I'm partial to the ceramic material as I've heard there would be less brake dusting. Longevity is also improved. Seems to be the material of choose for police cruisers and cabs.

However, I do have two concerns. How is cold breaking with ceramic? Will I expect longer stops in the mornings? How long does it take to come to temperature?

And two, does ceramic pads have the ability to hold heat rather than bleed it off? I would be concerned about warping the rotors if the pads hold high temperatures.

Any personal experiances out there?

Michael

 

I'll weigh in here. ...your results may vary...

I bought a 98 Z28 in June. It had the original brake pads and rotors on it. Shortly after I bought it, I threw on some NAPA Ceramic Pads (I think the brand name is Application Engineered Ceramix).

I only have meaningful experience with these pads, not the originals so I really can't compare to the originals since I changed them so quickly.

1) I drove a track date at Beaver Run with no rotor warpage.
2) I autocrossed the car about 10 events with the pads. No problem, no warpage. I love the brakes on my LS1, but then again, I "upgraded" from a 1988 L98 IROC Camaro. Those weren't such great brakes on the IROC. I would say that the better braking system is the reason that I like the brakes, not necessarily the pads.
3) I drove a track date at Mid Ohio and had moderate warpage of the rotors.
4) Since that time, I drove the car all winter (with snow tires on it). Since the tires aren't that grippy, the brakes were more powerful than the tires, even well below zero. I noticed no problems in the cold.
5) Over the winter, the rotor warpage slowly wore away. Which I have purchased new rotors, I am going to wait to install them since the rotors are now fairly true.
6) Dust? I get a fair amount of dust on the wheels. When combined with road salt, snow, and sand, the wheels become a real pain to clean if left alone for a couple of weeks.
7) Rotor warpage in general. I don;t know if you can blame the ceramic pads directly for warpage. The stock rotors seem to do this with many different brands of pads...

Hope this helps...

 

I put a set of the Napa ceramic pads on mt LT1 about 10,000 miles ago. The only benefit to me is that there is less dust. They do not work any better than stock pads IMO.

My advice would to get the performance friction pads from Autozone. These are some of the best pads for the street IMO, and are a good deal at about $50.

From my experience, any pads that are more of a "race" type pad then those sacrifice too much cold weather breaking for a daily driven street car. JMO though.

 

Thanks for the replys.

Michael

 

I run Street PFCM's on my SHO. Much better than stock. I also run Semi-metallics on the rear. That was the biggest improvment as the car has more overall braking power.

The pads work fine when cold (it's been as cold as -8 here in CT), better when hot.
However, if you wash the car/rims and you wash the dust off the rotors, they take a few stops to re-bed. When properly seated, you can hear them kind of grind as they clamp down. When clean, you don't hear anything.

I have not tried the Ceramics, though some in the SHO community are running them down south.


TankII