I'm sure most of you have the same problem with your front wheels. I get tons of brake dust on them and its very hard to go more than a couple of days without having to clean my wheels. The front wheels are much more problematic than the rear wheels. I understand that ceramic brake pads could be a solution for this problem. Is that true? Does this solution have any noticeable drawbacks?

 

Yeh, cost. Jaguar use a low dust formula with a ceramic composite, I don't use aftermarket, I get the correct pads from the Jaguar Dealer and don't have that problem. My suggestion is to use what the manufacturer supplies.

 

I'm not disagreeing with Sean B, but there are aftermarket ceramic pads available that are very good and don't make your wheels black. I've got them on the front of my car. They are Akebono pads. I've seen somewhere that they are unavailable or hard to get across the pond, but either way, ceramics seem the way to go.

 

Hi
I second the opinion that Akebono ceramic pads are the best. We have been using them on our 2001 xj8. They were installed in Dec 2009 (13000 miles so far). Low brake dust (like a fine white powder) hardly noticeable.

Pads bought from auto parts warehouse.com (autopartswarehouse.com). Front pads (AKEUR688A), Rear pads (W0133-1656408).

I also purchased Brembo OEM aftermarket brake disks for front and rear at auto parts warehouse.com.

Jim Lombardi

 

Hawk ceramic pads on my 1st X308 and plan on doing the same with my current car. I also used cryogenically frozen rotors which will not warp or wear as quickly as regular rotors and do not cost much more. The other drawback of the ceramic is more wear on your rotors. But with the better rotors I never had the problem. Brakes lasted forever, stopped better and no dust!

 

i am using MINTEX and they are dusty as hell...i am going to order through the dealer asap...i am so ready to tear these guys out...looks like i am doing the brakes...i have the R1 package with the brembos so it looks very very easy...wish me luck

 

The factory setup provides nice braking with about average dusting -- nothing like you get with a Mercedes. The only way to eliminate the dust is to move to a harder pad and that will cost you in rotors.

Some cars -- when you put on the harder pads have minimal difference in the force you need to supply ........to the pedal ..........others its noticeable.

With a harder pad and more force - more heat - bad. With a track car you need the pads to last the day and you don't care what the pads and rotors look like at the end - you just live with the force you need to apply. Much of the time you are not getting as efficient braking with the performance pads.

We always get a bit over 50k in mixed driving out of the front OE rotors -- this is two set of pads. The Mintex pads tend to be soft -- some disparage this but they were a necessity years ago with smaller/ thinner rotors.

 

EBC redstuff brake pads are the way to go, I do some extremely hard braking all of the time just for fun and these brake pads give me close to no dust at all. I wash the car every few weeks and sometimes I even skip washing the wheels since they are pretty much clean.

 

The OP is talking about his Front brakes.

Just want to point out you do not want to put a performance pad on the rear with an OE on the front -- Like the EBC Red. All 4 or front only!

The performance is different -- they grip differently (less)

 

Thanks to all who responded. I got lots of good information. I'm going with ceramic pads up front and see what kind of difference this makes. Thanks again!

 

anyone know if my mintex are ceramic? i think i am going with Hawk Performance Ceramic Pads ...i gotta get rid of the dust and i think this might explain the other issues like noisiness...

 

Have used the Hawk ceramic pads on 355mm brembo rotors for long now and am very pleased (4th set is going on soon), very low dust and good braking power (contrary to the redstuff I had, which needed to be hot before that started to grip)

 

Dust is a pain but it is the price of doing business.
All the low dust pads are compromises in terms of braking performance. Few have ECE R90 certification that would show that they are least equivalent to the originals.
The serious car manufacturers use soft pads as they perform the best.

 

The Hawk pads outperform the factory pads in every way (quieter, less dust, bite quicker, stop faster) except rotor wear, and since no one turns rotors anymore-who cares!

 

Blackbeard (Keith)
Please post the information about the brake pads and rotors you use (brand name, part number, also where you buy them and what are the prices).

Also how do the Hawk ceramic pads compare to Akebono?

Jim lombardi

 

thanks guys...i just washed my front wheels and will let you know how many days before the dust on my Mintex shows up again noticably...2001 XJR R1 Package (brembos)

 

This becomes a point of personal preference -- and it is very difficult to test two pads next to one another unless you switch everything out and drive them back to back.

The Jaguars start out with good brakes - it's not like your going to have a huge improvement.


I have owned Porsche's for years -- tracked them. Done the driving school -- european delivery. The discussion on brake pads is endless. People will tell you one is better then another - A lot of this is marketing. That is not to say that one pad is not better for a given set of wants.

The Akebono pads are OE on many Lexus vehicles -- Quality pad. They make quite a few different ones?

 

Hi yeldogt
One of the times (Aug 2005) when I brought our 01 XJ8 in for routine 6 month service at our local Jaguar dealership, they said we needed front brakes rotors and pads.

They wanted $736.00 to replace just for the front brakes.

We put on Brembo Rotors and Akebono Pads on the front brakes and the total cost with labor was $356.

In Dec 2009, they also said that we needed rotors and pads for both the front and rear brakes.They wanted $705 to replace the rear brakes. The cost for front and rear brakes will have probably have been around $1500 with sales tax.

Our friendly indy mechanic let us buy our own Brembo rotors and Akebono Pads. The total cost including labor and parts came to $539 for both front and rear brakes.

There was still a lot of pad material on the front brake pads, but the front rotors probably did need replacement within the next 5,000 miles.


The original front brakes lasted just under 4 years (almost 40,000 miles) after our Jaguar put in service date (Aug 2001).

The Brembo front rotors and Akebono Pads lasted 5 years (47,000 miles) and still would have lasted another 5000 miles.


Jim Lombardi

 

Haven't had the Akebonos, just factory, aftermarket, and the Hawks.

I bought them all (for my XJ8L) from Frozen Rotors...
http://www.frozenrotors.com/about/why-deep-cryogenics/

Hawk Front Pads-HB135F.642-$88.47
http://www.frozenrotors.com/product/...+brake+rotors/

Front Frozen Rotors-1510 FZR-$121.64 each
http://www.frozenrotors.com/product/...+brake+rotors/

Rear Frozen Rotors-1470 FZR-$112.15 each
http://www.frozenrotors.com/product/...+brake+rotors/

Don't see the rear pads...just call them they are very helpful at frozen Rotors! Your numbers and prices might vary depending on year and model.

 

Hi blackbeard
Thank you for the prices and the weblinks.
Have you keep any history on how many miles that your Jaguar goes before you need to replace these Frozen rotors and Hawk pads?

Please post your history in this thread.

I like to see how they compare to my brakes history in post# 18.

Jim Lombardi