Last time I went in for service my SA advised me that my rear pads would need to be replaced at my next visit. For the cost of what the dealer wants to charge, I could DIY all 4 corners so i'm contemplating a pad/rotor upgrade. I've seen Akebono in some posts, and i've known Hawk and EBC to be good as well from my time on Audi forums - just looking to see what folks have been putting on their cars lately. Thanks all!

mac, SP ROTORS, drilled , very smooth , not a bit of fade , little detectable wear (any-metallic pads NOT used),very,very easy on pad wear,upper range of affordable ,ran out the mi on an existing Ceramic pad - then used Hawk street , drilled reduced temp buildup A-LOT (touch test) and gone 75k in fronts & Rr ! Never experienced ANY vibes or warp feeling even run hard. I just ordered POWER STOP's for fronts on J30 , never used them before , couldn't see spending SP money there More exotic ,high-dollar brands out there OVER SP - but I ain't a rich guy and those products seem to be at least 50% more than an "SP" . And I did figure they MAY have some "weakness('s)" but noooooo!

A lot of us have brakemotive parts and they're a good bang for the buck. I might go a little better with stoptech next time I have to do brakes.

Just FYI, my last brakemotive kit came with powerstop pads.

I went with brake motive and I think the whole kit was power stop. I think they are a bargain and for the price forget about it. Got my drilled and slotted rotors and pads for $270 speed on eBay.

Andy

+1 brakemotive.

Can I see pics of the drilled and slotted on your car?

Malbec 56 Beast wrote: ↑

Thu May 03, 2018 5:41 am

I went with brake motive and I think the whole kit was power stop. I think they are a bargain and for the price forget about it. Got my drilled and slotted rotors and pads for $270 speed on eBay.

Andy

Pm your cell number and I'll text you the pics
Can't post pics on this site.

Thanks
Andy

Project Mu pads!

wideopn11 wrote: ↑

Fri May 04, 2018 12:28 pm

Project Mu pads!

What rotors are you using?

Stoptech slotted, Akebono kit.

I’m running ENC S9 slotted rotors with Yellow Stuff pads. They’re great. No fade, amazing bite. It seems the hotter I get them the better they brake!

There's a myriad of brake pads and rotors available, just really depends on what you're using the car for. I upgraded my brakes on my old M35S to Stoptech blanks and Stoptech Pads, as I drove "mountain roads" to and from work everyday and have a nasty habit of late braking. They were great, overall. No noise, no issues in the cold, hardly any dust. About as good as it gets for a tame street pad.

For a daily driven car without a lot of spirited driving, I would definitely recommend blank rotors. Slotted rotors are there to help outgas the pads, which in all honestly is unlikely that you'll be heating the pads to a temperature that they need that feature. Drilled rotors are just a big no no. Just don't do it.

Make sure you flush your brake fluid while you're in there!

DK, thx - definitely some good tips My car is primarily a daily driver, but I do occasionally do some spirited driving and it has seen some skidpad use. Definitely not what I would consider a track vehicle though. Preciate everyone's advice!

I'm looking for some Pads and Rotors for my M56s. I don't track the car but I do a lot of freeway driving that sometimes when I get up to 80-85 MPH have to brake very fast because of slow downs ahead that nobody can see until they get up on them. Outside of that I get on it every now and then and may get up to 80-85 then slow down. I just want some good pads that won't fade and some good rotors that won't warp from hitting the brakes hard on those type of stops I mentioned above. And little brake dust without breaking the bank. Those Stoptech kits I see are like $450 on JC Whitney but I don't know if I need something like that. Would those brake motives from eBay do the job?

mac, the Powerstops I recently bought , the pair sold together $125.89 free shipping (many places).Others including Stoptech , when you do the lookup they specify what sounds like an exceptional price BUT they're talki'n ONE rotor, a L or R ,you know so for me , for ex. Stoptech 's would have been 2 X $ 83.00 or$166 BOTH! Many , not all,of the higher dollar , and probably , possibly? better quality just TALK price of ONE! Gotta
TIMES TWO the price .

