Preferred make of brake parts

[mjt]

I'm about to order some new discs and pads for the Mk3 estate. Having read through a number of topics here on brake issues I'm in a quandary whether to go for Brembo or Pagid. I noticed one member said his Brembos were very low dust which is definitely a preference, but I'm also interested in performance and how well the disc coatings resist corrosion. On the Brembo website they are pushing their 'UV coating", whatever that is, and I wonder if it's worth paying the slight extra for it.

So, if cost is not a primary consideration, which would you experienced mechanics recommend and where would be a good place to get them?

 

[JW1982]

I am a huge fan of Brembo brake discs. I have been using the coated Brembo discs for over 10 Years now. The Original Brembo discs are produced in Italy in China. Both are excellent quality.

When buying Brembo discs you have to make sure that the discs are genuine and come from a reputable seller.  Avoid cheap counterfeit Brembo discs at all times. Counterfeit Brembo discs are often sold on eBay.

I prefer to use ceramic Textar or ATE brake pads. Both are excellent in combination with the coated Brembo brake discs. I currently have 300 mm coated Brembo discs at the front combined with ceramic Textar Epad brake pads and 271 mm Brembo discs at the rear combined with ceramic ATE brake pads. Both the front and the rear produce a bare minimum amount of brake dust. 

[TomsFocus]

I've had completely the opposite experience, nothing but problems with Brembos from both eBay and ECP.  Would hope they're genuine from ECP but who knows these days!

They seem to squeal on any car I've fitted them to and make a load of dust as well.  Performance is fine but no better than any others.  

I stick with Pagid myself, not had any issues with them so far.  I tend to buy them from carparts4less unless ECP have one of thier flash brake sales on, the normal sales aren't cheaper than CP4L.

[F0CUE]

My last change was a mintex box set but I would avoid like the plague if you don't want brake dust I'm cleaning my wheels every few days lol but apart from that performance is great on them.

[mjt]

So, in the first two replies two diametrically opposite opinions lol. I suppose that was only to be expected, everyone has their own preferences based on their experiences.

Looks like I'll just have to toss a coin for it . @F0CUE, thanks for the heads-up. Mintex isn't in my list of contenders.

Thanks all for contributing, I'll post back when I've made my choice and done the job.

[stef123]

I don’t like Brembo, Mintex is fine but not my first choice. 

It’s Pagid for me 99% of the time. Fitted countless amount of their pads and discs without issue.

[isetta]

what is the coating on the Brembo discs? does this mean you don't get any rust on the braking surface when the car is left in the rain unused for a few days?. does the coating wear through? after how long?

I am interested to know about this . My fiesta is used almost every day. I also have a VW Lupo which is not used so often and I find the scraping noise from the rust on the discs and the uneven braking resulting from this very annoying.

[Russ]

1 hour ago, isetta said:

what is the coating on the Brembo discs? does this mean you don't get any rust on the braking surface when the car is left in the rain unused for a few days?. does the coating wear through? after how long?

I am interested to know about this . My fiesta is used almost every day. I also have a VW Lupo which is not used so often and I find the scraping noise from the rust on the discs and the uneven braking resulting from this very annoying.

Brembo disks are UV coated. They eventually will rust but not as quick or as bad as other brands. I fitted Brembo pads and disks which were ok but last year a garage fitted “blueprint” disks and pads which appear to have a better ‘bite’ although I would say, create more dust.

[Dave sport tdci]

Pagid gets my vote for stock road brakes can't go wrong

[pragmatix]

Ive used pagid very happy with them, the disks are coated so dont corrode as quick as some

[bashbarnard]

A topic I can actually answer.

So a bit of back ground. Im a tech. Been in the trade 14 years. Most of the time I would always say pagid. Always.
However. Recently on certain makes of vehicle. Mainly German ones for some reason. Warpage is happening happening all the time. Regardless of milage. Had a few.sets back in sub 1000 miles. So be aware. Eicher are ok. Never really had an issue. Lack the coating though so look ***** after a day or two.

Brembo stuff is utter dog ***** now. Unless it's brembos performance range. Bug difference between the two. This again is from personal experience and many sets of brakes fitted.

