Green Stuff Brake Pads For Rx300, Opinions Please

[NEV72]

Just had the car in for a service today, and it was noted that the brake pads, front and rear have worn down a fair bit and will soon need replacing.

I've been looking at buying the EBC Green Stuff pads, also saw Red Stuff pads too. I want to try and upgrade from the OEM pads if I can, and was wondering if anyone in here had had any experience in using Green Stuff, I've also seen on eBay on their American sites, ceramic pads. any views on these also?

Cheers in advance Nev

[Anees]

I have Red stuff on my BMW and they are very good once up to temperature, but I wouldn't buy them again due to the time it takes, especially in the winter. They are half-worn now and performance is noticable worse then it was before. They are noisy too, but it might be the grooved and dimpled discs I have.

When I got the Aristo it had EBC Green Stuff pads - they were okay but still nothing special. Personally I would just look at getting some decent pads from Toyota, Mintex or Delphi. They will be fine for most normal use and cost about the same or less.

[NEV72]

I have Red stuff on my BMW and they are very good once up to temperature, but I wouldn't buy them again due to the time it takes, especially in the winter. They are half-worn now and performance is noticable worse then it was before. They are noisy too, but it might be the grooved and dimpled discs I have.

When I got the Aristo it had EBC Green Stuff pads - they were okay but still nothing special. Personally I would just look at getting some decent pads from Toyota, Mintex or Delphi. They will be fine for most normal use and cost about the same or less.

Thanks for your reply Anees

Interesting what you say about the Red Stuff pads mind, considering this is what the seller reckons.

"THE RED STUFF brake pads, ALTHOUGH A FULL RACE MATERIAL CAPABLE OF HIGH TEMPERATURE USE WITH VERY GOOD WEAR LIFE, THIS NEW FORMULATION SETS A NEW TREND IN RACE TYPE PAD COMPOUND.

THE BITE FROM COLD IS SUPERB WHICH UNCOMMON WITH OTHER RACE TYPE MATERIALS WHICH NORMALLY REQUIRE WARM UP.

THEY PROPERLY GRIP THE BRAKES AND LAST A LOT LONGER!!!! THEY DONT EVEN NEED TO BE BEDDED IN BECAUSE THEY WORK AS SOON AS THEY ARE FITTED,SO YOU CAN SLAM YOUR BRAKES WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT THEM BEING JUST NEW!!!!!"

By the way I've been told to avoid Mintex stuff by a chap at Kwik-Fit as he reckons they're total crap.

I'd like to hear from other RX members in here so I can get a better idea of which pads to go for.

Cheers Nev

[ihpj]

I had the GreenStuff pads on my PUG 205 GTi with EBC TurboGroove discs. The combination worked fine (low dust, good bite) and I think that combination works well. They gave me confidence from cold and when warm, didn't notice any real fade (but I didn't drive it hard!) and was generally happy with them.

On a heavier (and larger) car like the RX, I think they would be too soft (not up to the job)...and IIRC even EBC don't recommend them for SUVs as they do their own dedicated SUV brakes (YellowStuff?). The red I would suggest for fast road use - but I have generally found the OE Toyota pads to be very good. A bit eager to dust, but they have never let me down or given me cause tho think they are fading too early etc.

Mintex I would back, as would I Jurid, Textar and ATE - they are the big brake companies whose reputations are built on their products - for example, Jurid are OE to VW and Textar to BMW.

Unless you have a pressing need - stick with OE and you should be fine.

[RXStu]

Buy them. I bought pads and discs and have had no problems with them. See my post.

[NEV72]

On a heavier (and larger) car like the RX, I think they would be too soft (not up to the job)...and IIRC even EBC don't recommend them for SUVs as they do their own dedicated SUV brakes (YellowStuff?). The red I would suggest for fast road use - but I have generally found the OE Toyota pads to be very good. A bit eager to dust, but they have never let me down or given me cause tho think they are fading too early etc.

Having been doing a bit more research on the Green Stuff for my RX, I've found a place that sells EBC Pads, the colour coding for EBC starts with Black going up to race performance Blue. I'll post up the info regarding the colour coding it may help some.

EBC BLACK

EBC black coded brake pads are a high friction premium quality friction material approved to ECE R90 brake safety regulations and as such are an exact equivalent to original equipment pads fitted to your vehicle from the factory.

When you buy EBC R90 replacement pads you are getting an exact equivalent to an original equipment pad for far less money. Don’t let the lower price point cloud your view of this superb quality product, these pads will stop your vehicle as fast as any original equipment pad and faster than most aftermarket pads. One brilliant feature of EBC R90 pads is their ability to completely eliminate brake judder and these pads will actually COMPENSATE for mild brake judder after 300-400 miles of use.

Ultimax R90

Now also featuring EBC's unique Brake-In bed-in coating these pads offer superb brake effect up to normal motorway speeds and are a perfect replacement pad for cars and light commercial vehicles. As with all EBC pads, centre line slots to prevent cracking and noise, edge chamfers to further offfset noise and vibration are a standard feature of this quality pad.