Stoptechs are good rotors, I use them for daily and on the track, with hawk pads, hawk hps are excellent on the street and last forever, got 100k miles out of a set including so e autocross duty, also EBC rotors have held up for daily use

Since I just ordered brake parts myself for my 2011 M37s, I am curious what are the reasons for buying after market vs. OEM. My thinking is that the brakes on the M37s are actually really good from factory - tested and proven, so I just went with OEM brakes pads and rotors.

- Price? Very likely reason
- Brake performance? If you use the car for daily driving and not doing any track days, do aftermarket brakes REALLY improve performance? Has anyone actually tested OEM vs. aftermarket?
- Dust? Sure, that could be another reason.

I'm genuinely curious.

mac,Every one does their own homework and seems to be satisfied with what they've decided, in other words ,everyone's kind of RIGHT , in these posts , for their OWN reasoning, and reasons. Here's mine for example, NO WARPAGE - even HOT-RODDED then inadvertantly hitting a deep puddle that used to warp-to-hell solid/OEM rotors ; rain snow better handled by drilled ones; drilled ones supposed to generally have MOST cooling potential; slotted best for the more GRUELING of race , & harsh abuse ;slotted OR drilled better fade resistant;better ALLOYS generally used OR CRYO treatment available for structural (anti-warp , wear) superiority; My case I don't hi-speed race ,we got 119 deg F days in AZona so I went with quality drilled SP Band on first vehicle, and found ALL the above true,AND NO CHEESE GRATING tearing up of pads you may hear or think happens! J30 got slotted/drilled combo,time will tell on that different brand - Power-stop.
Look at AMG Mercedes rotors with all those holes!
Lastly , everyone gotta decide for themselves , but for ME price points compared to OEM or "solid" rotors to be
a NO-BRAINER. p.s. NOT to "inflame" anyone but BRAKE-DUST concerns? Ya gotta be on DUST if that's a deal breaking determinant in my opinion - I don't believe your talki'n SHOW-CAR :

A common misconception : brake rotors warp.
Fact: brake rotors do not "warp" on street cars, even racecars hardly see warp.

I'll try not to write an entire novel here, but the "juddering" or pulsing you feel in the steering wheel when braking (after suspected warpage) is actually small amount of brake pad buildup that has deposited itself onto the face of the rotors. This is why it is crucial to find the right brake pad as to not exceed the temperature threshold of that pad. If you're doing hard driving, your pad temperatures can get high enough that it is "out-of-range" for which they were designed for. When this happens, tiny parts of the brake pad detach and stick onto the rotor. Being that the pad material is essentially a harder compound than the rotor, it sticks there, like a little bump. Over time the pads pass over this bump over and over again and it deposits a little more pad, a little more, building and building and making the vibration worse and worse.

Rotors are forged in cast iron, thousands of degrees. In order to "re-shape" them, AKA warping, you'd have to heat them to a similar heat range which is just not possible on a street car.

I could go on and on as I too used to think "s*** I got my rotors so hot that I warped them" but after doing some reading, I found that this is a very common misconception. There's a great article written by the guy who developed braking systems for the Ford GT40 and Carroll Shelby's racing teams that goes into depth about the myths of brake rotor warping and he said in his 40+ years of racing he has never seen a warped rotor, even on race cars. The thickness difference you measure on a lathe or caliper is actually the runout (brake pad material on rotor.)

