brake disks and pads Options

[rhodesyboy]

Hi I am looking to buy some new brake disks and pads, I am after a good set but after looking on demon tweeks the price for decent "well known" disks are pretty expensive, so I have found two other brands and I am wondering if anybody has had any good/bad experiences with them.

The one I am looking at due to their price is just called 'brake depot', you can get front and rear vented and grooved disks and EBC ultimax pads for £348 or £467 for yellowstuff pads.

So I am just wondering if anybody has had any luck with these disks, I know the pads will be good quality because they are EBC the disks are the only worry.

Also with the pads how good are ultimax pads? I won't be doing track days but I will be doing quite a bit of aggressive back road driving so will ultimax be up to the task or will yellowstuff be a better shout.

Also if anybody knows of any better priced disks available or can talk me out of OEM vented and grooved disks that would be just as good

*edit* it is for a celica gt4 st205

This post has been edited by rhodesyboy: Jun 11, 2016 - 12:31 PM

[Jmk91]

I don't know if you have a gt4 or st202. I have a celica gt I got stop Tech rotors for 20$ each for 3 lol 4th one ran me 60$ but they are really solid rotors for the price.

[rhodesyboy]

Ah sorry I should've said, its a gt4 st205.
Just had a quick look and I can't see any stop tech disks for mine

[The_enD]

I bought EBC Ultimax 2 for my GT4, fine in the city, but track or spirited driving they get hot and the car doesn't stop well.

[Bitter]

It's a 7th gen but brakes are kind of brakes, I love my stoptech brake pads. They used to only carry the street performance but now they broke into 3 lines, racing, sport, and street. What I have are the sport (formerly street performance) and they're pretty great pads. Good when cold, great when warm, even better when hot. Pretty linear friction regardless of temps, lots of torque and quick bite, and ungodly high temp fade resistance for a streetable brake pad. 1200 farenheit max operating temp or something ludicrous, I've never gotten them that hot but I've gotten the rotors up around 600-700 farenheit just downright abusing my brakes with about 10 back to back 60-0 stops and then 2 or 3 80-0 stops. No fade. No problems getting down from 100mph in a hurry without fade, no problems scrubbing off from 80 to 0 in a hurry and then sitting at a light waiting either. I'm running plain centric rotors in rear and centric cryo treated rotors up front.

[rhodesyboy]

Hi guys thanks for the replies, I am probably going to get some simple vented OE disks from Import Car Parts.
Now the pads are a bit trickier, the most annoying thing is that most brands don't make front AND rear pads and I'm just a bit uneasy like if I end up with stronger brakes at the rear
Complete sets are: Brembo OE, stoptech street, EBC ultimax + red/yellowstuff and tarox strada.
Can anyone who has tried these sets weigh in on how good they are?
Or has anyone tried a mix and match of pads that has turned out ok? For fronts there is TRD and for the rear there is black diamond
I know I'm asking a lot but just curious on other peoples experiences so I don't end up buying something and then regretting it.

[Bitter]

You may find it beneficial to run a less aggressive rear pad since the rear does less braking and has less traction due to weight transfer.

[rhodesyboy]

Yeah that's true but how do I know the perfect pads if that makes sense.
I just feel that mixing and maxing Is a bit too much of a lottery.

I think I might just go with stoptech street performance, or if I feel like splashing out minted m1144

[HectortheRican]

I'm running a full set of EBC greenstuff and my brakes are very predictable. Full set of OE vented Brembo discs, too.

[Bitter]

I'm running the stoptech street performance pads in the rear and I can easily lock up my rather sticky tires, again I know I'm talking about a 7G Celica here but brakes are similar enough, you may see the same problem. I've been off and on looking for something to swap in that's a little less grabby for the rear but like you I'm not sure what to run. You ideally want something that has a little lower CF and works best at medium temps and isn't abrasive at low temps, probably some kind of ceramic material.

[rhodesyboy]

Oh ok that sounds a bit hairy, would it not be better if I had them front and rear so it's just a bit better balanced in terms of bite?
There is brembo oe but I'm on the fence for them, they are brembo which of course is a good make but then if they are oe surely they wouldn't be very strong and possibly fade easily??
Maybe trd pads at the front and then perhaps yellow/greenstuff or tarox at the rear, assuming trd pads are nice and strong when compared to yellow/greenstuff and tarox
I'm hoping someone will of tried a combination like that and be able to weigh in

[Bitter]

No, because braking isn't balanced. The front does more work than the rear, the rear lifts due to weight transfer under braking so it's easy to lock rear wheels. I get it less now with my stiff ass coil overs and sticky tires but once my rear pads warm up they'll still lock wheels in the rear on command at speeds 40mph and under under hard braking. It feels nice under light braking like the car is more balanced but under hard braking it's detrimental, I can trip the ABS system so so easily now even with Dunlop Z2 tires on a warm summer day.

[rhodesyboy]

Yeah I know that it's not what I meant I meant balanced as in the same brand/model of pads on the front and rear, so they are more likely to be made to work with each other rather than buying different brands for front and rear as one company will list it differently to the other and therefore the pads will have a different bite even if they are both listed as 'fast road'
So yeah I just meant balanced as in the same brand of pads ensuring they can work together and should be able to work in the same conditions

[Bitter]

You can mix and match as long as it's the same set of pads per axle. Track cars always run different front and rear pad compositions for exactly the reasons above, often even switching pad compounds for different tracks or types of driving event. I don't really understand what you're trying to say but it sounds like you're hung up on brand names more than function, in which case get whatever pads have the coolest looking stickers and call it a day.

[rhodesyboy]

No I mean more like one brand could say it's a fast road pad but then it could bite as strong as a circuit pad, so then you buy two different brands that both call their pads 'fast road' but one could act completely to the other, that's all good but in my eyes too risky to do unless you actually know with hard facts that one is right for the front and one is right for the rear and you don't end up with the rear biting more than the front.
Does that make more sense or am I just rambling on?

[Bitter]

I think I get it better now, but you're over thinking it. Get more aggressive front pads and less aggressive rear pads. Probably don't even need track rated pads in the rear unless you're REALLY going for it super hard, like all out suicide laps. Downright abusing my brakes like I mentioned above netted me about 400F front and 450F rear temps after a 2 mile cool down, I forgot to bring the temp gun with me! At some point the rotors were in the 600-800F range by the blue and purple colors on them, the rears being cooler looking than the front, only still hotter because they're solid rotors and don't shed heat as fast. I can't imagine any track where you'd need to come to nearly a full stop every 300ft a dozen times in a lap so I think you're good to use Stoptech front and something ceramic rear like Akebono ProAct.

[rhodesyboy]

Yeah true just brakes are one of those 'things' for me, like it'd the thing that's going to be stopping me and I'll have to stick with whatever I buy until they wear out.
I'll try and get a bit more searching done and try and work out a suitable match

[Bitter]

Most times pads are cheap enough, especially rear ones, that trying a few till you find what you like isn't a big deal, you can always sell the lightly used ones. Unless you get some crazy boutique stuff or true track pads