need new pads on my ix.....heard bad things about hawk...should i use factory pads? could use a little advise thanks

 

While probably 90% of the people on evolutionm.net are going to disagree with me, I personally feel that a team of engineers a heck of a lot smarter and more dedicated than me sat down for an extended period of time and designed the Evo.

All of the parts make up an exceedingly complex system and represent a chosen series of compromises that make the Evolution what it is. That's kind of a long-winded way of saying, "If it were me, I'd leave it stock."

It's certainly possible to tweak things to deliver better (or worse) performance but without having a thorough understanding of the tradeoffs the original engineers made, I feel like I would be shooting in the dark.

You also never know when changing one element in the system (such as brake pads) can ripple through and cause another element in the system to behave differently or even fail altogether.

Granted, these machines are engineered with a massive factor of safety and the braking system *should* be a well-isolated, well-understood place to make a small change (like brake pads). BUT this makes an assumption that is difficult or impossible to validate. I mean, who ever expected that bridge in Minnesota to collapse, right? (A bit non-sequitur, yes. But funny to compare in this way nonetheless ).

Go stock. Hard to have a warranty claim denied when you're 100% stock.

 

It depends on your driving habits and braking style. Also depends on what brake system you have (including fluids).
If you road race a lot where you would need a lot of hard braking for a long period of time, you might want to go for ones that operate better at higher temperatures. In those situations I heard stock pads fade very easily.
Might need for auto-x as well depending on which type but probably not as much as road racing.
For daily driving, drag races, highway cruises (speeding, racing or not), stock is more than sufficient I believe, especially on stock rotors.
I can't really help you on which manufacturer/model pads go well with which rotors and fluids.

 

Well, the engineers at Mitsubishi probably didn't design the actual brake pads.

They probably said:

"Okay, this company has a cheap pad that's quiet and stops decent. Lets use their pads. That way nobody will complain about excessive noise and dust. Plus we can get a million of them for real cheap to keep our bosses happy. They'll probably overcharge people a ton of money at the dealership for them too. Anyone who cares about performance will get whatever pads they want anyway."

In Japanese of course.

If you're going for just a stock type replacement pad, the OEM pads work great. So do Hawk and the Stoptech/Centric Parts pads and they're a lot cheaper. If you're looking for something more aggressive, there are more options out there too.


- Andrew

 

This is probably true. Damn the realities of corporate life.

 

Yeah...and you can't blame them really. For 98% of EVO drivers, the stock pads are all anyone ever needs. I'd recommend them for more people if they weren't so darn expensive.


- Andrew

 

I got mine for $194.25 shipping included, same price for both front and rear.

 

i agree 100%. the OEM pads work great. this is also the result of "retail". people firmly believe that the stock pads work great...and they to for "most'' people. there are better options out there, as you stated, however the consumers have blinders on sometimes.

just remember this...the SPACE SHUTTLE is built by the lowest bidder-->NASA

 

Yeah, they are *INORDINATELY* expensive - is there a similar alternative that doesn't sacrifice performance but costs significantly less?

I had no idea that you had to pay $200 per axle. I thought that was for the whole car, not just per axle!

 

I had problem with the stock brakes in the beginning, th e pedal went soft when the brakes were hot. I switched to goodridge brake lines and Motule fluid and after that the were perfect. Maby the pedal(how easy it was to dose the brakes) feeling wasn't best but it was no problem for track use with r-tires.

After that i bought Porterfield R4-S pads and the just hold for 2 laps in good speed before I have to stand on the brakes with no retardation

Is there someone who have had problems with the stock pads?

 

Try Endless SS-H pads... I tested the prototype dubbed "GT-L" during pre-production runs. I posted some testing feedback here ---> https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...highlight=GT-L

 

I'm very happy with the Ferrodo DS2500s for a street pad. Even tracked them at Streets of Willow and they seemed to hold up (very cold, some brake cooling, and not being too hard on them).