Does anyone know what a good brand of high-performance disc brake pads is? I probably don't want something that requires a lot of warm-up time, since I do mostly city driving, but stronger brakes are always a good thing.

 

I'm a big fan of Porterfield R4S carbon kevlar pads. I've also heard good things about Hawk HPS and EBC "Greenstuff" pads. All of these pads are "street" compound and shouldn't require much warmup to work.

 

cool. thanks.

 

Does anyone have the pads from Hawk Performance??? I noticed that Advanced Imports sells them...

Just wondering if they are worth it to get, and if there is a noticable difference?

 

honestly, better pads are not going to do much for your ultimate braking ability. once your brakes are strong enough to lock the wheels (or turn on the ABS), the only thing that will shorten your distances are better tires (more traction means the brakes can squeeze harder w/out locking, shortening your distance). better pads will reduce the pedal effort, but make the brakes lock up easier.

just my $.02. btw, i haven't found any hi-po pads for my '02...

 

I've got the Hawk HPS (i think- may be HP+) pads on the front of my 2000 ES (I had to get some custom lined shoes for the drums in the back from carbotech). Basically, I asked for pads for Autocross/Street use. they don't take time to warm up and I did notice a difference. The car will STOP- so be carefull if you don't have ABS cuz you will lock em up!
I also noticed a difference in rotor wear- I've had them for a little over 20K miles and I should have had the rotors turned a while ago.

Tires make a huge difference too. When I put on the race rubber (hoosiers) the car stops much faster.

 

EBC makes some dustless pads that are pretty nice. They have green and red. One street and one track respectively. They are not available for Protege yet, but tire rack says they will be soon. It is true that pads will not reduce your stop times by much with the stock suspension and tires, but they will dramatically increase initial bite and reduce fade to a degree. Plus these are dustless. With aftermarket wheels and better Max performance tires, there presence becomes much more noticable

 

Oh thank you for saving me the trouble of posting something like this. "Better" or "stronger" brakes without grippier tires = serious waste of cash.

~HH

 

if you are planning on spending some time at the track with sticky tires, then upgrading the brakes is a must. otherwise, what he said.

 

From my understanding(correct me if i'm wrong) the factory pads for a 99-up protege with 4-wheels disk(P5, MP3 and ES) and supposed to be awesome. I mean if you goto the factory the front pads are 80 a pair for the front and 60 for the rear, but if you goto www.mazdaformance.com you can get the front for 65 and the rear for 45. Everyone I call tells me the only people who make the pads that fit a protege is the factory. I see a few brands here and the only one i called of those was EBS. I'm fixing to have to replace my pads on my P5 and if there are a better pad for cheaper, then please let me know.