Just wanted to share my experience with the Akebono EURO Ultra-Premium pads. Last year I replaced my front rotars and pads with ATE parts. I already replaced the rear with ATE parts the year before. While the rear pads are ceramic, ATE doesn't make ceramic for the front on the X-Type.

Since day one, I've noticed an annoying squeal coming from the front. I've tried to remedy the problem, but to no avail. Just as well, due to their semi-metallic nature, the pads put out A LOT, I mean A LOT, of brake dust. Probably more so than the original factory pads. Needless to say this annoyed the bloody hell out of me.

I've been sitting on a $50 off coupon from Advance Auto for a while, so I decided to use it before it expires. But since I don't have anything to spend it on, I figured might as well try new pads even though my existing pads are near-new. And so this led me to the Akebonos. They ended up costing me $22 after price matching Amazon and then taking off the $50.

I've had them on for 2 weeks and I must say they're great. No squealing whatsoever since day one. Brake dust is very, very minimal now, probably say 95% reduction from the ATE semi-metallics. I would say even less dust on the fronts than the rears now (which have the ATE ceramic pads).

As for stopping power, I definitely noticed a slight reduction from the ATEs I had, both cold and after warming up. The ATEs performed much better than the factory pads, so I'd say the Akebonos are on par with the factory pads, so not a big deal.

All in all, love the pads, and love my clean wheels and squeal-free drive.

Advance Auto has them for $120. Amazon $72. Rockauto $80 something.

 

speilnicht, the next time you are looking at pads, look on e-bay. You can get 2 sets of ceramic pads and 2 sets of rotors (cross drilled and slotted) for around $200 delivered to the house. A lot of members have gotten these and the stopping ability to me is far superior than the factory setup. I'm afraid of pushing the front bumper into the ground during a hard braking.

If you ever need any assistance with your car, I'm south of you by about an hour. I'm always working on peoples jags. Had a member over last weekend as we did his brake system. We would have gotten all 4 wheels done if it wasn't for 2 lugnuts getting rounded off inside the caps on us on the last wheel. C'est la vie. I do a lot of different things to cars.

 

Thanks Thermo, I'll definitely keep that in mind the next round of brake replacement.

Dang it, I wish I had known you were that close to me. I would have definitely asked you to help me out with the front suspension work that I got stuck on myself (compensated of course). I ended up paying a shop to do it, but I'm not happy with their work at all. You'll definitely be hearing from me in the future.

 

I've had the Akebono Euros front and rear for two years now. Still no noise, the least dust I have ever seen, great wear and sufficient stopping power. The only thing I have noticed is that they are about a 1/4 inch smaller than the factory pads so there is always an annoying rust ring on the rotors of 1/8" or so on the outer and inner edge.