Teach me brake pads

WifeCar need rotors and pads. I always buy performance pads of some sort... this is the first time I have interest in something relatively OEM but one step better.

I want decent braking power without gobs of dust/squeal. Are the Power Stop, Centric, or Bendix pads on rockauto categorized as "DD", "economy", "Performance", "Fleet", or "Long Life" really worth a E36 M3? Or are they all basically garbage parts-store pads I should avoid?

Car is a 2007 Vue. Same calipers as a Pontiac Torrent/Chevy Equinox as well.

I run performance friction pads on the daily. American made, lowish dust, good life and initial bite. Never had any complaints.

Wow, how bazaar. I just came here to post just about the same question.

Autozone has their Duralast Gold that I run on the daily's. They are decent and have lifetime warranty, so when they wear out, I just go get another set (return the old ones when you go in to avoid any out-of-pocket expense).

I've had great luck with Bosch pads from Amazon. Cheap, quiet, low-dust, and they stop well.

I'll throw my vote in with trucke on this one. DD brake pads are best when they are lifetime warranty, that way if something gets stuck/burned up/worn you can just go back to advanczonerileys and get new ones with no fuss whatever.

Yup. Gold/premium house brand for the DD vehicles. They've always served me well, even for towing.

EBC Redstuff sounds perfect for what you want, but they're not so cheap or easy to get.

In July of 2013 these are the front brakes I put on my '03 Saturn Vue.
www.advanceautoparts.com
Carquest Wearever Brake Rotor - Front Part No YH145344 $32.00

Carquest Wearever Gold Ceramic Brake Pads - Front (4-Pad Set) Part No GNAD913 $29.59

I was happy with the above purchase so in July of 2015, I put on these from Advance also.
Figure I got about 75k miles out of the first set.

Carquest Wearever Brake Rotor - Front Part No YH145344 $32.80 each

Carquest Wearever Platinum Professional Ceramic Brake Pads - Front (4-Pad Set) Part No PXD913H $43.19

I thought I bought the exact items but looks like I had Gold the first time and now Platinum.

(Warning, Parts Rep rant) I would not ever put any "house brand" (AZ/O'Reilly/NAPA/Advance) pads on, regardless of whether or not they are of the Gold/Ultra Premium variety. They are made at dozens of different manufacturers, and you literally have no idea what you are actually getting in the box. It may be a good pad, it also equally may be complete garbage. Stick with a name brand that actually manufacturers their own pads. I've been running Performance Friction pads on DD's since 06 and really like their wear, minimal dusting, low noise, and good bite. PowerStop, Bosch, and EBC are all good as well.

Full disclosure - I was a rep for NAPA for 2 years and loathed their brakes, I actually told my shops not to buy them knowing the truth. I now rep for a small independent parts store (CLAP, search the forum) and rep Centric brakes, which are based in California and owned by StopTech. I love their PosiQuiet pads, even for up to autocross use.

^ That was always my thought on "House brands", which is why I was checking what's available online.

I basically have only run either A) Hawk/Carbotech/Etc. pads or B) StopTech "street performance" pads on my cars for at least the past 6 years. The StopTech street performance have been my go-to non-performance pad. Being that this is for the WifeCar, I wanted to go with something a little friendlier from a dust perspective.

Problem I have is I have a pretty good understanding of the ranges of Autox/Track/Enduro pads... but there are 7 different Centric pads listed for Vue calipers that all might as well be the same thing as there is basically no info on any of them. Premium, Posi-Quiet, Posi-Quiet Extended Wear, C-tek, both metallic and ceramic versions of most of them, etc.

PowerStop has the Z16, Z17, and Z23 which are all ceramic.

You can get Akebono pads from Advance for many applications. Otherwise, I go OEM. House brand pads are for beater duty only in my household.

Lifetime warranty brake pads? I didn't know anybody offered lifetime warranty on a standard wear item.

Autozone gold is total crap. I've put them on a handful of vehicles and every one stops noticeably worse than whatever just came off the car. I blame it on the ceramic, I hate ceramic pads. I have used stop tech power stop semi metallic before and they stop better than stock but dust much more. On my daily Miata I had them on the rear and hawk hps on the fronts. Hps stops better and doesn't dust bad at all. If I'm looking for an upgrade over stock that still has stock feel, I buy hawk hps.

In reply to Desmond:

Autozone offers "lifetime" replacement on a lot of consumables and have for years. It's not a new practice, there's a story floating around on the Internet of a little old lady in a 60's ford who just bought lifetime replacement parts and drove the same car until she died. Dozens of batteries, a case of brake pads, ect all free

I have put Raybestos pads (their premium pad and rotors) on the last two vehicles I have done brakes on and have been thrilled with them. They were not overly expensive, but I refuse to cheap out on brakes. I've had too many cars in years gone by that had crappy brakes.

Desmond wrote: Lifetime warranty brake pads? I didn't know anybody offered lifetime warranty on a standard wear item.

not just the pads … they also offer life time warranty on the rotors

The warranty is against defects... it does not apply to wear items, although stores often exchange parts anyway.

In reply to ProDarwin:

Posi-Quiet is 1 step below the Stop Tech Street pads, so they are perfect for WifeCar or DD. Extended Wear is just molded a bit thicker. Semi-Met stops better, Ceramic has less dust. Ignore everything else, it's all lessor quality stuff for parts store house brand competition.

i order the centric pads from amazon or rock auto. generally speaking, rock auto has a slightly better price before shipping, but with my prime membership amazon ends up being $5-10 less per set after shipping is figured in. i have had nothing but good experience with them.

Javelin wrote: In reply to ProDarwin: Posi-Quiet is 1 step below the Stop Tech Street pads, so they are perfect for WifeCar or DD. Extended Wear is just molded a bit thicker. Semi-Met stops better, Ceramic has less dust. Ignore everything else, it's all lessor quality stuff for parts store house brand competition.

Good info, thank you.

I have been wondering the same as well. I think by the spring I will need new front pads on my civic. It is almost at 80k and I think it still has the factory pads. I will have to ask my shop what they use. Slapping pads on is easy, doing everything properly including the sliders and assorted hardware is a bitch and worth letting the shop do right the first time.

i always used the advanced auto golds but they ordered me the wrong pads for my wagon twice so i ended up with autozone semi metalics. They sound horrible but stop fine.

I've had good luck with the NAPA Adaptive One pads and rotors on the front and rear of my Elantra. They work well in DD duty with little to no dust or noise.

I like them enough that I picked up a set of the Adaptive One pads and rotors for both axles on the Sedona.

I'm sure many their claims are mostly marketing hype, but so far I have no complaints.

In reply to jstand:

ADO (Adaptive One) are marketing malarky. They give you a semi-metallic pad on the inside and an extremely low dust ceramic on the outside. It jack's up some ABS and TCS systems. They do seem nice because you always look at a smooth rotor with low dust. Pull your rotors and check out what the back looks like...