Anybody ever use Ceramic brake pads on the front? I'm easy on my brakes, but with only 1,200 miles on the car I'm getting a lot of dust on the calipers and wheels. Any problems using a Ceramic pad? Thanks.

 

or you could get some shields

 

Don't those cut into your rotors? Or am I thinking of something else..... I need coffee......

 

I used some Friction Master Ceramics on my MINT 89 Firebird and i got just as much brake dust. Maybe i got a bad batch though.

Lee

 

I had them (ceramic pads) on my Mustang GT and they did okay, but the car didn't have stock rotors when I installed the pads. Didn't ever have any dust.

As for shields, I don't see how they'd fit with the caliper so close to the wheel. And I like the looks of the glossy red calipers.

 

OK, here comes my .02

Braking is friction. It's a fight between two surfaces to see who's the baddest mo' fo' to ever live behind a spinning rim.

Thought process #1: Use an easily defeatable brake pad, as they are cheaper and easier to replace than rotors.

Newer thought process #2: I want to keep the asbestos film of my "hotter-than-the sun" new rims. And besides, most rotors these days are as easy to change out as the pads (no re-packing of the wheel bearings required).

As I only have a little over 10k on my white beast, I don't yet know if these cars have "thru-the-lug-pattern" type of rotors. If they do, I'd say go with the ceramics. With these types of rotors, you would be crazy not to replace them along with the pads. Good ceramic pads last much longer, meaning they would be more cost effective with "easy off" rotors.

That being said, can anyone chime in with info on the type of rotors SRT-4s have?

 

I ordered Napa Ceramix pads - same type I had on my Mustang GT.
And since the pads are about the same size as the GT's and the SRT-4 rotors are actually larger than the '02 GT rotors with the SRT weighing several hundred pounds less than the Mustang, I don't think I'll have any problems with the pads.

 

Rotors are a piece of cake.

1. pop off the wheel/tire
2. Theres two HUGE 18mm bolts behind the caliper, one on the bottom you can get at with a rachet, the other up top needs a racheting wrench to prevent aggravation.
3. Pull Caliper off (pads pop out)
4. Pull Rotor off

I have Mopar Stage 1 cross drilled cadium coated rotors with Hawk CF pads. They squeak....but I get ZERO brake dust

 

how is the brake performance?

 

No...it is friction but it is also a fusion. The brakes on a car will be friciton, high wear, or once they get hot, it will be a case of the brake pads fusing to the rotors and then the breaking of that bond. If you are not going to be racing get a good set of street pads, if you buy the racing pads for the street, they will never get up to the proper temperature to get the pads to adheare to the rotors, and you will wear your rotors out very fast, it will be all friction, and get bad braking at the same time, it is not uncommon for racecars to have thicker rotors after racing than before due to the transfer of brake pad onto the rotor. The pocess of bedding in pads is so that you get that transfer layer. That is the bonding between the pads material and the rotor. Get the right pads for the right application. Here, racing pads don't do **** for you if you are going to be running on the street.