On my other work I use a different company to supply my parts as I ***** hate euro car parts. I've been using Bennett's for about 2 years now to supply all my other work. I always ask for the best quality they have. They always give me apec. I've not had a single come back from these yet. I warranty all my work as well so cost comes down to me if it gets *****. They have also NEVER got a part wrong for me yet. 2 years is an impressive record for that. [emoji23]

TLDR :
pagid: ok as long as not German car
Eicher: ok but lack the coating
Brembo: utter dog ***** unless it's Thier race stuff
Apec: yet to have an issue with been using a while.

Hope that helps a little.

[mjt]

I've ordered Pagid discs and pads from CarParts4Less as recommended by Tom. Pity they don't appear to stock Ceratec, at least a search didn't find it, so I've ordered that from amazon (I normally try to avoid them if I can get stuff elsewhere).

[TomsFocus]

9 hours ago, mjt said:

I've ordered Pagid discs and pads from CarParts4Less as recommended by Tom. Pity they don't appear to stock Ceratec, at least a search didn't find it, so I've ordered that from Amazon (I normally try to avoid them if I can get stuff elsewhere).

CP4L stock everything ECP does, they just have a useless search function.   You can find the part number on ECP and then use that in he CP4L search.  

https://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l/p/-/-/-/-/?526770250&0&cc5_150

[mjt]

That's about half the price of the Mintex stuff on amazon. Too late, unfortunately, it's already on it's way.

[mjt]

Well, things haven't exactly gone to plan. Decided to tackle the job today as it was forecast to be dry all day in this area. After breaking a socket trying to get one of the caliper mounting bracket bolts out I finally got to the point of mounting one of the new discs. I'd cleaned the hub face and applied a smear of Ceratac and checked the runout which was no more than 0.01mm so all good. I then found I couldn't get the mounting bracket back on and realised CP4L had sent me 300mm discs. Whenever I'd put my car spec into other websites they always came back with 278mm so I trusted CP4L to be the same and failed to check the minutiae. On checking back on their site I realised that the two alternative sizes were listed but with the 300mm discs first so I'm kicking myself for not checking.

It's obviously my fault for not properly reading the information on their site so I'm now waiting to hear back from them. I don't know what I'll do if they refuse to have them back. I suppose I'll have to try to sell them on. Watch this space . . . . . . 😟

[williamweb]

On 8/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, mjt said:

Well, things haven't exactly gone to plan. Decided to tackle the job today as it was forecast to be dry all day in this area. After breaking a socket trying to get one of the caliper mounting bracket bolts out I finally got to the point of mounting one of the new discs. I'd cleaned the hub face and applied a smear of Ceratac and checked the runout which was no more than 0.01mm so all good. I then found I couldn't get the mounting bracket back on and realised CP4L had sent me 300mm discs. Whenever I'd put my car spec into other websites they always came back with 278mm so I trusted CP4L to be the same and failed to check the minutiae. On checking back on their site I realised that the two alternative sizes were listed but with the 300mm discs first so I'm kicking myself for not checking.

It's obviously my fault for not properly reading the information on their site so I'm now waiting to hear back from them. I don't know what I'll do if they refuse to have them back. I suppose I'll have to try to sell them on. Watch this space . . . . . . 😟

I think most diy’ers have been there and share you pain😠Nowadays I check recheck and re-recheck,however sometimes you convince yourself your right and it doesn’t work out that way, hey ho tomorrow’s  another day👍

[wilto]

On 8/8/2019 at 4:44 PM, mjt said:

Well, things haven't exactly gone to plan. Decided to tackle the job today as it was forecast to be dry all day in this area. After breaking a socket trying to get one of the caliper mounting bracket bolts out I finally got to the point of mounting one of the new discs. I'd cleaned the hub face and applied a smear of Ceratac and checked the runout which was no more than 0.01mm so all good. I then found I couldn't get the mounting bracket back on and realised CP4L had sent me 300mm discs. Whenever I'd put my car spec into other websites they always came back with 278mm so I trusted CP4L to be the same and failed to check the minutiae. On checking back on their site I realised that the two alternative sizes were listed but with the 300mm discs first so I'm kicking myself for not checking.

