Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Lo all, whats the concensus ( if there is one) re red stuff pads. I have heard they are good on most cars but what do I know re pads ( not alot).

The reason i ask is that the guys at my local national tyres are pretty good eggs and i see that national will fit a set of red stuff pads for 99 pounds all in. This seems a bargain as a 'specialist' will charge you far more to fit pads and to buy them and fit yourself would be about £75 ?

Regards Mas

I dunno about 944 drivers but a friend of mine with an M3 swears by them - and he's not a boyracer either. If it's £99 for all four wheels fitted I'd like their address please

On cars I personally do not rate EBC's products thinking that their marketing convinces people that they are the business. The red stuff pads are meant to be miles better than the Green stuff though. His price seems a little on the cheap side considering the pads cost £70-90 alone.

If it were me I'd spend a little more on the Ferodo DS2500s and ensure the discs are in good condition.

Delux thats for 2 wheels not four m8ee


As you can tell from my forum questions , I'm not interested in marketing / hype myself either I think many companies take us consumers for mugs which I am not.

It's the same as for specialists I'd rather listen/read of others experiences of the different pads then decide. 'Pads' A topic in itself most likely been covered I suspect

Cheers Mas

Post this on PCGB and see what response you get!!

I tried a set and thought they were awful.

Rich

They keep your wheels cleaner than standard ones but cannot out perform them by law. Fast road pads are a thing of the past. Thanks to EU legislation all brake pads must be within 10% of the original manufacturers spec'. This was because cheap pads were being made that didn't work. Also some of the fast road pads didn't work at all when they were cold. I used to use Mintex M171s. First time I hit them at the end of the road you had to pray. If you don't believe me get your self a set of Unipart pads (£15 per axle set last time I got some.) & give them a go. The alternative is to get proper race pads but they will be marked not legal for road use & will invalidate your insurance (if they ever pull your car apart to find them!) The stock Porsche pads were well up to the job fortunately. None of you will believe me though.

No m8ee I wouldnt say I dont believe you at all.
To me Porsche = quality one big reason I have taken to Porsche , I am a hater of anything c**p ( especially service and manners but anything really) .
I dont for a minute think Porsche would have fitted crap pads.

Just to understand my thinking, it was have 22 years meant better materials being developed for reasonable cost and therefore is this something that when I replacing them , I might replace with a slightly modern/improved pad. I'm not one of these youngsters changing my pads for a performance upgrade so I can hack around , I just know the minute I get the pads checked one set is bound to need doing , dont they always lol

Clarification : re hating anything c**p my typing is officially excused

Mine uses EBC Greens mainly because of the reduced brake dust. They certainly stop well enough & I've never had issues on either the lots of cars I've had & fitted them to or other peoples.

Just to expand my experience EBC reds fine when hot awful cold.

Low dust after 500 miles or so.

Rich

Richy , and all I did a search on th PCGB forum in response to your tip , differing opinions but definately enough doubt to put me off EBC reds TBH , its not worth the doubt i now have.

As an aside my front discs are cross drilled and the calipers painted blue , now I know anyone can paint calipers blue but would eithe rof these things suggest some kind of upgrade has been done ?

Ta Mas

I've tried EBC red and green stuff on previous cars and I thought they were only OK, not very impressive at all, but not dreadful. I've gone for the Mintex range recently and think that I'll be doing the same when the 944 needs new pads. Although I've been told recently that Hawk pads from the States are quite good, never tried them myself though.

I bought a bike with EBC pads on and they nearly killed me! Im not a fan...

For those saying Fast road pads are useless I would say not to be so hasty in your judgement. It's the pads that you have tried.

I've been in a car with Ferodo DS2500 pads and Motul RBF 600 brake fluid. It stopped fine when cold (as good as standard I'd say (I owned the same car as him in standard form) and it didn't take much to warm them up and once they did you really did end up going through the windscreen!

I then drove the same car 4 months down the line with Tarox Fast Road pads. All I will say is that I handed the keys back to the owner after drive. The car had the worst cold braking I have had in any car (bar one which came with EBC Reg90 pads (they just didn't stop the car full stop (I remember thinking at the time that my MG Midget's brakes were better and that's saying something considering I was in a nearly new Ford Mondeo which on other OE pads was fine...))).

IMO, go with either OE spec pads like Textar, Mintex or Pagid or a good fast road pad like the Ferodo DS2000/2500 or Mintex M1144. The latter two had decent enough bite when cold and are superb when warm. The Ferodoes don't seem to decorate your rim with brake dust too much either. Also change your brake fluid. If you really want to go over the top get a decent DOT 4 like Motul 600.

Here is another point to remember. New pads will almost always feel better than pads with a few mm left on them. Remember this when reading reviews.

EDIT: To be fair J.J I've had some good parts from Unipart. Their 20W50 oil and filters seem to work well in the classics I have repaired but their points/condensor sets can be hit and miss (both sets on my MGBs were fine, on a mate's Dolly it wouldn't stop backfiring through the carbs and exhaust until I put his old condensor back in).

I have used Pagid or OE stuff before in the majority of cars. My 172,000 mile Golf TDI had a new set of OEM disks and pads all round after the last owner had put some cheap and nasty budget stuff on which was basically dangerous, no pedal feel and felt like the brakes had been replaced by frisbees being gripped by pliers! Changed for OEM stuff and hey presto, you can stand the car on its nose now! The OEM stuff (ATE stuff) for most german cars is pretty reasonable I have found. A full set of disks and pads for my old Alpina B10 V8 was only about £250 for all 4 corners.
Brake fluid can also not be changed often enough in my opinion!
Have tried Greenstuff on my Lotus Elan Plus 2 and they were promptly thrown in the bin after being changed for Mintex ones, tried Redstuff as well and they ended up as an expensive paperweight, I would never buy any EBC stuff again. They may be low dust but you can spend ages cleaning your wheels after you get out of hospital after rear ending the car in front!!!
Alasdair

have used green stuff on the 993, found them to be fine, although only used on the road, but have gone back to Textar and Pagid both perfectly good on a road car(993 brakes are good anyway) but would agree, get your fluid changed as per the book (every 2 years) I also use Motul (should not use silicon on a road car though) great stuff, also use them for my engine lube (get a good deal on Motul from Opie)