Front Discs and Pads

zoricib · July 5

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to replace my front discs and pads at the next service in a few months. Should I go with OEM-like quality or is an EBC Green stuff & their discs upgrade worth it?

Any other low-dust pads recommended?

johnatg · July 5

When I had an is250 I used Redstuff pads - can't remember whose discs. I would have used red on my GS300h but no one could supply when I needed them so I went with Yellowstuff which are great but very dusty. Redstuff are the only pads which don't contain metal - that makes dust easy to remove.

I've never been convinced that Greenstuff offer any great advantage.

McShmoopy · July 5

I think Linas explained it quite in depth in another post but the IS front brakes are a little undersized so going for quality parts is never a bad thing in this situation, EBC seems to be a good make and he suggested them as a good option, I've got some Brembo's that I fitted myself and theyre okay but I just went for the cheapest option at Euro car parts at the time with some Andura front discs. Smooth quiet braking so no complaints so far

Linas.P · July 5

That is right, they are kind of undersized, although I would not conclude that using more premium parts is really worth it.

Basically, the issue with IS250 brakes is not quality of parts, but rather fundamental design/size. So throwing good parts on flawed design is kind of waste of money.

That said, from other perspective - IS250 brakes needs all the help they can have, so it is not "bad" idea to put best parts you can. It is just not good value for money.

Further - what is the the cost of yellowsuff? £120 for pads alone? What is the cost of actual good quality disks - also £120? So that is £240... GS300 brake kit is £300. And I would argue the cheapest disks for GS300 that are like £60 and cheapest pads for £32 will be much better than best disks and pads for IS250 brakes. So for £300 with GS brakes one can have say 50% better performance vs. paying £240 for the best parts on undersized IS250 system and getting maybe 5% better performance over stock. Therefore in long term this upgrade is win-win, less maintenance, less dust and you can throw cheapest pats and still have better braking performance.

J Henderson · July 5

I have the EBC slotted discs and Yellowstuff pads on the front of my car and I really like them. So much so, that I'll also be fitting them to the rear end when time (and the weather) permits.

As John pointed out, they probably do generate a lot of brake dust. Whether they are significantly worse in this regard than OEM (Textar?) pads, I'm not so sure. Those were pretty dusty as well IMO.

Personally, the dust doesn't really concern me much as my wheels are ceramic coated, and I tend to wash the car quite often, but if the dust factor is of real importance, I'd be tempted to try some of the ceramic pads that rockauto.com sell.

Honestly, I'd be fine with buying the cheapest discs & pads that are available on autodoc - Ridex.

I had never even heard of them before, but fitted them to all 4 corners of a family member's car quite recently and the quality was very impressive. They seemed every bit as good as a "name" brand like Mintex, brembo, Pagid etc. But at half the price, or less.

Linas.P · July 5

As far as discs concerned, I would agree - it makes absolutelly no difference what brand they are. Perhaps the difference can be whenever they are coated or not (coated ones just looks better as they don't rust as much on the surfaces that brake pads do not touch). So would also go for cheapest discs. That said I would avoid drilled discs (in my experience they warp), but all other styles (dimpled, c-jook, slotted etc) works fine. The only downside is noise under braking.

As for pads, just to be clear - NONE of them improves braking distance or overall braking performance, the question is only the brake feel (whenever they are grabby, floaty, shaky etc.), dust and noise. Don't want to change the topic and go into too much details, but the only thing that improves braking are the tyres, and that is the only thing that matters. One can fit GS300 brake kit, or some super GT sports car 8 calliper "big brake" kit with carbon ceramic discs from race car, it does not matter at all for braking, IS250 will stop in exactly same distance, limiting factor is only the tyres (and 80% of that is front), bigger or better brakes are only about repeatability (how many times in a row you can stop before brakes overheat) and maintenance (bigger surface means less heat, wear and dust). Also it is kind of compromise - smooth braking pads tend to be more dusty and quick wearing, the low dust ones tend to be grabby and noisy when driving slowly, also they may wear the disk more... and that results into more dust. So perhaps OEM ones in this aspect are quite good, because you get quite a lot of dust from the pad, but less metal dust from the disc itself.