It's obviously my fault for not properly reading the information on their site so I'm now waiting to hear back from them. I don't know what I'll do if they refuse to have them back. I suppose I'll have to try to sell them on. Watch this space . . . . . . 😟

Hi Mike, I'm on the lookout for 300 mm discs, so if you're stuck with them I'll buy them off you.

[JW1982]

The choice of brake discs and pads is very personal.
 

For everyone who is concerned about brake dust ceramic brake pads are a great solution.

2 Years ago I replaced both the front and rear disc brakes on my Focus MK3  1.0 ECOboost. Not because the brakes were worn but because of the enormous amount of brake dust that the original FoMoCo (ATE) brakes produce. Having to clean the wheels litterally every week was a small inconvenience but after a rear caliper became seized because of the massive brake dust buildup I was completely done with it.

At the front I converted the 278 mm brakes to 300 mm disc brakes. I installed 300 mm coated Brembo discs combined with Textar Epad ceramic pads. At the rear I installed 271 mm coated Brembo discs combined with ATE ceramic pads.

The pictures below are taken this morning. Note that the wheels have not been cleaned for 6 weeks.

Most of the dirt on the wheels is just road dirt and no brake dust. 90% of this dirt can easily be rinsed off with just water. Cleaning all wheels littery takes less than 5 minutes.

The coated Brembo discs are fully coated with a dark grey coating. Afterwards the brake surface and mating faces of the discs are machined. The biggest advantage of these brake discs is that they do not rust. This looks a lot better than rusty non coated discs.

 

Apart from the drastically reduced amount of brake dust the brake performance of the Brembo discs combined with the ceramic brake pads is also a lot better than than the original brakes. After 2 Years I can say that the discs seem to wear a little bit faster when combined with ceramic pads. However the drastically reduced amount of brake dust and the improved brake performance is well worth the slightly higher wear of the discs.

[mjt]

8 hours ago, wilto said:

Hi Mike, I'm on the lookout for 300 mm discs, so if you're stuck with them I'll buy them off you.

Hi Chris, PM sent.

[madmole]

Yep, another fan of Brembo disks and pads here. No dust and great braking. There is a reason most of the supercars fit Brembo as standard

[mjt]

I thought I'd just round off this thread. I re-ordered and fitted the correct size Pagid discs. Interestingly when I checked the runout on the 278mm discs it turned out to be greater than with the 300mm, although still well within tolerance.

Having now run for just over 800 miles since fitting I can say that the new discs and pads seem to have noticeably more 'bite' than the old Ford originals, although those had started to suffer from rings of corrosion spreading inwards from the outer circumference on the inner faces so that may have compromised their effectiveness.

I've had no problems with squeal and found they create much less dust than the Ford ones so overall I'm extremely satisfied with the result.

[williamweb]

1 hour ago, mjt said:

I thought I'd just round off this thread. I re-ordered and fitted the correct size Pagid discs. Interestingly when I checked the runout on the 278mm discs it turned out to be greater than with the 300mm, although still well within tolerance.

Having now run for just over 800 miles since fitting I can say that the new discs and pads seem to have noticeably more 'bite' than the old Ford originals, although those had started to suffer from rings of corrosion spreading inwards from the outer circumference on the inner faces so that may have compromised their effectiveness.

I've had no problems with squeal and found they create much less dust than the Ford ones so overall I'm extremely satisfied with the result.

I’m looking into fitting Pagid discs and pads for my mk1👍

[Typhoonf2]

I put a set of mintex pads and discs on mine the other week but they seem to squeal now and again when it’s wet, but overall happy with them.

[mastachaz]

i got Brembo disc and pads , loads of dust same as genuine ford motorcraft.

they also make noise for some time , but i thinks they stop now , not very impressed tbh

[madmole]

1 hour ago, mastachaz said:

i got brembo disc and pads , loads of dust same as genuine ford motorcraft.

they also make noise for some time , but i thinks they stop now , not very impressed tbh

They ain't genuine Brembo's then. Brembo's are almost dustless. Squeal is cos you didn't copper grease em properly