dmb62

Hi Everyone,

I am due to replace my rear brake pads and rotors on my '21 IS350 Fsport.

From looking through this group the brake pad options I see stoptech, Toms and OEM listed as the primary options.

I was wondering everyones opinions of brake pad / rotor options on the IS and if you noticed a difference when switching from OEM.

I daily my IS and will not be tracking it, but wanted to explore better brake options when as I am due for replacement.

I look forward to your recommendations.

Meraki Autoworks

iTrader: (8)

Stoptech and Centric are bang for buck alternatives to OEM. Toms pads are great too. You can do stoptech/centric though for rotors and pads.

-Josh

dmb62

Awesome Thank you!

Along with being an alternative, would they also be considered an upgrade in performance?

Meraki Autoworks

iTrader: (8)

Eh, maybe similar but not a noticeable upgrade. Unless you get a more aggressive pad.

-Josh

dmb62

Thanks Josh. As for pads and rotors, do you have any insight on doing ceramic pads and slotted/vented rotors?

Sorry for the novice questions. I am new to all this and just trying to learn, while making the best decision as I need to replace my rears.

Meraki Autoworks

iTrader: (8)

More aesthetics than performance at this point.

Ceramic pads will help though.

-Josh

frid4

I'd look into EBC yellow stuff brakes if you want an upgrade in performance

dmb62

Awesome appreciate the insight. Do you run these? How's the brake dust.

frid4

these are streetable track pads, the brake dust is a lot

dmb62

I see thank you. I may use red stuff in place.

Sid03SVT

I have a 2015 IS350 F-sport RWD and I went through this exercise about a year ago, and I decided to stick with the OEM F-sport pads & OEM rotors.
IF you aren't running into brake fade on the stock setup, which is very likely, get better tires first; I went from the OE "Grand touring summer" Bridgestones, that somehow wore horribly quick while simultaneously not being all that grippy, at 225/40R18F 255/35R18R on the heavy OE F-sport 18x8F & 18x8.5R wheels to a sqaure setup of 255/35R18 UHP summers on 18x9 ET35 lightweight wheels; stopping distance improved, but also handling & handling characteristics as well - my car went from being a somewhat wallowy understeer machine on too-soft suspension with tires that screamed in pain when pushed, to a somewhat wallowy neutral handling vehicle on too-soft suspension with tires that only started to complain while approaching the limit.

I'm not saying different pads can't improve stopping distance, but I'm very doubtful they will; the stock brakes are more than adequate for a commuter/daily driver. Try a little test, when you're driving on a flat & straight empty road with nobody behind you, throw that brake pedal to the floor as if in a panic-stop situation, and you will feel your ABS start working overtime to keep the wheels from locking up, the brakes are fine, it's your tires that are ultimately holding back your stopping distance in stock form; start with better tires first.

Different pads may improve initial bite and pedal feel, however, be aware that the more track focused your pads are, the worse they will be for daily driving, and can actually negatively impact, or INCREASE braking distance during normal driving, as they are designed for a higher operating temperature range and will suck until they get up to near that temperature range, this issue is exacerbated if you live anywhere that gets winter temps like I do (New England). Track-focused pads also tend to dust way more than stock pads do, and the F-sport pads dust more than enough for my liking; when I ran track focused pads on my WRX, not only did the dust like hell, they were also noisy as hell; thankfully I had "gunmetal" wheels on the car, so they just got less shiny when dirty, unlike the bronze wheels on my IS that get real dirty real quick.

Centric makes great less-expensive options to OE offerings, so yes, I recommend them for rotors, specifically the ones with coated hats & edges for corrosion prevention (Premium offerings); admittedly, when I looked into it however, OE Lexus F-Sort rotors were not significantly more expensive than Centric, and might actually have been cheaper (ordered from Bell Lexus IIRC), but that was a year ago, so prices may have changed on either or both sides. I also recommend Centric for 'normal' or OE-equivalent pads, essentially for any non-performance vehicle, Centric ceramic pads with coated "premium" rotors it what I stuff on the cars of my my family & friends; the ceramic pads result in minimal dust.

