edan82

Hey,

Time to replace my front rotors+pads.
Can anyone please recommend me a setup which will combine great stopping power and low dust as possible?

My current OEM setup do the work when talking about stopping power but it generate huge amount of black dust.

I will be extremely appreciate if can add a purchase link for the recommended parts for my car (03' W211 E55).

Many thanks guys.

WideRide

Get the above Akebono pads to limit dust.

edan82

Thank you for the reply,

Can you tell me what's your review on them as for stopping power?

Thanks.

hachiroku

Once my OEM pads are toast i'm probably gonna go with Ferodo DS2500 pads. I have them on my Audi and love them. Dust is low and they're quiet. Oh don't forget the amazing stopping power.

2000UZJ

What are your driving habits?

dchl21

akebono has very little dust, however it does not stop as good as oem or some other pads but its acceptable for me. I mean ... give and take ...its just slightly less grip not too bad.


if you track then I would recommend something else. ive used them on many previous benzs, nothing to worry about.

hachiroku

i drive like i've got to save the princess with a count down timer of 5 minutes. ha...i drive pretty aggressively at times and at others i drive pretty mellow. generally i don't drive tame at all.

my comparison of the Ferodo DS2500 vs Hawk HP+ on my Audi.

HP+ #### DS2500
Noisy #### Quiet
Needs a little heat to bite #### Bites from snow season cold NO PROBLEMO
A little aggressive on rotors, but nothing bad #### What rotor wear?
Worse than OEM initial bite and initial deceleration #### 10-15x better than HP+
Cheap Pads #### Expensive Pads
longevity? haven't ran either to the ground yet, but they seem to last longer than OEM pads.

curious to see how the Racing Brake brand pads run, but honestly I love the Ferodo DS2500 too much!

edan82

Thanks all.

My driving habits are pretty agressive, I'm using every single horse and all the grip I can.

Any thoughts about the EBC red stuff pads?

And what about the rotors themselves, should I stick to the OEM or any other better brands in reasonable price? (How's Zimmerman? ).

Thanks!

hachiroku

EBC pads are all garbage in comparison to whats in the same categories...people buy EBC because they're cheap, and cheap never means good in the performance industry. thats a fact.

edan82

Ok,

What about Porterfield?
I heard some good feedbacks on them, are they also ceramic compound?

And again, what about front rotors?
Original Mercedes good enough or anything better? (Stick to the original rotors diameter).

Last thing - can anyone please add a purchase links to the relevant front ferodo ds2500 for my car?
I can't find it.


Thanks!

2000UZJ

I run stock rotors at times while at the track with CarboTech pads. I've had the OE rotors glowing and shooting sparks out (pads) with no fade. I would say the OE rotors are good to go!

hachiroku

I've tried Porterfields before Hawks and felt they were pretty much the same...my conclusion, both Hawk and Porterfield street or high performance pads are garbage. same with EBC street pads. EBC pads are awesome the first 5-10k miles then perform the same as OEM or worse. I don't typically track my cars all the time, but I do and when I do I don't run R compound so generally don't run race oriented pads. Once you go over to R compound you'll pretty much go past the capabilities of a very high performance street/track pad. In the case of the Ferodo DS2500, its an awesome pad in all situations. I have yet to track them, but I'd easily say they would do great on the track before you switch to R compound, and probably will eventually fade as all non race specific pads do. They have been awesome in a brisk mountain run though and never faded while driving 7/10ths while biting harder and harder upon each use. The DS2500's really caused me to retrain how I use the brake pedal as the initial bite is and deceleration ramp is beyond any pad I've used thus far. For full on track pads I've only driven on Carbotech XP10's and they were pretty awesome with R compound, but have nothing else to compare them with in regards to a track specific pad.

their competition pads on the otherhand I have not tried. though across the internet track pads are usually Carbotech, Raybestos, EBC, Akebono, Pagid, Ferodo for OEM fitment pads.

for Japanese vehicles, Project Mu, Endless, etc.

track pads are guaranteed noisy and destroy rotors. my E63 is up for a pad and rotor change before the end of the year...probably going with Ferodo's which would then allow me to replace pads once worn vs pads and rotors like the OEM setup. Currently on OEM brakes and rotors on my E63.

2000UZJ

Yes, the Carbotech pads are extremely noisy (think dump truck) and the dust levels are shocking. I have 400 miles on my track rotors and they have lips on them already. I have 22,000 miles on my street rotors with OE pads and no lips.

edan82

Thank you guys!

