Have spoken to 2 different Mechanics re replacing my pads on my Jaaaaaag XK 2008 with ceramic ones. One of the mechanics says its OK to do and the other said he wouldn't change them to ceramic unless they came out of the factory that way (which they didn't), any suggestions?? Thank you very much

 

Never had adverse effects with ceramic pads on any of my cars.

 

Personally, I don't like the "feel" of ceramic pads. Not enough bite for me.

 

WRightway, I ran ceramic pads with cross-drilled rotors on my X-Type for 6 years. There are pros and cons to the ceramic pads.

First off, the ceramic pads are a harder surface than most other types of pads out there (only one harder is probably fully metallic pads). So, when it comes to initial stopping power, you may find that when the ceramic pads are cold, they will tend to slide a little more. This can be especially true in adverse weather. But, after a few rotations of the wheel and you start getting heat into the pad, it will soften up and start to really grip. So, are the stopping distances more, can be argued both ways. In all practical applications, the overall distance from say 60 MPH (100 KPH) to stop is going to be within feet of each other between ceramic pads and other conventional pads.

As for dust. Ceramic pads are hands down some of the cleanest pads that you will be able to find. I am sure there are some other pads out there that are non-ceramic that will be low dust too. BUt, as a general rule, ceramic pads emit very low dust. So, your wheels tend to stay cleaner with less cleaning.

Now the downside. The ceramic pads are harder. This means that when you apply the brakes, instead of the pads being the sacrificial item, the rotors are taking more of that abuse and will result in increased rotor wear. So, you can plan on replacing your rotors atleast as often as you are now, if not slightly more often. I had the ceramic pads on my car for 6 years and drove around 100,000 miles with this setup. I ended up going through 2 sets of pads and 1 pair of rear rotors (mainly due to problems with the rear calipers, not the pads/rotors themselves) and on the fronts I went through a pair of pads and were halfway through the second pair of pads while still on the original rotors. Was I racing around town and locking up the brakes every chance I could. By no means. Was I easy on the brakes, not really. I wouldn't make aggressive stops all the time, but I also was not afraid to stop on the brakes when I had to.

As for stopping power, I would say that once the ceramic pads started gripping, they gripped better than the original pads that came with the car when I bought it (probably not factory pads as the car had 80K miles when I bought it). I know when I hit the brakes hard, I was afraid of planting the bumper into the road. If there was something on the front seat, it was definitely on the floor with a firm application of the brakes.

The only other "negative" thing I can say about the ceramic setup I had (and this has to do more with the rotors than the pads themselves) was the first few stops in the morning, you would get a slight whirring sound. Nothing to really draw attention, but if you knew what to listen for, you would hear it. You would also hear it when you slammed on the brakes really hard. But, this is more the rotors than the pads. I also will not get into the argument of whether cross-drilled/slotted rotors are of a benefit to a standard street car. I will let you form your own opinion on that.

 

I use ceramic on both of our Jags and installed drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads on a 09 Explorer. There is far less dust but I did it for the fade free brakes. The set up on the explorer provides far better performance than the stock set up. The 95 and 99 jag use EBC's OEM style rotors with EBC's red stuff (99) and yellow stuff (95) pads.

 

Brake Tech Information - Why Ceramic Brake Pads?
There is lots of info on the web often contradictory. I replace the pads on all my cars with ceramics as soon as I can regardless of the condition of the installed pads. After the initial GENTLE 500 mile break-in, I have noticed no reduced performance and virtually no dust. Just did the 13 XKR two weeks ago. Not broken in yet, but can already feel them starting to bite better. Since I don't track the cars, I'm willing to trade all the dust for a little less grip. Under normal driving conditions, I can't tell a difference. I have not noticed a difference even in very hard driving in the mountains on my previous 07 XKR.