sjgIS350

Has anyone who has had the brake TSB done noticed an real difference in brake performance? I guess the TSB says their could be. I assume because of softer material?

T4styPh0

iTrader: (2)

This was asked in another thread and here's the answer.

combfilter

iTrader: (3)

use the search to search for the thread that has 3 or so pages regarding that tsb. many of us found the new pads to be less bite, and really not that much reduction in brake dust. many think the brake dust problem was improved.

Bichon

My colleague had the TSIB done; he found the new pads to have less bite (now feels similar to his wife's GS3), but to have made a huge reducition in the amount of brake dust. Seat-of-the-pants impressions are notoriously unreliable; I don't think we can say for sure whether the new pads reduce braking performance without doing instrumented testing both before and after the swap.

IS250 4 Me

Well, I've had my "seat of the pants test of the before", and I can tell you that I'm not trading in these dust-making brake pads for anything in the world.

I've had the IS for 2 months now, and I believe till this day that the brakes saved me from hitting a jacknifed 18 wheeler in front of me.

The car stops on a dime. I don't want technician intervention and a new set of pads...no way that i take a chance.

RshaoKh

You can feel the reduction in the braking ability but it's really not that much.... As for the brake dust reduction.... let's say that I can go 2-3 weeks without washing them and they'll still look better than 3 days of driving with the original pads.

l1tech

IMO the feel of the new pads is the way the car should have been made in the first place, with them I am able to control the amount of brake that I want applied 100% better than with the original pads, I think this is what others are saying is loss of braking performance. Before I had the pads changed I marked a spot on a not very traveled road and then while doing 60 mph slammed on the brakes until I stopped and then marked that spot, I did this 2 times and then did the same thing with the new pads and the car still stopped in the same spot as the old pads. While this is not a scientific test with all sorts of gizmos hooked up to monitor the moon phase and whatnot it is good enough for me. Another thing to remember is that the brakes can only effectively stop the car as long as the tires don't loose traction (lock up) and the ABS is going to do this for you, so realistically the only thing in question here is the ability of the brake pad to clamp the rotor tight enough to make the wheel lock and it does that just as effectively as the original pad does, the only time that the original pad may be superior is after repeated (read as road racing) heavy braking where the new pads will obviously start showing signs of fade before the originals and realistically who road races this car on a regular basis? (if you do then you shouldn't have bought this car) ANother plus to the new pads is that now my wheels are just as clean as the rears are between washes...the difference is dramatic.

ayu910

softer pad = more dust but with more linear braking response
harder pad = less dust but with less linear braking response

Both pads should have similar max stop distance but driving dynamic will be different. Softer pads and rotors are more performance oriented which come std with most of European manufactures but the drop back is higher maintenance cost.

For daily use either one should be fine.

I prefer the softer pads but just need to clean my wheels little more often

Cleric

I'd rather have clean wheels over dirty ones, but I've come to terms with the original pads and the dust it generates. I sort of like how the dust is starting to look. I know this sounds strange, but I kind of think it looks cool between day three and day seven after washing. Also if you can see your front wheels in the reflection of the car next to you while on the highway (admit it you like doing this too) it really makes the huge brake caliper and rotor of the IS350 show. I dunno I guess this is just me trying to find the positives behind having dusty brakes

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

This is exactly my experience as well. I don't see any advantage to the original pads and I believe the replacements are far easier to modulate. I like them BETTER in all ways.

r1lee

Here is my experience. I had my pads and rotors changed, so everything is similar to how i got the car.

new pads
1. Medium to low speeds, it's better. Doesn't have that Bite that the old one did, which made it seems like I didn't know how to step on the breaks.
2. Less Dust

Old Pads
1. Better at hard breaking. I felt more confident breakign with the olds pads if I had to do an emergency break.


My choice? New pads.... I love the Dust Less feature!