Ebc Pads

[lexus22]

Hi chaps, just treated myself to a 2004 is300. Fancy getting the brakes better as not as good as in my is200 manual.

Checked out EBC greenstuff pads but they reckon that with cars with over 200php the redstuff should be used, anyone used these before or know anything good or bad about them?

[Igino Cazzola]

Avoid the Green ones; they're crap.

[lexus22]

Well Ive already bought them so will see how crap they are tomorrow after fitting them.

[steve2006]

I put EBC Ultimate on my rear brakes and regretted it, dust,dust and more dust put it this way I've put 1800 miles on the car since fitting over 6 months ago and the wheels still need weekly cleaning!

When creeping they groan like crazy and I cannot creep smoothly.

Not sure what the rest of the range is like but mine are coming back off ASAP.

[noby76]

if you aint fitted ebc on the car yet and in two minds you could just flog them on eBay and get you original Toyota ones from lexus they will be cheaper and will be the ones designed to stop the car effectively and last longer. thats not saying after market performance brakes wont do the same job. I have used ebc green stuff before in my previous car and its quiet effective but might also depend ot the car as some people say its crap and others like it.

[stevov]

ebc green stuff are not up to the weight of the lexus200/300 red stuff are ok so so. for a step up in performance look at hawk pads. combined with dba discs stopping is in a different league

[BillNick]

Hi all, sorry to hijack the post - I am looking at brembo discs (standard no drills or grooves) with Mintex pads. What would you all say to this setup over genuine lexus? Just that its around £30 cheaper on the rear axle than kitting out with OEM parts.

[mikeyv]

Hi all, sorry to hijack the post - I am looking at Brembo discs (standard no drills or grooves) with Mintex pads. What would you all say to this setup over genuine lexus? Just that its around £30 cheaper on the rear axle than kitting out with OEM parts.

I've just fitted new discs and Mintex pads to cure a slight vibration on braking on my LS400.

The discs are fine, vibration gone - the pads are fine from a braking point of view, but are very noisy at low speed - kind of a groaning sound.

I'll be replacing them with Ferodo when the time comes.

[mikeyv]

Just to update, and in the interests of fairness, the pads are now acceptable, with only very occasional noise at low speed.

I've done probably 6 - 700 miles since fitting.

[lexus22]

Car has done a few thousand miles since fitting the greenstuff pads and they are fine. Drivers wheel does go very black with dust though at the end of a week, dunno why as the others are not too bad. Had new carrier pins/rubber boots fitted both sides and front discs replaced so car brakes spot on, just get a dirty wheel....most odd..

[rarcher]

_{I've owned four different GS 300s since 2000 and I am also a professional engineer who has designed,developed and tested both pad materials and disc brakes for a living in the past. I'll leave you to judge if that makes my views relevant.}

_{I have fitted EBC Greenstuff pads to all the Lexus cars I have owned at some stage (Marks 1, 2 and 3). First thing to say is that disc brakes are very sensitive to your specific driving style hence the variety of views we see in this forum.}

_{If you drive your car hard, you may well need a more specialised pad material such as Redstuff to cope with the higher temperatures, albeit there is then every chance performance at lower temperatures will not be as good.}

_{I get through a set of front pads in about 25k miles so I'm neither a hard nor a soft user - I find the Greenstuff pads excellent and a clear step up from standard Lexus fitments.}

_{Braking is more consistent and predictable and there is no grab at low speed when cold/damp. I find they produce less dust than the standard fitments.}

_{You should not expect more stopping force from a better pad, just more consistent performance across a wider range of operating conditions.}

_{Second thing to understand is that brake pad development is essentially witchcraft with a brew of near random materials being put together until you get something that gives acceptable performance for most drivers - it's a crude compromise though and cannot suit all user conditions.}

_{A major player such as Mintex will have thousands of different formulations and will test these in a new model until it finds brew that gives the best compromise for the allowed cost. There's no great science in this.}

_{Third thing is that performance can also be sensitive to relatively small variations in the chemical composition of the disc metal itself, in some cases a few ppm of a trace element can change friction behaviour significantly - noone really knows why and I doubt if any one disc manufacturer is likely to be better than any other.in this respect.}

_{Fourthly, light brake useage can generate a glaze on the disc that reduces performance, particularly on rear discs that do much less work when braking due to weight transfer. An "Italian tune-up" can quickly burn this off and I think that is also why the Greenstuff pads have a pink abrasive coating painted on the rubbing surface to "condition" the disc surface when first installed.}

_{Finally on brake squeal, this is also a mystery in many respects where with apparently identical systems one will squeal and one will not. The shims that sit on the back of the pads are just there to stop squeal and I've always found that, by keeping those clean and using copper grease between them and on the edge of the pad abuttments, I've never had any brake squeal from Greenstuff pads, except, of course, when the wear indicators on the pad start to touch the disc.}

_{Hope that helps. BTW, I have absolutely no conection with EBC.}

Edited December 4, 2012 by TonyGoose
Made text a bit larger.

[steve2006]

Hello rarcher, welcome to the LOC and your informative post, just could you increase your font size a little please, my eyes are not what they used to be these days :D

[rarcher]

Love to make the above in a larger font but it won't let me!