Same reason i witheld comments.

That's me in the original Back To The Future DeLorean. You can see the flux capacitor behind me has almost reached the necessary 1.21 gigawatts necessary to send me back in time to... well, HERE! Glad to see you're all still here!!!!!!!!

So I just thought I'd check in with a question:

I'm (still) running Hawk HPS pads these days for their low dust properties and decent performance, but I'm FINALLY to the end of this set on all four corners, so I was wondering: in the last 4 or 5 years, have there been any new brake pads introduced that are in the HPS class of performance (or better) that are even less dusty? :-)

I'm slightly anal retentive, sooooo I HATE BRAKE DUST! Just get finished polishing those pretty wheels and one drive later, BLEH.

Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?

P.S. Oh, and since I was last here, I've become a pro photog for a living, a pro video guy for a living, a sponsored mountain climber (which doesn't really pay, but I get ree stuff, soooo...), a fitness junkie, an employee of Eddie Bauer just because I love the climbing gear, and a certified music freak. Oh wait, I was always a certified music freak. But the rest is all true. :-)

Great to be back. And DAMN those new Boxsters are calling me, but I can't part with my beautiful '03S... probably ever.

And MARC! I'm just about to crack 100k miles!! Gimme another 3k and I'll be there. About to take her in for a big service, actually.

.. Bryan, it's great to see you here again.
You're almost finishing your break-in period: 100K.
I'm not one to give advise to anal retentive guys about brake dust.
My brake pads produce a lot of dust, but they brake really hard.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

I hear ceramics can below dust. Stoptech 309s pretty good.

I happen to hate the HPSs (but they are low dust). HP+ may be the worst dust i have ever seen bar none.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Thanks for the thoughts, guys... And keep in mind, if I didn't want anyone's opinions, I wouldn't have even posted the question haha. All thoughts and opinions are very much welcomed and appreciated. I've never heard of the HP+, so that's good to know as I'm looking for new pads, as I'm sure I'll run across them.

Grant, I seem to recall you're a sometimes-racer/track guy, is that correct? It's been so long I can't remember for sure, so forgive my poor failing memory,... Getting old! Haha . :-)

But anyway, if that's true, I can assume you mean it's primarily the performance (or lack thereof) of the HPS you hate, and probably that dust level is less of a factor in choice of pads for you? .

Good to hear from you again. My 03 S has only 74K so it's not broken in yet. We still get together for the Boxster Brunch every other month. Hope to see you.

George

Yes, i am on vector to hit abotu 30 track days this year! And my goal is to have pads that work on both trakc and street - for me that's the Stoptech 309s. That said, the problem with he Hawks (aside from being a mediocre pad) is that they use a unqiue approach to achive low dust. Dust is friction material coming off. The only way to have less dust us to have less material wear off. If you do this with a hard pad you get noise and rotor wear.

Hawk are clever. They took the well-established chemical deposition layer adhersion principles and turned up the volume. While misunderstood, pad bed-in is really a process whereby a pad puts a layer of pad material on the rotor. To avoid pulsing it must be EVEN. It nly transfers at high temps, btu not so hgih as to exceed its temp range. This is done by a series of hard stops without cooling - then rest.

The Hawk HPS uses more deposit layer-pad adhesion than pad-rotor friction to produce stopping power. Thus, less wear occurs. Sounds good.

here's the issue:

1. if the deposition layer is not even, it will pulse like a warped rotor. This can occur with time if you drive hard
2. the material reacts badly with other friction materials. So if you dont change rotors, you may get pulsing or deposit layer breakdown

In addition, i foudn the feel spongy and harder to modulate.

I had a friggin nightmare with them. I tried the HP+ because they sent me a set "free" to act as scrubbers to take the old material off. It did, btu came right back. They left such caustic, hard brake dust that i cudl nto even git it off with a toothbrush, chemicals and a plastic dental pick. It remains there in corners to this day.

I despise those pads ( and in fact, ECS and Hawk for recomending them, then doign basically nothing)

Rant off.

Textar are my preferred every-day OEM-type pad. yea, they dust, btu it comes right off.

Have you tried "rim wax"? It hardens under heat and helps with easy dust removal.

My go-to padf is now Stoptech 309. Easy on rotors, quiet on the street, modest dust (except on track when you get clouds using anything) and good for 1200 deg. So they will never fail me on track, ven if they begin to wear rapidly with heat.

309s are fine for street ( as is, frankly, anything).

I would consider some of the ceramic pads for low dust. I hve used pads from Stoptech's parent, centric - their premium line of course, and i liek them. They have a ceramic that looks good, although i did nto use it.

Bear in mind i probably go through 2-3 sets per year total on the boxster and another on the Audi. I change a LOT of pads.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

Well, it sure looks like you have made good use of your time while away....Lots of new interests and activities.

As long as you still have that beautiful Boxster, glad that you will still be hanging around!

BTW... Nice Pics!

Regards, Maurice.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2013 10:42PM by MauriceonLongIsland. (view changes)