Upgrading Brakes

Alpha Wolf

Alpha Wolf

Greenie N00B Member
Need to do the brakes.
I liked the stock brakes power. Disliked both the dust and the disk warping after one hard drive.
Updated with new stock disks and EBC Red pads.
I liked the low dust and no noise. Disliked the reduced initial bite (something I really like) and these disks again suffered a little warping.

Lookiing at new disks and brake pads that will not wear out too quickly but give me the stopping power I want. Has anyone upgraded their brakes? If so, what disks and pads did you use and how well did they work. I will want at lease slotted disks if not both slotted and drilled.
 
I went with the power stop kit from Rock Auto front and rear slotted and cross drilled rotors

Low dust
Strong initial bite
Only noise is from slotted rotors but still quiet
Overall performance seems to be equal or better than stock

I can't comment on high temperature operation as I havent had a situation where I did get them hot
 
Cheap and cheerful, amazing initial bite, good high temp capabilities,
Hawk HP+
Centric blank rotors.
Down side? Very dusty and some good noise from the hawks. They work though. Like real real well.

Next up little more $$
Hawk HP+ pads
Stop tech slotted rotors

^ran this setup myself for 3 years. Absolutely killer on the street. You won’t over heat them on the street either. Can handle some light track duty as well.

next up $$$$
Gloc R6/R8 pads
Stop tech slotted rotors
Low dust, low noise, $$$$.

more importantly,

what tires are you running? All seasons? Just something to consider that no one ever mentions. Running tires that don’t suck?? then consider all of the above suggestions. All of which I’ve tried myself on street and on track.
 
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Stop tech high carbon rotors for pretty much everything then alot of people are really liking the gloc pads, I have ebc yellow and I like them but cold bite is meh so at -20c I've got to be careful and it's bad at -30c...Canada problems if brakes are cold at 15c+ no issues.
 
I run Nitto 420s 255s. I live in California so I do not go off road or in snow with this car. I have a turbo Baja for that.
 
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Having had warping issues with the Mazda Rotors, not having that happen is a primary goal. Will the Stop Tech disks stand up to my "abuse"?

My Son ran some Yellow EBC and liked them. But said they wore his stock rotors. How is your wear with them on Stop Tech rotors?
 
I have had the stop techs on for about 40k now and I feel that they are basically the performance of stock with less dust. They work fine in cold temps or 0f +- in Maryland. Basically I don't think about them since they just work
 
I don't track my wife's CX5, so this would be strictly for daily/street. I previously had always asked for mid-grade rotors and pads. Last fall I replaced the factory brakes with NAPA Adaptive One pads & premium coated rotors. They feel really good on initial application, and have good stopping power too. Very little dust as well. The pads are marked for inner and outer positions, two different pad compositions. I will put these on my winter car, or other peoples cars. I have considered putting them on the Speed6, but don't need brakes yet.
 
I went with EBC slotted rotors and Yellow Stuff pads. I have not driven much on them yet. But at least the surging due to warped rotors is gone.
 
After break in time, I really like these EBC Yellow Pads and EBC Slotted rotors.
Nice initial bite and they can lock the wheels if you hammer them. Just a little on the expensive side.
 
At least you didn't go with the Hawk pads. I have a set of those and they were the loudest pads I've ever had on a car. It squealed like a bus or semi coming to a stop.

No matter how much I tried to bed the pads they wouldn't take. I was using them with DBA rotors

Eventually went to just regular ceramics. But running the bronze caliper bushings, braided lines, DBA rotors and ceramic pads made a massive improvement over the stock system.
 
On the street (track is a different story) what people experience is not warped rotors. What actually happens is when brakes are over heated during heavy braking application is some of the pad material gets embedded into the rotor surface. One way to eliminate this from happening is to roll ahead periodically after heavy braking so that the pads do not stay in contact with the same section of hot rotor.
Aside from this, any maintenance issues relating to the braking system can also cause problems. But if you keep this trick in the back of your head, you will have trouble free braking. I havent had warped rotors in years since I started this and told my wife the same.
 
I went ahead with EBC slotted rotors and Yellow Suff Pads...
Not quite the initial bite I was looking for, but man these really stop this car.
Very pleased with the EBC rotors and pads. Except they are a bit pricy.....
 
i had hawk hps pads and cheap centric rotors which worked great. in fact, i have since put hawk pads on every car i've had since. i haven't had any issues with noise or warped rotors.
 
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