Viper98912

Looks like I might need to replace the front pads soon (rears still look plenty new), and I've been doing some research into what to go with. In the future (maybe late this year or early next year) I'd like to go with some Racing Brake two-piece rotors (mostly for looks, I know I know), and RB recommends semi-metallic pads. My car is my daily driver, so I need something with good street performance with no squeaking or other annoyances.

Specifically RB recommends Axxis and Hawk, but Hawk doesn't make our fronts (plus I wasn't impressed with the HPS when I had them on another car).

Axxis makes semi-metallic fronts and ceramic rears, but I'd like to run the same brand and pad type on both axles.

I've been doing some research into others as well (specifically from the Centric brake conglomerate, since they seem to own almost everyone now).

Stop-tech has their own brand of pads, but they seem to be hard to find, are probably very expensive, and might be noisy.

Posiquiet comes in both ceramic and semi-metallic (I'd try out the SM's), but has mixed reviews on performance. Regardless, everyone says they are definitely quiet (no squeaks) for daily driving and the price is very cheap compared to other brands. Definitely would be worth a try I think.

Porterfield R4-S also gets good reviews, but also say they can be squeaky. Definitely don't want to pull up in your luxury AMG with "this cheap **** needs to change his brakes already". Also, they're probably the most expensive pads out there.

There's also the OEM replacements out there such as Textar, etc.

So after all this rambling, what do you guys think about the semi-metallic Posiquiets? Anyone put these on their car?

RLx02

I just switched from OEM to akebonos and replaced my rotors with OE at the same time.

What a difference it made, my oem rotors were wore down enough to develop a lip around the edge of the rotor. The new rotor + akebonos provide much better brake feel and better bite.

The benefit of the akebonos too is that has almost zero dust, compared to the oem pads. I haven't taken it to the track yet but so far I am quite happy with them.

Viper98912

Oh yea I forgot to write about that one, Akebono's definitely seem like a great replacement and I would go with those, but people currently with RB 2-piece rotors say they are having problems with the Akebonos.....

My issue is that I'm a "brakes" guy; I love the look of good looking brakes on a car. In this case though, I can't justify spending $2-3k on the 6/4 pot upgrade for this daily driver. Plus, I'm really trying to stay with the "stock" look and performance of this car - meaning very very minimal mods, even if they are plug and play.

RLx02

I just switched from OEM to akebonos and replaced my rotors with OE at the same time.

What a difference it made, my oem rotors were wore down enough to develop a lip around the edge of the rotor. The new rotor + akebonos provide much better brake feel and better bite.

The benefit of the akebonos too is that has almost zero dust, compared to the oem pads. I haven't taken it to the track yet but so far I am quite happy with them.

Tump43

I've got the akebono's up front and love them. No dust, great bite and for agressive street driving, no fade. Since I have the SLK 55 rear rotors and caliper set-up, when it came time to replace the pads, I couldn't find akebono's to fit and had to go with posiquiet pads. No dust, they seem to work just fine (can't really tell with the rears) but so far, I've been getting a slight sqeak at a very specific point on the brake pedal. With full braking pressure, no squeak. But, with very light pressure, just slowing down very gradually, I get squeak. I first installed them without brake grease on the back of the pads. I then re-installed them with grease, the squeak decreased but did not go away completely. After two weeks the squeak seemed to diminish more, etc., but still exists. So, I recommend you get porterfield or akebonno's for your ride.

Viper98912

Did you run the ceramic or semi-metallic posiquiets?

Tump43

Although I wanted cermic, the pads I got were semi-metallic. Today the squeak is almost imperceptible -- you have to turn the radio off and listen very hard, while trying to hit the right pressure on the brake pedal.

dynomite05

Akebonos have been great! No dust at all...I switched from the Porterfields and they started squeaking after 5k miles.

RLx02

I personally think our OEM dimpled ones look great with 18" wheels...they look a little smaller with the 19"s. I agree though upgrading to 6/4 piston calipers are kind of overkill for our cars since the 4/2 piston calipers work just great (but they definitely look sexy thats for sure).

I just wish we had some better looking calipers in the rear instead of some non painted oem looking rear calipers.

Tump43

I just slapped the CLK/SLK 55 AMG 4 pot rear calipers and rotors on my car. They look great, match the front, provide great braking and cost about $1k total. No need to upgrade the AMG front braking system on the C55.

Viper98912

Well once you paint the rear calipers silver they do look better. I also agree the front stock drilled rotors look nice, but I definitely think that two-piece looks even nicer, but RB doesn't make drilled-only.

Tump where did you find the rear set? Hard to find round these parts....