Can I have the purchase link for the Ferodo DS2500?

I only find the set for E63 but I'm not sure it's the same as in E55.

Many thanks!

hachiroku

i couldn't find anything. i ordered my Audi pads through essex parts. he was able to custom order pads for me from Europe. they also were able to cross reference pads that were listed as compatible that i couldn't find online.

maybe they're not available for that chassis? odd because they're offered for others.

edan82

Very strange, zero info over the Internet but here some saying they use the DS2500.

I've checked Ferodo catalog and w211 E55 isn't even mentioned.

austingtir

I looked into all these oddball pads when I did mine and came to the conclusion it was a waste of time unless your dead serious about tracking your car or something.

Carbotech = expensive and needs your current pads backing plates to manufacture. THESE PADS WORK THOUGH and in my experience these are my goto serious track pad (yes they make noise but who gives a **** if you stop time after time). Just not worth the hassle in this application and im not that serious.

Carbone lorraine = ridiculous price and similar mess around to carbotech

EBC = total waste of time these are pure ****.

Akebono = dustless.... good street pad I wouldnt rely on these for a track day.


I ended up buying some $100 centric street performance pads off rockauto cant fault them. Coefficient of friction goes up with heat so these give you a bit of warning when they are getting real hot. Atleast you know when to back off a bit when they really start getting gripy.


For track days I reckon the key to this car is doing everything to stop the rear brakes overworking. So A TCU like demetre's on facebook with manual mode which removes all the torque limiting and releases most of the traction control would make a world of difference. I may also look into titanium pistons for my rear calipers as I can probably machine them myself.

hachiroku

read up on the S2k and Evo forums they use a lot of racing pads as many of those guys track their cars and aren't shy to spend the proper dollar for performance.

pads are pads, compounds are the same, and it doesn't matter what vehicle they're being used for to determine their actual performance value.

shame they're not offered for the E55 W211 chassis as it was in production longer than the E63 W211. maybe the E63 W211 is only offered because the popularity of the C63. though the stock pads are decent pads, once it comes time to change them out i'm going with something aftermarket for less dusting, better bite, and higher rate of deceleration.

edan82

That's the problem,

I don't want track pads, I need street racing pads but for my car I can only find the following:
Akebono- less dust but some say it has less bite compared to stock.
Porterfield- less dust but some says not worth the money.
EBC- less dust bus same as Porterfield.
Stock- too much dust but good performance.

No DS2500 and I think the E63 uses different pads.

BagMan

The Akebonos have less initial bite, which I think is a good thing with SBC. Especially in light braking situations like stop & go traffic. Mine was too jerky with stock pads - like really sensitive old school drum brakes.

Push the pedal down a little farther and they drop anchor. I've panic stopped a few times and the car ended up stopping well before I thought it would.

edan82

Thank you all for the help, I've just ordered a set of Endless MX72 front pads and new front Mercedes rotors.

I believe its the best combo for my needs of excellent braking power with better initial bite and less dust than stock pads.

Nor Cal SL55

Let us know how they work and where you got them.

edan82

My mechanic will supply me the rotors and the pads I got from a friend who's running a racing team and sponsored by Endless, he was able to get me a small discount (not that it made the pads cheap after discount- 450$ Inc shipping them from Japan to HK).

hachiroku

yeah...endless isn't usually cheap, but they're good pads from what i've been told by friends who have used them.

just for reference, Ferodo DS2500's for my Audi were $238 front and $145 rear, $383f/r before discounts. I simply asked the rep at Essex and he knocked off a few dollars.

for the W211 E63 fronts (#FRP3133H) they list for $450 for the fronts. yowza

shame they're not offered for the E55. i did find through cross reference that the Mercedes SLR shares the same pads as the W211 E55 though.

abaykal

Hey I just installed Zimmermann Rotors and Akebono Pads on my 06 e55. Install was total 60 minutes in my garage. Most time consuming part was knocking the pins out (mostly spent time in the tool box trying to find something that fits in that little whole). Over all, this was a very easy job. I disabled SBC by pulling up the tab on the SBC module and unplugging the unit.

After all was done, I restarted the car, pump the brakes a little, car was giving all kinds of errors and it wasn't running right at all that is when I said "ohhh ****". Drove the car out of the drive way and drove it back in. turned it off, turned it back on and all was good. no issues whatsoever and akebono brakes stop awesome, no noise at all as well.

I figured I let you all know my experience.