Oh wow! That is pretty amazing.

I guess, Lost180 will need to check his pads after all..lol.

How were the rotors after? Did you get to measure the pad and thickness?

 

I would run OEM pads or look into a perfomance oriented pad. If you're worried about noise, Lexus offers pads with a different friction material: service bulletin L-SB-0144-17.

 

I don’t track the car and only go on canyon drives once in a while. I want a pad that has a decent bite but not necessarily the high temp limits of a track pad. I’m okay with noise as long as they perform well.

So if OEM can withstand (4) 25 min sessions like the above poster states then that’s a little overkill for my uses.

I’m looking for a Stop Tech Sport or Hawk HPS equivalent. Just a street pad with bite.

If not, I have no complaints with the OEMs I have on now. Just seems like it’s more that what I use it for at a price that’s a third to almost double the amount of other pads.

 

The OEM pads are more than enough for spirited driving through twisty bits. I have had mine for 3.5 years and do some spirited driving through twisty bits every once in a while. Still have 5 mm front and 6 mm rears. Probably will be able to get this summer and next spring/summer out of the OEM pads. The squeal does not bother me at all. It is because of the high friction material in the pads.

 

I’ll be honest....I like the squeal. Most people associate brake squeal with bad brakes but I grew up with relatives who loved cars. Especially with cars with large rotors that transmit the sound more.

 

Yeah, same here. I don't mind it at all. It happens only under certain circumstances, but goes away after some driving. Once my pads are done, 100% going to get the stock OEM pads again.

 

I'm curious as to why there is a such a large variance in brake pad pricing. I don't mind paying more for something if I know why I'm paying more. It's odd to me that there is a 400% more price difference between some of the less expensive options and some of the more expensive options, especially for something that would HAVE to meet minimum safety requirements. For the typical RCF owner, who will never, not once, see the track in their car, does it make sense to buy track-ready pads?

The offerings from Centric and Rock Auto are so much cheaper than OEM and some of the other "performance" pads that it makes me suspicious. Yet many people seem to run them without any issues whatsoever.

 

Tom's Racing performer pads back in stock! Only one set though..

Project Mu still out til summer.

-Josh

 

Here's an excellent video breaking down the difference in brake pads.


The cheap stuff will fade out quickly, not last as long, etc.

The F is a high performance car, so should use high performance parts. If not OEM, then at least one of the high performance options from the CL vendors on here.

I get the brakes are expensive, but get an f-sport or something if you want to use cheap parts. I realize most of us are buying these used, but feel they should still be treated like the $70-80k cars that they are. Just my opinion.

 

Your opinion is noted. My thinking is why buy track oriented pads for something you will never do in the car? think you use street pads for the street and track pads for the track. The OEM pads are great but wouldn’t you want to change parts to the car for what you use the car for?

Do you have any experience with any of the pads I listed up top? If you do can you share them?

I don’t understand the spend more to keep my purchase valid reasoning. Just because I want to get more economical pads doesn’t mean I need to get an F-Sport. I mean...do you reach high temp pad limits on your car, if so how often? I think that is the question people should ask when deciding pads...not because “well it’s a go fast car so I need OEM or better”. Just my opinion.

 

This video answered the questions I had perfectly--and by a youtuber that I've watched for other things as well, so a "trusted source" if you will. So thank you.

I do disagree on one of the fundamentals of your logic though, only because I've seen that same thinking used to take advantage of people. Just because something is more expensive to buy that doesn't mean it needs to be more expensive to service or maintain. Oftentimes the final price that we (consumers) end up paying for things is more expensive just because we drive a relatively expensive car. Surely you've seen cases where the supplier (like Bosch) will make identical parts, but the Mercedes dealer will charge more than the VW one. I wasn't entirely sure if we weren't just paying the "RCF" tax on brake pads but not actually getting much more quality for our money. So in short, I wasn't willing to say "well, this is a $75K car so therefore I need to spend XXX on brake pads, and anyone who doesn't is being cheap or can't really afford the car" because that doesn't apply in all situations.

But in this situation, I will definitely get OEM or OEM-like pads when it is time.

 

I pm’d Matt from Speedfreaks about why RCF pads cost so much. Here is his response. It makes sense. I think it’s more of the idea that our pad sizes are unique:

”The IS-F was lucky enough to share it's pad shapes with a few other vehicles which allowed the manufactures to amortize the cost of tooling across more units which brings more players into the game which then typically brings the overall cost down. With the RC F and GS F the brakes are larger and unfortunately from a cost standpoint, bespoke to these cars (and the front pads with one other low volume Lexus model).”

 

And despite all this, I bought pads for the GS F (same calipers, similar weight) from Rock Auto for pretty cheap and they've worked just fine for street driving. Don't get me wrong, I run Project Mu HC+800 on my IS F and I love how they feel, but the reality is, the Z23 pads from Rock Auto will make the typical street driver more than happy without breaking the bank.

And the whole corrosion testing part made me chuckle. If you live in a place where the roads are sprayed with a salt solution, sure it's important. Where I've lived the last 40 years of my life it makes ZERO difference. Never even seen a corroded brake pad on any of my cars. So, consider your needs before making any silly decisions.

Last but not least, when was the last time you did 14+ high performance stops in a row on the street? Oh, wait, that would be NEVER unless you're intentionally bedding your pads.

Don't get too wound up about pad selection, it's not rocket science and it's definitely a huge profit center for the seller if you let it be.

 

$80 Brembo brake pads it is....thanks Lobux.

 

Excellently said. If you have a tendency to be cheap while owning a performance car, you'll eventually diminish the capability of what the car was made for. Today you put on cheap brake pads, next week you add cheap rotors, next month you buy cheap tires; in the end you'll end up with a braking distance of 150ft instead of 105ft. Even if you don't track your car, what will happen if you have to brake in a sudden on the freeway? My 2 cents.