My front brake pads are looking a little low (about 3-4mm) while the rears look a little more healthy.I was wondering is it ok to just replace the fronts and are Brembo’s any good?.Or should I replace the lot.Oh and any ideas for suppliers.
IIRC the factory fitted pads are Brembos - so you know they’re not very good - or as Lord Scuffham would say, CRAP!
Get some Mintex 1144s or preferably Pagid RS14s from Eliseparts or Racespeed. You’ll find a vast improvement when driving on the road, & really a necessity on track.
As the rears don’t do a lot of work, it would be okay to just replace the fronts at this stage - that is assuming you’re not a trackday warrior - yet
Certainly agree with the overall performance of the RS14 pads from Pagid having installed mine about 500 miles ago.However the ear-piercing squeek/REALLY annoying knocking is driving me nuts!!!Any ideas for a cure?Please!
(Have tried new/additional buffers AND new pad ‘plates’)
Can’t believe diff Mintex have made, Pagids next ‘fitting’ -but which ones - sh*t so many specs, bearing in mind most of my miles are on the Queens Highway?
you only need in that case a new set of front pads.
Leave the stock rears and go for a set of front Pagids RS14.
Beware, they squeal (see notes below).
Or if you do more road miles go for the RS 42.
See you at Donni on the 24th.
SI, mine squaled a lot and I just fnd the cure, listen to this very well: DONT BRAKE!
No, seriously, the squealing goes away after re-cleaning and re-servicing the brake pads.
Take them off, bend the anti-rattle shims properl, so they actally do some work (most of them are heated and have lost their springiness), then clean the face of the disks with white spirit or cellulose spirit and sand down the face of the pads againt a flat surface. This will remove the squealy parts (the deposits).
Refit with plenty of copa-slip (in the back of the pad of course, on the pins and where the anti-rattle plate touches).
I may sound crazy to you (I know, I know, to my wife too), but I do this after every two trackdays anyway, like to keep everything down there very clean and… squeal-proof.
As Pesky says, the original lotus fitted pads are Brembos
most people say fitting RS14’s transforms the braking. They are pricey tho’
Your question about the Brembos being any good depends on how hard you are on th ebrakes i guess… I have used Brembos at a few track days and the only other pad I have used (currently fitted) is EBC Greenstuff, which I reckon are at least as good as Brembos, but about half the price you would pay your lotus dealer. However, most people will tell you they are cr#p…maybe i’m just a wimp on the brakes…or actually … the more i think about it… maybe its them that are the wimps
It should be fine to replace only the fronts as others have already said on this thread (esp if you keep the same type)
Problem here (as you yourself have pointed out) is that you have only tried EBC Greenstuff.
EBC are cheap after-market pads with a relativly large marketing budget etc.
They are fine as road only pads to compete with most std OEM stuff, but they are no panacia of braking technology.
One of the biggest problems with EBC stuff is that they are not actually made by EBC, but contracted out to various 3rd party makes, (in common with quite a few other makes). This has the effect that one batch of pads can be significantly different to another.
(I would liken this to drinking beer brewed under licence compaired with the orriginal stuff)
I have seen people destroy a set of EBC’s in under 30 mins on track, I have tried their yellow and red stuff (the yellows caught fire…)
On the other hand, Padgid make all thier own stuff, and work in a much tighter market (Although they have a very large OEM buissness with VW/Audi etc).
I have never seen anybody kill a set of Padgids, they are the best pad out there,(that I have currently tried) the range covers just about every type of use (although RS14’s seem to be the only ones people use?).
Yes, they are not cheap, but with like for like use, somehting like RS4-2 will outlast just about anything out there.