Don't bother with drilled and/or slotted rotors; the loss in contact patch, thermal mass & structural integrity is not worth the potential track application benefits (pad off-gassing & material clearing), which will never apply to even aggressive backroad driving; on a street car they are a performance downgrade.

I daily drive my car, and the IS likely won't see track or Auto-X duty; when my kids & wife are in it, it's eco-mode in D, but when I drive alone it's S+ in manual mode, TC & VSC disabled, and driven **very aggressively on twisty backroads** (see disclaimer below) by a 40 year old teenager with over 20 years of strip, auto-x & road course experience, on four wheels as well as two.

I've only noticed brake fade on one particular ~4-mile section of backroad I drive monthly. One section of the road is a combination of tight S-turns followed by short straights & moderate sweeping curves, with significant grade change, the other section is less technical, with longer sweeping curves with moderate elevation change. Going in one direction, it's a tight technical uphill section for ~2 miles followed by a downhill section that is less technical and therefore has fewer heavy braking zones; going the other direction though, it becomes 2-miles of less technical uphill that is very easy on the brakes, followed by ~2miles of downhill technical driving that absolutely is rough on the brakes, especially for a ~3,600lb luxury car with soft suspension, reminder that I have sticky 255 UHP summers at all four corners, so the brakes are working overtime compared to the stock setup. I'm still going to start with better fluid before I change pad compound, if that doesn't address the fade issue on this one particular section, then I'll look into pad compound.

Having previously owned & modified muscle cars (Mustangs) tuner cars (SVT Focus, WRX, Miata, etc.) & bikes (Hondas, 600cc-1000cc RRs) brakes have always been if not my first mod, a very early one, especially with Mustangs (first gens, Fox bodies, S197, S550) I think the S197 & S550s were the first ones to come with "adequate" brakes from the factory. My SVT Focus came with enough brake from the factory for Auto-X duty, which was surprising to me, pads and fluid it was all that car really needed. My 06 WRX wagon with 4-pot 2-pot brakes however, not quite, especially after I did full suspension, downpipe & tune; ended up going to track/street hybrid pads & good fluid route for that car, if I had kept it longer it would have gotten a BBK soon as the compromise of running a track focused pad in New England winters was not one I'd want to make again on a primarily street car.

Good luck out there, seriously, look into tires first.

**disclaimer: only when the roads are closed for private use**

NYIS300awdFS

I used Centric and StopTech in the past but had mixed results. I now only install Akebono on my vehicles, no to little dust, quiet and smooth stops, no premature brake rotor warping. Worth every penny.

Dancingrobot

I just purchased a 21 IS350 with 17k miles and started looking at brake options for whenever they need replacing. I don't see any rotor labeled "rears" other than the OEM ones.
I've looked at all the stoptech, EBC, and others. I was running EBC rotors and EBC yellow pads on my 2010 Tacoma that I traded in for the IS. They were heavy brake dust and squeaky with slotted rotors. I'd got solid face again next time for sure.

NYIS300awdFS

Same here, I was disappointed by stoptech and centric more than once. Brembo is good also but I’ve transitioned 3 of our vehicles to full Akebono pads and brake rotors. Akebono has good rust coating on the brake rotors and excellent feel with low dust pads. I just put a front set of Akebono pads on my IS300.

Bearcats98

I used to get EBC all the time (Maxima, Sonata, Fusion..etc). But my last experience with them left me flat. Rotors (high gray iron content) "warped" (pad material transfer) fast with Reds. Had them many times before but this set was garbage and then I read a lot about how EBC quality has dipped.

I want a solid quality, blank rotor mated to a proper set of pads that have good cold to medium temp bite. I wasn't able to find Akebono rotors (can find the pads)...but Ill admit I didn't look terribly hard.