View Full Version : Aftermarket brake pads
Matblack
15-06-2009, 10:31
Minnie needs new soles for her shoes and BMW charge Jimmy Choo style prices for Dunlop Greenflash quality, so I was wondering if anyone had any experience of after market brake pads.
My current thinking is to spend reasonable money on something like Mintex 1144 fast road pads or Ferodo DS2500, this both seem to get good reviews, the Mintex are cheaper and I'll get a locall garage to wap them on the car for a few quid. This is one job I could probably do myself but I don't really have the tools here and no one close by who does.
Any have any recomendations about these things?
Cheers
MB
I'm not a fan of Mintex having had awful squeaky brakes that no amount of copper grease or cleaning would sort. Plus I hear that they've gone bust partially owing to quality issues.
The Ferodo DS2500's are very popular and I'm told are a good compromise between bite, brake dust & longevity.
Matblack
15-06-2009, 11:27
Hmmmmm, local specialist can undercut BMW by about £170 using genunie parts, might have to consider this as its actually cheaper than the aftermarkets by quite some margin and the bloke says in his experience of fast road use the BMW items are better than the EBC items and close to the Mintex without the horriod squeeking that fast road pads can produce :/
MB
EBC are a bit of a marmite thing. The green stuff pads are so abrasive I've seen them destroy a set of discs in next to no time.
Red stuff are pretty good but they do squeak when cold but that said they do warm up relatively quickly.
OEM FTW in this case it seems.
I used to use exclusively mintex on my Allegros as they were the only pad I tried that didn't fade after a couple of hard braking sessions. Pad sets would last about 4k miles though ;D Admitedly this was years ago, so I guess they may have gone downhill since then...
A Place of Light
16-06-2009, 00:13
EBC are a bit of a marmite thing. The green stuff pads are so abrasive I've seen them destroy a set of discs in next to no time.
Red stuff are pretty good but they do squeak when cold but that said they do warm up relatively quickly.
OEM FTW in this case it seems.
EBC yellows are fantastic, but the drawback is they're quite dusty and it's dust that can be hard to remove.
EBC yellows are fantastic, but the drawback is they're quite dusty and it's dust that can be hard to remove.
Never driven a car with yellows but have heard mixed reviews about them.
A Place of Light
16-06-2009, 19:40
Never driven a car with yellows but have heard mixed reviews about them.
Money no object, go Pagid.
The yellows are a marmite pad. VERY dusty but superb bite from cold and I couldn't cook them even when trying to.
Del Lardo
16-06-2009, 19:53
The Mintex 1144s on my Elise were cracking and easily stood up to a long day at Bedford (full circuit so five 100+mph breaking zones IIRC). Having said that I did replace them with Pagid 42s which were even better ;D
Matblack
23-06-2009, 16:11
A little bit of mucking about has got me the best of both worlds, a cheaper price for the 1144 pads and a fitting price of £25. I didn't really think about it before but because the local clutch and brake places don't use massively qualified technical specialists and the guys they do use are fast and well versed in what they do they only charge for 30 minutes work to do the fronts. I did have to source a replacement wear indicator from ebay £12 for a front one and a back one (ready for when the rears need doing) with a £2 discount from Ebay for some reason and the pads for £80 the whole thing is going to be a lot less expensive than I expected :)
Bet the rear ones go soon too though :/
MB
A Place of Light
23-06-2009, 18:11
Fitting price???
Get 'em in yourself, big boy.
Matblack
23-06-2009, 18:24
Fitting price???
Get 'em in yourself, big boy.
To get the bits I need to fit them would cost me more than (car has run flats so no jack for a start) that and I'd have to get dirty :p
MB
A Place of Light
23-06-2009, 18:38
To get the bits I need to fit them would cost me more than (car has run flats so no jack for a start) that and I'd have to get dirty :p
MB
Word is, you're already dirty ;)
Run flats suck hard BTW.
Used DS2500 on one of my Scoobys , squealed like hell, I tend to go OEM parts with an indy to fit them these days
Matblack
01-07-2009, 08:53
Run flats suck hard BTW.
They aren't the best solution in a car where the suspension hasn't been designed from the ground up for them, luckilly the Mini SS+ suspension has been and they are very very good, unless you are racing all the time and that's not why I bought the car, ride wise the car isn't a luxobarge so you don't expect it to float on a cushion of air and the run flats are just fine
Used DS2500 on one of my Scoobys , squealed like hell, I tend to go OEM parts with an indy to fit them these days
The pads are good and don't seem to squeal at all and already grip very well indeed, the new discs are BMW and are drilled and scored and are excellent the braking has improved by 50% at least :)
MB
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