When I got my car 18 monts ago, the brakes were crappy,
I bought el-cheapo rotors and fancy EBC redstuff pads.
They have never been any good. It seems like there is just not much friction between the pad and the disc.

Ever since the ceramic pads were installed, the discs had rings of fairly black colour, sorta random, a little bit on each disc.
This past weekend I unhooked the parking brake cables from the rear calipers to let the adjusters swing back all the way,I think that because the cables are slightly siezed (stiff to move the cable) the adjusters were not being allowed to move fully, this causes the piston to not be close enough to the disc, and therefor excess pedal travel.

I drove a bit and the pedal was feeling better, still not BMW like.. but better. Next I removed the brake cables and spent some time getting them totally freed up. and put it all back together.

I went out and did some stop testing and they are for sure better than before.. but still not great.

What did happen was my brake discs have turned completly black. it looks very cool.. like the ferrari ceramic discs..

What I dont know if this is typical for the RED stuff pads or if the black coating is a problem with el-cheapo discs.

So all that to ask, if you are running red stuff pads, are your discs blackened?

THanks
B