New Pads: So Many Choices to Stop The Shudder

[Volfy]

I'm glad they are working out for you. They look great with the rims etc. Although that was not my experience with them, and I also do my own work, it's good to know for some they do work. I wanted a pad/rotor setup that didn't require me to baby them or constant bed.

That's the problem with getting advice from Internet Yahoos (myself included). I've posted countless times about how to do pad seating & bedding and how NOT to do it. Yet I still read folks giving online advice that misinterpret the pad mfrs' instructions. Seems like too many folks just read what they want to read... right, wrong, or indifferent.

If you want to trash your brand new pads, the quickest and surest way is to go out there and make high-speed braking stomps - repeatedly - before the pads are seated properly - all in the name of "proper bedding". Most street pad compounds don't require such antics. Even if the pads can take higher temp, pulling stops like that before the pads are seated fully will just overheat the partial contact areas and glaze over them. Then they won't work right.

As an example, I drive a fleet vehicle for work, a 2023 Chevy equinox econo SUV. The brakes on that vehicle have up until the recent changes I made, been far better performing than the Stinger. In 25,000 miles no issues with vibration or anything else, just brakes doing their job. Now I can include the Stinger into this category. As it has turned out, there were no other issues, just pads and rotors

You really cannot compare Monobloc Brembos to single-piston floating calipers that are on most cars and trucks. Those cheapies are designed with overly generous tolerances and meant to take abuse and still work okay. The pads fit rather loosely and will practically fall out of the caliper, once you take out the guide pins. The fact that the calipers are flexy loosy is baked into the design to help them work reliably with poorly fitted pads/rotors. Think of mass-produced WW2 government-issue 1911s, with slide/barrel fit so loose, they rattle like a rusty old medieval key chain. Can't hit the broad side of a barn at 10yds, but by golly will go bang every time GI pulls the trigger... even if it has never been cleaned since D-day and caked full of Bastogne fox-hole mud and snow.

The 4- and 2-pot Brembo calipers are not like that at all. They are like $7500 TTI Pit Viper. Fit for John Wick duty but only when it's tuned and cared for by Monsieur Sommelier with silk gloves. Okay, okay... I exaggerate a bit. Maybe not quite that exquisite. More like mid-grade Staccato 2011. Point is... precision instruments don't take misuse/abuse well and need TLC more than less hardware.

 

[ldusseau]

I'm going to purchase new pads in the next couple of days. It's between the EBC RedStuff and the K8SS. The K8SS are just a little over half the cost of the EBCs and the customer ratings are equal, people are happy with both.

Question: are the EBCs worth almost twice the price? I'm retired now so if I don't have to spend almost double for equal performance, I'll go with the less expensive option.

TIA for your recommendations.