Brakes Wheels 1st Gen Tires EBC, Wake Up! Your Pads are Failing!

I have oem rotors and pads on the rear of my MCS. They were put there when the Hawks disintegrated at the tech check in the Spring of 2012, and I later replaced the fronts with the EBC Red Stuffs and new rotors at MOTD that year, too.

The oem rear pads and rotors are working just fine.

 

Just over 70,000 now, but about 15k in the last 8 months...
Rear rotors were replaced due to some odd corrosion (most likely a manufacturing defect, but just after the warrenty ended...so just went with Zimmerman rears) ..so went with similar pad compund as the front...kinds waiting to swap both sets...but if it ain't broke...I am not gonna toss them in the trash...dust drives me nuts, but I run what I have.
But seriously... Used hard or not pads should not separate in any reasonable use or time period.....
Ebc's history is as motorcycle pad company...remember hearing of similar issues years ago...about the same era as greens were new, and folks were having issues with warped rotors/pad deposit....
Ebc makes some good products, but they have high labor costs and it is looking like some quality control issues IMO.
If the pads bonding surface is rusting, resulting in failure, then it is still a failure... But failure of the coating used to treat the pads bases....either way..just as bad as a epoxy failure.

 

EBC also makes truck pads?????

 

Truck drifting, now that there is funny! :lol:

 

There is much debate on the cause of that particular accident. Some say it was the EBC pads, others say it was the Alta front control arms, while many swear it was the Palo Uber light bar. Then there is the school of thought that it is none of the above, but was merely due to an F56 sighting. Joke. It's only a joke...

 

:eek6:

 

Truth is, when the F56 comes out, I'll welcome all new F56 owners with open arms. I'll take into account that they may have eyesight issues, and if I see an F56 on the road, I'll still give the wave, but I'll make sure to give them plenty of leeway to prevent a sideswipe or head on collision.

 

Uhh Zippy, I posted a little before that I had a set of factory pads on the rear of my '03 JCW separate too.....

It was a strange thing, to me it sounded like I had a flat or a loose wheel, a rhythmic thump that followed wheel speed, but when I looked the tire was fine and the wheel tight. It wasn't till I got home and took the wheel off that I could see the pad had separated from the backing. I still run factory pads and haven't had any problems with them since...but it does happen.

 

no problem. i don't keep up with the fail rate of EBC pads cause we NEVER use them. (DUH they are bright green!) but i also think that many MINI Drivers ask way to much out of there green pads and that should help the problem. but i also don;t put it buy the company to just put spit on there and call it good.

 

OH NO!!! Factory pads are failing!!! :wink:

Sorry folks my meds haven't kicked in yet. :crazy:

 

Not sure if you're referring to me, but it depends on which CT pad you're running. I've run most of 'em.
1521/Bobcat - street pad, quiet, low dust, low initial bite, progressive
AX6 - auto cross pad, high dust, noisy, high bite cold to hot, good heat tolerance
XP8-12 (and beyond) - track pads, moderate to high dust, low bite cold / good to high bite warm to hot, high heat tolerance (increases with number), may be noisy

 

Not sure if it was you or not--one thing about your post that you mentioned and should be stressed, obvious to most of us but maybe not to someone figuring out pads for the first time--the bobcats are street pads, the rest of those you mentioned are track pads (I've run all the XPs from 8 on up, but none of the autox pads), and I've yet to find a track pad that isn't big time dusty--not that I'm looking for one, it's just that they've all been very dusty in comparison to stock pads or bobcats. The bobcats IMHO were less dusty than stock, but I didn't run them that long, maybe two years tops.

If you're running an aggressive compound, dust is the price you pay (not to mention rotor life), unfortunately there are many people running overly aggressive pads in the street, when bobcats or street brakeman pads or even stock pads would be better on both the rotors, and work better in the operating temps--racing compounds suck until there is some heat in the system (then they are heaven) it usually takes me a lap or two to get them working properly, that's just not going to happen driving legally in most places (places like the dragon excluded). They'll still stop when they're cold, but unless you like sound of grating metal and lengthier stops as compared to street pads, it's not a very pleasant deceleration process...

On the occasions I put aggressive pads on before I go to track (I put them on at the track on most occasions) I'm extra careful on the brakes when I'm on the street, I try to use them as little as possible, and keep extra distance for anything in front of me. I scratch my head at people running XP 12's on daily drivers with crappy all season street tires (I didn't need the more aggressive compounds until I got into R-comps) but I know there are some out there. I just hope they aren't behind me when it's cold and wet.

 

Great post...very informative!

 

cct1 - RIGHT ON.

FWIW - 1521 / Bobcats are much less dusty than OEM pads (or at least the OEM pads my 1st Gen came with in 2006, they may have changed since then), which is the primary attraction for most folks. They have much less "binary" bite, are more progressive. They'll stop the car just fine, but require much more pedal pressure to engage the ABS than the stock pads.

The AX6 pads are fine on the street, as they have excellent cold stopping performance. But are super dusty and noisy. They don't seem to be overly hard on rotors, but the pads themselves wear much faster than the 1521 compound (hence the friction and dust).

All you said about the track pads is true, in my experience. I know some folks who have run XP8's on the rear year round on their MINIs with no issues, but I don't do that. But, at least on the 1st gen cars, the rear calipers seem to have an interesting combination of duty cycle / bias, small pad area, low weight, etc. that make these pads perform well enough and make them not super dusty when driven in street conditions, but fine on the track, etc.

 

Very good info. in this thread.

 

Blimey--you're absolutely right on the rear pads, forgot to mention that--you can get away your racing pads on there driving on the street, the rears do so little anyway--I put a less aggressive pad than my fronts on the rears, like most do, and leave it there the entire track season rather than change them, it's a pain changing those. I've got three track seasons on my rear rotors and they still look good, although I'll change them for piece of mind in the spring, and pad life on the rears is laughable compared to the fronts, I got like 10 events out of the rear brakeman pads I'm running.

There may be a brakeman rear kit coming out with a little more rear bias, depending on how the car behaves, I may be all over that, Jan's initial results were good.