticking to OEM,

The set I got have been nothing but junk,
there stopping power is OK at best imho
and the dust is just unbearable, I think i may actually have to replace my stedads two front rims.
And at half life they started to squeal like a city bus...

My stepdad by no means is hard on his brakes, hell the first time he ever got front pads and rotors done was at 100k (big fan of engine braking...)

I will admit though, I had brembo slotted rotors when I did my Tundra swap at first. They were freakin phenomenal with the OEM pads. I wish I could have stayed with them but they worn down and I had to replace them.
I went with OEM rotors and am regretting it, my stopping distance is a little longer and I was use to the shorter distance.
after the oem rotors kick the bucket I am going back to the brembo slotted rotors and sticking with OEM brake pads.

Now a note for all toyota owners.
Toyota sells two different setups for brake pads, one with a anti-rattle kit and one without.
BUY THE ONE WITHOUT AND GET THE ANTI-RATTLE KIT SEPARATE!
The kit that comes with the anti-rattle kit always makes noise about 1/4 pad wear down, some techs believe its the pads, others believe its the anti-rattle shims, honestly I feel its both combines.
Get the regular pads and the regular anti-rattle kit and you will be good to go.

[Nuthuts96]

I, too, went Brembo blanks and Hawk LTS. A good chunk of change, but the performance is phenomenal!

The only (seriously, only) downfall is the dust. These pads produce clouds of dust. For this reason, i'll be switching over to the oem pads with the brembo blanks. Can't think there'd be a better option out there. Avy- do you know how the compound of the oem pads will react on the brembos? i'm assuming the pads will be a little harsher on the rotors than the Hawk pads, but willing to take the hit there...

[YotaFun]

On my Brembo slotted, the OEM pads were just fine, not issues at all.

As far as the blanks I am not really sure, I am sure it would be just fine if not maybe a slight improvement.

I was looking on Tire Rack yesterday after making this post and the brembo slotted on special, if the deal is still going on next Thursday I may pick up a set.