What RB said, hit it right on the head

I will prob try re-bedding but I've had little luck with re-bedding in the past. once they've gotten lumpy, that's all she wrote.

these stop-techs are okay. the dusting characteristics are fantastic. hardly ever have to clean em. it's a 'blonde' dust. they work perfectly on the rear brakes. the fronts were just wrong from the beginning. i drove them for about a week, VERY VERY lightly before I had a chance to bed them in properly. on about the 5th day, i heard this big noise from my front right in unison with the wheel rotation. it was as of a big chunk of pad had smeared onto the rotor. i immediately set to bedding them properly. it helped some. got rid of the noise. but they have never been right at 65mph. again, in the past when this has happened on my my e28, the solution was new rotors and pads. period.

i don't have time to deal with experimenting and fudging around and i am not particularly price sensitive. i just want a rock solid set of brakes and rotors with ZERO squealing, moderate to low dust and slightly above average street performance - that I can install and i KNOW will meet me needs. i'll probably just get OEM pads this time.

I don't tow anything and never will. I drive a lot of short trips with a lot of 35 and 45 mph streets and associated stop and go. I don't drive like a nanny but I don't drive like Mario either and appreciate excellent performance.

of all my brake combos, the best ones i've had were brembo blanks and metalmaster pads on my e36 328is. I know this is an entirely different beast though. those things put some serious grooves in those rotors but stayed true.

fwiw, i put those cheapo meyle coated rotors and stoptechs on the rear and they have been flawless.

Might try the cool carbons when it comes brake time

I always replace rotors when I do pads. I have had a problem only once and the only thing I did that was different from the past was I didn't bed the brakes right away. One side turned out OK after I went through the process but the other side never was right even after I repeated the process. For those interested in how the it should be done, the following is a helpful reference: Instructions for bedding in your brakes

I've found that the transfer layer applied to the rotors during bedding will wear off in a few k miles of LIGHT driving. When the rotors loose the transfer layer of pad material, increased rotor wear will result.

The transfer layer does exactly as the word implies, pad materials on the pad surface and in the rotor transfer layer actually swap back and forth between the two surfaces.

In the 6 months of use, I've re-establishes the rotor transfer layer twice. There's a visible brass color layer on the rotors when re-applied.

Just measured the DF rotor, was 1.2 when installed, after 10k miles (one 1k mile road trip, 9 k miles city/local hwy) rotor measures 1.185. These Cool Carbon pads have only worn .0075" off each rotor surface. Got away from the OE compound because it eats rotors up.

okay so I ended up 'gambling' with the cool carbons. And I was/am a bit of a skeptic.

but here is my verdict: excellent

i paired them with centric high carbon plain rotors from China...I mean...TireRack.

i did a textbook bedding although i can't ever really tell if i have done it EXACTLY right given that I am constantly on the lookout for cops and avoiding stares from cows that can't understand why i am standing on the brakes from 60 in the middle of a country road.

anyway, the first 2 weeks they were noisy. lots of squealing. i was worried. that has subsided almost completely and i am comfortable it will go away totally.

this setup replaced StopTech street performance pads and balo rotors. i like the action of this setup better. linear (as has been described) is a good way to say it. little initial bite, but it doesn't seem to matter. i am not big on initial bite anyway. dusting color/volume rating is superb. i hardly even notice it at all between washes. warm up time is virtually unnoticeable. i think they work just fine on the first stop of the day. my old metal masters would put me into the intersection if i wasn't careful.

if they hold up and don't make deposits, i will declare a winner and will put these on the rear as well in due time. again - so far, with about 750 miles...i rate them excellent.

Thanks for the update.

Good to hear Russianblue.

Wait until you see how they perform when the temps get into the 90s. A few back to back hard stops from near triple digit speeds will show how linear and fade free these CC pads are.

FWIW, my set squeaked a few times in the first week of use.

I've never liked brake pads with inital bite that seems to be based on pedal travel, pedal pressure modulation of inital bit feels more responsive. With OE pads the inital bite makes the brake pedal feel like an on/off switch, CC pads make it feel like a flow control valve.

i concur with the flow control valve analogy. maybe i can see bite being a bigger deal with a racer if you are able to use it to steer and shift weight but in an SUV with kids in the back? not much use for it.

maybe the reason I have 'warmed up' to them even more in the past couple of weeks....because the weather is warming up. I still haven't gotten them nice and hot but I look forward to it!

i will post back in a few months if i am able to avoid brake shudder. I seem to be stricken with that ailment, LOL! but this time, my ENTIRE suspension, brakes and tires are NEW, so it should NOT happen.

Have you gotten a chance to drive the CC pads hot yet?