Mix-n-Match brake pads and other Qs: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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July 1, 2011 6:10 a.m. jrg77 Reader

Was looking to get Performance Friction brake pads for my Corolla, when I saw they only have pads for the front. I confirmed by e-mail and they said get some premium pads for the rear from the local chain that carries their stuff and I'll be fine. Is the brake force distribution that front biased?

Also do Hawk HP Plus pads really wear out rotors? I was planning to use these until I heard reports of aggressive rotor wear. If the mix-n-match on the Performance Friction pads is a bad idea I'm going to need some suggestions on alternatives.

Lastly has anyone tried dba 4000 series rotors?
July 1, 2011 6:29 a.m. 11110000 Reader

Brake force distribution is heavily front-biased to maintain directional stability, and of course to utilize the dynamic loading of the fronts under braking.

I recently put Hawk HPS on the front of my daily driver, while I have some inexpensive Mintex pads on the back. Mix & match should not be a problem on a DD in most cases - put good stuff in the front, decent pads in the back.
July 1, 2011 8:14 a.m. White_and_Nerdy HalfDork

Some people even intentionally mix 'n' match pads to redistribute brake bias. Josh put Hawk HP+ pads on the rear of my Miata and left the stockers up front. Although he ran it with some nice coilovers and I'm running a low mileage OEM suspension, I rather like it. It's a lot harder to lock up the front brakes. This is also a common trick on MR2s and possibly other mid-engine cars.

One set of HP+ I ran dusted a lot and made the car sound like a city bus with all the brake squeal. Currently, I get a bit of dust from the ones I have on the back, but no squeal. As for rotor wear, I consider rotors to be wear items just like brake pads, especially since on many cars stock equivalent replacements are so cheap.
July 1, 2011 8:52 a.m. 93EXCivic SuperDork

The braking balance will be biased towards the front because under braking the load transfers to the front and so the front brakes have to do more work. So changing to more aggressive pads on the front will change the brake bias more towards the front. This could be a problem or not depending on the vehicle and what you are doing with it. As far as the rotors, I did some thermal analysis of various styles of rotors (cross drilled, slotted, plain) and I found that there was no really advantage to use cross drilled or slotted or plain rotors. So unless the stock rotors are solid and the DBAs are vented just save the money and stick the stock rotors.

Unless you are going to bigger rotors or two piece floating rotors, I am pretty sure aftermarket rotors are a waste of money.
July 1, 2011 9:00 a.m. iceracer SuperDork

I ran HP+ pads for quite awhile on my ZX2SR and no excess wear, no noise and minimal dust.

Agree on the stock rotors.
July 1, 2011 9:09 a.m. Klayfish Reader

I don't think you should have any issues. The Corolla (I'm assuming you have a FWD model) is heavily front biased anyway. Under braking, it's even more so.

My HPDE toy I'm getting ready to run is an old Corolla. There is a big time road race shop near me. I'm having them prep my car. Their advice was to get decent pads up front, with NAPA rotors. For the back, they said pretty much any functioning pads and rotors are all I need, I could use plain Duralast or whatever pads.
July 1, 2011 7:31 p.m. wbjones SuperDork

I mix brands and compounds all the time on my CRX... currently Carbotech XP 10 front and PBR ( slightly more aggressive than OEM ) on rear
July 1, 2011 8:58 p.m. 93gsxturbo HalfDork

I mix pads from different cars at a junkyard. You should be fine.
July 2, 2011 4:38 p.m. Nitroracer SuperDork

I have hawk hps pads on the front of my camaro and standard replacement pads on the rear. During the bed-in process I can get the fronts to grab hard enough that the rear of the car starts skipping across the pavement. This is only after a very very hard stops though.