I'll try to find the link tonight if anyone wants to read it.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Sun May 20, 2018 7:21 pm

mac,Every one does their own homework and seems to be satisfied with what they've decided, in other words ,everyone's kind of RIGHT , in these posts , for their OWN reasoning, and reasons. Here's mine for example, NO WARPAGE - even HOT-RODDED then inadvertantly hitting a deep puddle that used to warp-to-hell solid/OEM rotors ; rain snow better handled by drilled ones; drilled ones supposed to generally have MOST cooling potential; slotted best for the more GRUELING of race , & harsh abuse ;slotted OR drilled better fade resistant;better ALLOYS generally used OR CRYO treatment available for structural (anti-warp , wear) superiority; My case I don't hi-speed race ,we got 119 deg F days in AZona so I went with quality drilled SP Band on first vehicle, and found ALL the above true,AND NO CHEESE GRATING tearing up of pads you may hear or think happens! J30 got slotted/drilled combo,time will tell on that different brand - Power-stop.
Look at AMG Mercedes rotors with all those holes!
Lastly , everyone gotta decide for themselves , but for ME price points compared to OEM or "solid" rotors to be
a NO-BRAINER. p.s. NOT to "inflame" anyone but BRAKE-DUST concerns? Ya gotta be on DUST if that's a deal breaking determinant in my opinion - I don't believe your talki'n SHOW-CAR :

-Again, drilling on the rotor face has absolutely ZERO affect on cooling the discs. Cooling comes from vanes in between the two rotor faces.
-Slotting is there to help wipe the face of the brake pad clean and help prevent "outgassing" of pads, when they get too hot. While definitely helping to prevent brake fade, as mentioned in my post above you should be looking at better pads instead.
-Cryotreatment is snake oil. All rotors are made the same, all rotors take the same amount of heat to make malleable again. Mentioned in post above.

Yes, AMG has been using drilled rotors for a long, long time. Originally it was due to trying to save unsprung weight, it never had anything to do with cooling. Although lots of high end cars such as Porsches and AMG's still have drilled rotors on some vehicles, this is primarily more for aesthetics than anything. It CAN help clean the face of the pads a bit, but really it's just because they look nice. If you look at any of AMG or Porsche or any racing teams for that matter, 99% chance you wont see any drilled rotors.

DrftkingIII wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 6:30 am

... There's a great article written by the guy who developed braking systems for the Ford GT40 and Carroll Shelby's racing teams ...

I'll try to find the link tonight if anyone wants to read it.

I keep that in my back pocket, thanks for bringing it up. Here is the link for anyone interested.
http://www.stoptech.com/technical-suppo ... ther-myths

pav333hp wrote: ↑

Sun May 20, 2018 6:05 pm

...I am curious what are the reasons for buying after market vs. OEM. My thinking is that the brakes on the M37s are actually really good from factory ...

- Price? Very likely reason
- Brake performance? If you use the car for daily driving and not doing any track days, do aftermarket brakes REALLY improve performance? Has anyone actually tested OEM vs. aftermarket?
- Dust? Sure, that could be another reason.

I'm genuinely curious.

One word - perception.
Different brands are perceived to look better, be quieter, less dusty, stop in shorter distances, cheaper... and surprisingly some people choose items because they are more expensive. (More expensive must be better). Sometimes these perceptions can be objectively proven.

Better performance? Maybe. It depends on how you define performance. Some brake compositions actually do better in different aspects.
+ If you do a lot of stoplight championships and need to stop in a hurry, there's a product to help you stop faster than OEM.
+ If you absolutely hate noise, then quietness is the performance metric you're concerned about.
+ If you absolutely hate cleaning your wheels, then dustlessness is the performance metric that matters to you... etc.

It also depends on the use. For the informed owner who actually tracks his/ her daily-driven car, then race brake components will do good while at a race track, and street pads used while in city driving. The OEM ones are a good compromise of a good street brake pad, the Akebono sport system being a little higher shelf street stuff.
I use "pads" and "systems" interchangeably, because as DrftKing alluded to above, not much else has as big an effect as pads*.


These are my opinions based on my observations and background, but ultimately I think as long as the owner is happy with his/ her decision and the car stops, then it's all good.

