Brakes work great, but I have a couple complaints. Biggest one being that they whine and squeal when stopping. Its only when I apply a specific amount of brake force. If I'm barely braking or really stomping on it, the brakes are silent. If I stop like a normal human being, they screech like a dump truck. I know brake noise is hard to fix sometimes. And I also know more than half of the time, dealers won't even touch your car for just brake noise. So any pointers on this?

Next, brake dust. Holy cr@p man. I practically need a respirator to wash my front wheels! I can't see how these pads would last more then 5k miles if they're shedding THAT much dust. Can't I replace them with some ceramic low dust pads? Would that even help? But I've also heard ceramic pads tend to have more noise problems? I can't win over here....

Finally, I don't like how my rotors rust instantly after they get wet. If I drive home in the rain and look at my car in the morning, all four rotors will be bright orange. It looks like crap and I'm sure can't be good for my brake pads. If I wash the car, I can see rust forming before I'm even done drying it. I'm not kidding. Anything I can do about this? Must I buy new rotors? And if so, which ones that will give me equal or better performance than stock but not rip through brake pads like crazy?

 

the rotors will always rust, the face is where the brake pads contact the rotor, so the pads will scrub the rust away.

The dust is due to the pad compound, you can switch pads and find something that has a smaller dust production.

The squeal is due to the fact that you are driving a sports car with a well engineered braking system. They gave you pads that will work under almost any condition with good results, sadly the result in this scenario is that they squeal.

 

RX-8s ave high quality iron rotors, nothing you can do about light rust deposits after they get wet

the pads you can do something about:
http://www.hawkperformance.com/perfo...%20Ceramic.pdf

ps: nobody cares what your rotors look like

lol, vanity of the rotors

 

someone asked me to ask the thread how much the msrp is on the ceramic pads because they couldn't find it on the hawk performance website. i can't reveal their name, and i swear it wasn't me, honest.

 

bottom two, they're very reasonably priced:

http://www.racingbrake.com/RX8_s/1439.htm

forum member Speedtoys sells them too, he's not a forum vendor though so you'll need to PM him

https://www.rx8club.com/good-guy-bad-guy-74/goodguy-speedtoys-107542/

.

 

I don't give 2 cents what other people think of the car, but I care. How would you feel if you spend 4 hours washing and Zainoing your car.... then you step back to admire a job well done..... just to see rust on your gem of an automobile? And like I said, I know it can't be good for the pads. A large contributing factor to brake noise is debris caught between the pad and rotor. Does bits of rust count? Maybe. But when I'm already having noise issues and I don't like the look of the rust..... trying to prevent it would be a good idea.

Thanks for the note on the hawk pads. I'll be most likely picking up a set. Also, summitracing and tirerack both stock Hawk pads. Think they're a tad cheaper too. FYI for other members without a local dealer.

 

I would recommend the following to solve your problems. The Hawk performance ceramic pads would serious diminish the amount of brake dust and noise that you hear. I am also recommending the power slot rotors to help help with keeping the pads cool and quiet. The cad spec coating would eliminate the rust issues. If you are interested in ordering these just le me know.

HAWK PERFORMANCE CERAMIC PADS -- 67.00
Rear brake pads
HAWK PERFORMANCE CERAMIC PADS -- 68.00
Front brake pads
POWER SLOT ROTOR - Rear -132.00 (EA.)
POWER SLOT ROTOR - front - 144.00 (EA.)

 

I'd suggest taking the car back in for the TSB on that or just pull the pads off yourself and liberally apply the brake grease/goop to the pad backings and reinstall. Almost all sports oriented cars have brakes that squeel a little, and you don't even want to complain about dust until you've owned an E36 M3. The wheel goes from clean to black in 2 days.

 

umm, I hate to be Cpt. Obvious to the rescue but once it's dry take it down the street and back being sure to hit the brakes hard several times. It will clean right off.

 

Do ceramic pads wear longer than standard brake pads?

 

Brake pad wear is relative to how you drive.....I have burnt of 7 sets in less than 60K miles....some sets lasting less than 500 miles......


I still have 1/2 left on my original OEM pads though...I only use them in the winter with the stock rotors.....at this rate I figure they will last about 10 years

 

LOL....obvious to some but surprisingly not to others, so it's a very good point! car wash=light rust everytime!
just make sure the first brake application isn't an emergency stop at a light/intersection/etc, pads could still be slippery soapy wet.

 

You can get Carbon Kevlar brakes from Porterfield. They also carry Hawks too!

 

he bought the Hawk ceramics and is very happy with them, try searching his username

 

Correct! Couldn't be happier. Over 1k miles on them now and still flawless. No noise at all and brake dust has been cut to a bare minimum. They're perfect!

 

I have been told that cermaic pads lower the expected rotor life. Is this correct?

 

from what i gathered, he's not talking about rust on the contact surface of the rotor, he's talking about rust on the rotor hat or anywhere the pad doesn't contact. this has been a pretty big eye sore for me as well. i plan to take all the rotors off and sand all the rust from the hats. then i'm gonna get a few good coats of some really high temp paint (black or silver) on the entire rotor. once they've dried i'm going to take them and have them turned to remove any paint and uneven surface from the contact surface.

about the ceramic pads. hawk claims that they have more bite than the OE pads. is this ture? i hate the dusting of the stock pads but i still need a brake pad thats gonna stop me quickly.

sorry for raising a dead thread.

 

That is correct. Obviously pad contact would remove the rust on the rotor face. But the whole hub area looks like crap.

Since then I have installed the Hawk ceramics and painted the rotor hub and caliper arms with the G2 paint kit. I have put probably 9k miles on the pads so far. At first, the dust was greatly reduced. 9k miles later..... maybe close to the same as OEM pads. Certainly not more. Stopping power is as good as I could ask from basically a factory braking kit. Couldn't be happier really. And ZERO squeal.

I have probably 3k miles on the G2 paint. Still looks brand new. But I must admit, I did an above average job on the prep. I used no primer or no clear coat. Holding up perfectly thus far. I posted up pics... search for em'