I second the OE pads. I have never truly tracked either of my Vs, but the OE pads have never let me down regardless of how much idiocy I throw at them.
Plus the rotors on these seem to not leave much room for additional turning (if any) so I never wanted to risk a more aggressive pad since I knew I wouldn't be tracking anything.
I've been running the Hawk pads from their blue package and they were a significant dust reduction from OEM. Problem is that I just swapped my rotors over to Brake Motive's drilled/slotted ones, and noticed that one of my front pads appears to have the friction material cracking/separating from the mounting surface... so I'm questioning Hawk's build quality now. I'm going to take pictures to send to Hawk and see how their customer service does...
I have autozone ceramics. When my OE's went, I figured I had done zero track days w/ none in my near future planned. If I were to go to the track, I would just poney up for some higher heat pads for the day and just call it part of the track day cost.
2 years later, I have not been to the track. The ceramics are nearly as good bite, with much less dust than OE and have just recently started to squeal every once in a while.
I have autozone ceramics. When my OE's went, I figured I had done zero track days w/ none in my near future planned. If I were to go to the track, I would just poney up for some higher heat pads for the day and just call it part of the track day cost.
2 years later, I have not been to the track. The ceramics are nearly as good bite, with much less dust than OE and have just recently started to squeal every once in a while.
I've been using the HPS pads for a while now with good results - good stopping distance, low dust. But in the past 6 months have had trouble in the rain. The pads don't grab well initially when wet. It seems as if the pads need to wipe off the rotor before they'll grab. Any one else having this experience? Any recommendations for another brake pad for street use only?
The theory is that - all else equal, flat, smooth surfaces provide a higher friction coefficient than surfaces that are not flat and not smooth. In this application flat, smooth surfaces also provide fewer gaps for un-channeled water accumulation. Presumably, if you drive with the brake pads long enough, and hard enough, they will break in sufficiently to minimize the difference depending on the starting condition of the rotor surface.
You should know that there is an age old debate about whether resurfacing rotors is required with each brake pad change. I believe this debate centers around economics rather than performance. Specifically, I think that changing the pads without addressing the rotor surface results in lower braking performance and increased brake pad wear (shorter life). I am not suggesting that one can minimize costs by addressing the rotors (resurfacing or replacing) with each brake pad change since brake pads are relatively cheap compared to rotors/rotor resurfacing.
I have been using Hawk HPS pads for street use and HP+ pads to track use for years. I have noticed the issue of decreased stopping when wet. Usually after one or two applications of the peddle, they come right back up to standard response. I always thought is might be a function of decreased friction due to the film of water on the rotor. Once the water was expelled and the pads heated up with friction, they worked normally.
I had Hawk HPS' on my V for 2 years or so. Last year I swapped rotors and noticed that the pads were SEVERELY degraded already; just from basic daily driving. The friction material was all cracked and lifting from the mounting surface of the ppad. A bunch of areas had chipped away, and the groove down the middle of each pad had significant amounts of chipping and ugly degradation. Never will I use Hawk products again.
I have also used nothing but Hawk pads for the past 8 years on two of my cars. I also have never seen anything like those pads. They look like something that had come off a car that had been submerged in salt water for a while after Hurricane Sandy. I have never seen a recent pad degrade that way.
Well, that certainly isn't the case with my car. Just year-round driving, including Ontario winters. Maybe the salt is THAT hard on the pads, but I've never had other pads do that. And all 8 of them were similarly degraded like this. And for clarification's sake, those d/s rotors weren't what those pads were used on. They were just on OEM rotors. I only noticed the pad degredation when I went to swap the rotors.
I've run Hawk track spec pads on track plenty, and have found they work great. For street pads, though, I just can't see spending so much when I can get any number of other, better pads for 1/3 or less the cost. I'm running ACDelco pads now that I got for $25 (on Rock Auto wholesaler closeout, normal price $47) and they're soooo much better than the HPS pads they replaced ($175 pads). I had very low expectations for the HPSs, and they didn't even meet those, so I was quite happy to find the significantly cheaper ACDelcos were also a significant upgrade.
As for the original question in this thread, I definitely notice a difference in initial bite in the rain, regardless of what pads I'm running, and have the same experience on my other cars, too. It's a perceptible difference, but not enough to be a concern. Note that none of my cars have splash shields / rotor backing plates - the V never had them, and on my other 2 cars they've been removed over the years due to installing bigger brakes and cooling duct provisions. I do think the lack of splash shields definitely contributes to this, but again, it's not something that bothers me.
I've run Hawk track spec pads on track plenty, and have found they work great. For street pads, though, I just can't see spending so much when I can get any number of other, better pads for 1/3 or less the cost. I'm running ACDelco pads now that I got for $25 (on Rock Auto wholesaler closeout, normal price $47) and they're soooo much better than the HPS pads they replaced ($175 pads).
The pads I'm running are the ACDelco Professional Durastop semi-metallics. I've got V2 calipers, so my part number won't help, but the equivalent part number for the V1 calipers is 17D1050M for the fronts - $38 on rockauto.com. I think that the Raybestos Professional Grade semi-metallics (PGD1050M) may be the same thing in a different box - those are $33. I've been running them for a while now and I'm very happy with them. Very good cold bite, and they handle aggressive street driving without issue (whereas the HPSs would start to fade if I even thought about driving aggressively). They're moderately dusty, but I'm willing to live with that - I have yet to find the magic pads that perform the way I like and don't generate some dust.
I've been running various performance street compounds on my cars for years - Ferodo DS2500, Porterfield R4S, Mintex 1155, etc - all of which cost $$$. As I said in the quote above, having experienced these much, much cheaper ACDelco pads, I just can't see spending big money on street pads again.
replaced rotors and pads. The pads grab immediately, when wet, no delay. thanks darkman.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Cadillac Owners Forum
4.8M posts
369.7K members
Since 2002
Cadillac Forums is the perfect place to go to talk about your favorite Caddys including the ATS, CTS, SRX, Escalade, LYRIQ, Vistiq, concept and future Cadillac models.