As an example, I refer to stoptech products a lot of times due to the breadth of knowledge they have (and share). However, if I can find OEM ones significantly cheaper, I buy those.

mac,whatever anybody wants to call the REASONS for benefits of HIGH PERFORMANCE BRAKE PRODUCTS was the point - sort of IRRELEVANT - in that if you research what you want in braking , you can achieve definite improvement over stock and EVERYBODY has heard the on-going-NOWHERE debate about whether warpage is caused by THIS reason or THAT who the F' cares - you simply get NO vibration with these aftermarket systems One fact for people that want cooling is drilled DOES help immensely and the rotors with the "directional-vented -vanes" that are BRAGGED for heat transfer are for me prohibitively expensive for the LITTLE extra cooling effect they BRAG .Factomundo for suckers on that one.
Now let's everybody revive the over-the top -one size fits all - OVERTHINKING all over again !! I figure as long as I know what I know I'm doing , let the games begin Deja-vue all over again

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

sort of IRRELEVANT

Not irrelevant when providing people with valuable knowledge to effectively and repeatedly stop their 4,000 pound machine. Ignorance is bliss.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

on-going-NOWHERE debate about whether warpage is caused by THIS reason or THAT who the F' cares -

Not caused by this or that, it's not caused by anything. Like I said, street cars do NOT warp rotors.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

you simply get NO vibration with these aftermarket systems

Until you overheat the pads, like any other pad.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

One fact for people that want cooling is drilled DOES help immensely

Nope. Not really, like, at all. Air is not moving side to side through the rotor without some sort of duct to forcing it in that direction. Again, not applicable on the M37/56.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

and the rotors with the "directional-vented -vanes" that are BRAGGED for heat transfer are for me prohibitively expensive for the LITTLE extra cooling effect they BRAG

Having trouble following this whole paragraph, but this sentence especially. If I'm reading it correctly, then yes, the directional vanes in the brake rotor are THE main way of cooling the brakes, aside from running a air duct from a fresh air point.

macgiver wrote: ↑

Mon May 21, 2018 8:48 am

Now let's everybody revive the over-the top -one size fits all - OVERTHINKING all over again !! I figure as long as I know what I know I'm doing , let the games begin Deja-vue all over again

It's one thing to be uninformed, it's another to spew uninformed opinions as fact to others. Brakes are an integral part of the car, I suggest you do a bit of reading.

mac, hey drfking your showing some decent knowledge here, your giving your own "experienced" opinion here , I very much respect that , hey I think I may possibly learn a little more from you than what you may learn from me. Some differing experiences you and I have with aftermarket braking, we would have an interesting discussion I believe . Thanks for your passionate statements - takes guts . Respect !

Intersting points. No I don't track my M37S (and no plans to track it either); its a daily car driven mostly by my wife with 2 little kids so we are definitely not racing or doing hard stops (unless necessary of course to avoid an accident).

I also got a REALLY good deal on brand new factory OEM brake pads and rotors from Nissan dealer; this was one of the reasons why I went with OEM.


Oh and I honestly don't care about brake dust that much, so it's not a deciding point for me.

As was said above, there are better and worse brake pads and rotors. I don't track my car but I do want great breaking. I have been very satisfied with these brakemotive/stop Tech pads and rotors and I've reconnected them to many friends etc.

In the end for me personally am not impressed with Nissan fluids, rotors pads etc so I go with the aftermarket. I'm sure there are fellow members that disagree with what I say but with my own experience I found this to be a fact.

In the end you are the only person that needs to be happy with your decision.

Asking opinion on this and other sites is just that opinion.

Andy

For those who are running Stoptechs, which kit did you go with? Select Sport, Street, or Sport? I'm between a Stoptech kit or the Powerstop Z23 Evolution kit. Thanks again all!

I went with the Powerstop Z23 Evolution kit for my M56S. They look to be a good quality replacement rotor and brake kit. Heard good reviews on youtube along with some not so good but mostly are good.

Thanks all - I ended up going with Stoptech Axle Packs front and rear - Sport rotors (drilled and slotted) and street pads. Planning to install this weekend!