DPC Carbon for Light Commercial Vehicles

For longer life in fleet type applications, EBC now offers more than double the life of standard pads with its new DPC range shown in the second upgrade column.

GREEN STUFF

EBC Green Stuff 2000

Designed for premium street driving offering better brake effect at loads and speed. EBC Greenstuff has a high initial brake effect and gives drivers confidence from first application of the brake pedal. There is no such thing as a NO DUST pad. The very nature of how a brake works requires that some dust be generated to avoid rotor vibration (shimmying). The EBC pad creates less dust and dust is more easily washed off than most. All pads create more dust as they are bedding in especially if rotors are worn. Features EBC Brake-In™ surface coating which conditions rotor surface and accelerates pad bed-in.

EBC Description of Green Stuff. - "Greenstuff" is the name coined to describe our current sport automotive pad. A high friction Aramid based organic pad with very low metallic content that comes on strong from first application of the brake pedal, without disc damage and minimal brake dust. Recommended for road use and hillclimb only.

Fast/Heavy Street Use - Brake well from cold - Effective to above 650°C - Lower dust formula

EBC Green 6000 Series

An excellent solution for 4x4 use, this heavy duty Greenstuff formulation has slightly lower friction than its 2000 series counterpart but has the benefit of longer life and better resistance to offroad conditions of dust and sand etc. It has an extremely low rotor wear factor and medium-to-good lifetime.

EBC Green 7000 Series SUV Supreme

For a small price premium over the 6000 series these pads are THE ULTIMATE SUV FRONT END PAD These pads will stop faster and last longer with almost zero brake dust and are EBC's premium offering for heavy 4x4s. These pads are GUARANTEED noise free.

The features and benefits of this new SUV Supreme Range include.

Chamfered and slotted.

Factory shimmed with triple layer Wolverine shims.

Coated with friction accelerator for fast bed-in.

EBC Red Stuff

Our semi metallic high performance road material made a flying start in saloon car racing, having clinched the Slick 50 Saloon Car Championship with the Honda of Ian Mitchell in 1997, with extensive use by many race teams going into 1999 on the Porsche 924 Championship cars and on European Citroen Saxo and BMW class racing. Now only recommended for road use in cars with 200BHP+.

Nominal friction coefficient 0.5 with approx. 50% dust reduction compared to other pads.

Since this material was introduced in late 2003, it has received many positive write ups from performance drivers of faster cars. This is a truly impressive fast road pad for repeated heavy braking. It emits far less dust than semi-metallic pads and has been proven to stop a saloon car 13 metres quicker than OEM pads from 100mph/160kph. Features EBC Brake-In™ surface coating which conditions rotor surface and accelerates pad bed-in.

EBC Yellow Stuff

“Yellowstuff” is the name for EBC’s latest full race formulation which is currently in race use in Europe and was the choice of 1999/2000/2001 series winners Nick Reynolds and Martin Bell in the BMW Class, Westfield and S2000 Championships in 2002.

Yellow Stuff is now the official brake pad of the Subaru Challenge.

Although a full race material and capable of high temperature use with very good wear life, this new formulation sets a new trend in race type brake pad compounds. The “bite” from cold is superb which is uncommon with race materials (normally requiring warm-up) and makes this a pad which can be safely used on the highway as well as on the race track. This new formulation was used by numerous championship race and rally drivers in 2004 and is truly a milestone in brake pad material development. Nominal friction coefficient 0.6 with zero rotor damage

EBC Blue Stuff

Our endurance grade, longest lasting material "Bluestuff" has a slightly lower friction coefficient than its counterparts Green, Yellow and Red but delivers far longer life and is suitable for endurance races up to six hours in duration on most types of saloon cars. It is obviously the drivers responsibility to evaluate the lifetime before undertaking any types of race use.

Endurance Grade - Closed circuit race only - Longer lifetime - Effective to over 800°C

EBC Bluestuff is the longest lasting of the EBC brake pad materials family and is designed for heavier and faster sedans/passenger cars/muscle cars in track use.

EBC Brakes has had great success using this material in longer races with the Australian touring car champion Peter Brock and in the UK on the Vauxhall Monaro driven by Matt Griffin and Phil Andrews, and in France on the Porsche 911 series.

Bluestuff has a nominal friction coefficient of 0.55, good temperature stability up to 1000°F and higher, with significant lifetime making it capable of withstanding 3-5 hour duration races.

So then I've now decided to go for the Green Stuff pads for mine, but as you can see there are 3 types the series 2000, series 6000 and series 7000 which are specially made for 4x4 SUV vehicles.

I asked the chap at the shop if because I had the RX300 whether I ought to go for the 7000 series, but he told me that the 6000 would be totally adequate and I'd be wasting the extra money on the 7000's.

The problem I do have though is that there is a choice of two types of pad for the rears. the type that is retained by a pin at the top (DP61397) or the type of pad that is retained by the left and right "ears" (DP6628) The front pads are no problem as there's only one type (DP61634)

I'm thinking that the type I need are the ones with the "ears".

Cheers Nev ;)