I recently installed Akebono brake pads with JHM rotors and I am not too impressed. Compared to the stock brakes, there is very little initial bite. They were bedded in properly and seem to be a little better after about 800 miles but still not anything like the stock brakes. Most of the reviews had them performing similarly to OEM but with less noise and dust so that’s why I went with them. It’s nice having clean wheels but I drive my car pretty hard and like having touchy brakes. I’m leaning toward the Hawk HPS’s or the Stop tech Street Performance Pads. Any other suggestions?
Bummer. I just installed the same pad+rotor combo on my car.
A thing to remember though is that there is no perfect brake pad. tons of initial bite=lots of dust.
I currently have HAwk HPS ceramic pads.
They are low dust (not NO dust but def better then stock).
One thing to know about these pads though, which is not unlike your situation, is the INITIAL brakeing is not so great. Let me explain.
Every morning when my car has spent the night in the garage, I have little stopping power since everything is cold (disc / pad) So say you come to a stop sign and your used to getting on the brakes nice and easy 50 feet before the stop to come to a nice smooth stop… Well your FIRST brake of the day you will blow right by the stop sign! Once that first stop is done your good to go until the disk’s and pads cool completly off.
So if you went shopping for a whole day, remember your brakes will suck if someone pulls out in front of you.
My brakes cool off VERY fast on rainy days so again you loose braking power for a few seconds. If im on the highway and i press full on the brakes if i havent so much as tapped them for some time, with the pedal to the mat you dont feel the car stopping for a good 1 or 2 seconds which can be scary the first time you experiance it.
I love by JHM disc’s and pads though. I just had to adjust my driving habbits to the new conditions.
p.s. If you use car washes, its worst then a rainy day. ZERO brakes for almost 30 feet until they dry and warm up.
The overall stopping power of them is fine… it just takes more force and that split second for them to fully grab it feels like. I should probably just live with it but I’m picky and really liked how the car stopped before switching the brakes.
I went with the Hawk HPS+ (I think “+”, it’s been a while). Initial bite was lost a little, but I don’t think it’s bad at all. The dust is down a good bit, but I didn’t want to go over to the “ceramic pad” version.
I like the way the stock brakes behave. So what pads will be most stock like with JHM LW rotors? Stock pads?
I’m not sure I like the sound of bora’s daily routine lol.
even HAWK HPS (the ‘street’ pads) were a little shittier at initial bite. Stock is great.
I don’t mind dust that much. Just get gunmetal wheels, a pressure washer, and a vat of good wheel cleaner. Every week spray down your wheels and pressure wash all the brake dust off. Don’t need to be perfect because they’re gunmetal.
This. If you want the same bite you have with the OEM stuff, find a creative way to cover up dust and stick with the OEM stuff.
Not getting those pads… @ 80mph 1 sec = 117 feet
I do like not dealing with a lot of brake dust but I think I wash my car enough that it shouldn’t be an issue. I just got PF01’s in silver and don’t feel like painting them however that’s an option in the future. Thanks for the ideas.
I had HPS on my A4. I thought it was just the atrociously shitty A4 brakes, but apparently the 1 second delay before you get any bite is normal.
I remember coming to a stop on a highway after cruising for 5+ minutes in the rain…went for the brakes…and nothing. I bet it was 1-1.5 seconds before they bit
The rs4 produces an absurd amount of dust. Not sure if its the large drilled rotors, the stock pad compound, or the fact that the fronts have 4 pads per side. Its retarded.
Still, I will likely not change for dust. The squeaking on the other hand…that’s something that could drive me nuts.
. Someone said there are good stoptech pads that could be an alternative.
I have Hawk HPS+ up front and StopTech in the back. JHM LW rotors on all four corners. Also have StopTech stainless lines on all four corners with OEM fluid.
Dust - Hawk’s produce less than OEM, a decent amount less.
StopTech - horrible for dust, I think they produce more than the OEM. I think I’m the only car owner who has rear wheels that get darker than the fronts.
Initial bite is slower than OEM but once heated they perform great I feel. Repeated hard stops are no issue.
That was my only complaint with the OEM pads. As soon summer rolled around, under light braking they would squeal pretty bad. That was with stock rotors that were rusty and grooved tho.
RS4 squeal is a bit annoying. Cold weather or cool weather…awful.
Try re-bedding them. 5 hard 65-5 stops, then drive 10 min to let them cool. My HPS pads on the A4 would always develop a squeel after a week of normal driving. Bedding them fixed it every time(for a week)
I have HPS up front, and stock rears, my rears get dustier faster than the fronts too. B7 S4 btw. While the HPS do have less initial bite, there is no delay in my braking that I keep seeing in this thread. Please do not think that your car will not stop bc you switched to HPS pads, that makes no sense to me. I have never had an incident where my car doesn’t want to stop or delays stopping, not even close, not even when it was 30 degrees and raining in Texas. In fact it was pouring rain and about 40 degrees when I took my car to a private road to bed in my brakes. They work great.
If they are ceramic, which I have no experience with, then maybe those have a delay or doesn’t want to stop right away especially when cold.
Just wanted to clear that up.
Just did that, and it worked great. First squeak free day of driving since September.
^good to hear that worked
Since you bumped this, I figure I should say that my Akebono Euro pads and JHM LW rotors have excellent initial bite. No dead time whatsoever. I also have Motul RBF600 and Goodridge SS lines, but neither of those affect initial bite
Another thing you can do to help the squeal is actually put some high temp grease on the back sides of the pads if you didn’t when installing. This helps quite a bit with aggressive pads.
I am using the EBC Yellowstuff right now and they are surprisingly good for the cost. They have much more initial bite compared to the Ferodo DS2500 I was running before and yet are pretty fade resistant. I think I paid like $280 for front and rear pads with sensors.
The RS4 (don’t know about S4) has a program in the ABS system to lightly touch the pads to the rotor off and on to clear off any rain, perhaps this is why they dust so much more?
The rotor wipe feature is on all cars with ESP 8.0. For the S4 it’s on the 07+