Brake Pad Advice

scaza

scaza

scaza

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Joined
8 Jun 2008
Posts
651
Location
Stoke-On-Trent
Afternoon,

Cutting a long story short, did a tracking Friday - loved it, got the bug. My brakes are screwed, 4 warped discs and no meat on any pad. Braking on the way home was...interesting.

Now I was recommended by one of the Mx5 club motorsport guys to get Ebc Yellow front pads, Green Rear pads, OEM or equivalent discs and better brake fluid, since it's also my daily, not to be too focused.

All of which I have gotten, apart from the green rear pads. Everywhere I seem to look for reviews they seem to be rated no better than standard.
My question to you guys is - Is it worth forking out for the greenhouse pads, or just stick some OEM on the rear.

Cheers.
 
I'd probably just go with yellowstuff all round, they're an OK pad at best but will certainly do you far better than stock on trackdays. I really really hated green and red stuff pads when i've used them so i'd actively avoid them if you can.
 
MX5? Mintex 1144 front, yellowstuff rear (no 1144 available), regular blank discs, RBF600 fluid. You can beat on them hard for 30 minute long sessions no problem, strong braking power and perfectly usable on the road. I would recommend it. Yellowstuff are ok but they get a bit weak when hot and the pedal becomes soft, mintex is a big improvement and I think they are cheaper too.
 
Clarkey said:
MX5? Mintex 1144 front, yellowstuff rear (no 1144 available), regular blank discs, RBF600 fluid. You can beat on them hard for 30 minute long sessions no problem, strong braking power and perfectly usable on the road. I would recommend it. Yellowstuff are ok but they get a bit weak when hot and the pedal becomes soft, mintex is a big improvement and I think they are cheaper too.
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Can't find any mintex for the Mk3 unfortunately, just a load of threads complaining about the lack of mintex 1144 pads for these calipers.
If you guys think it's worth sticking more yellow stuff in the rear I'll just do that. There was a reason at the day why yellows weren't suggested but I can't remember for the life of me, I was having too much fun haha.
 
I won't be using anything EBC personally, after being passenger in a car that went straight on at the chicane at Spa. They'd only done 400 road miles as well...
 
A lot of it depends on your driving style, I've known some people use greens with no problem and others set reds on fire on basically the same car. I personally find that I'm very light on brakes, I brake early and smoothly and use a lot of engine braking, but I've passengered with people who arrive at a corner 'last of the late brakers' style and hammer the brakes hard which always seems bit unnecessary to me, particularly on a trackday.
 
Honestly my experience is that it makes no real difference to pad fade if you brake slow and long or hard and fast, end of the day you're still putting the same amount of energy into the brakes.

I'm in the latter camp tbh, stand on it hard at the last moment. Always used to kill the brakes but then I got CL brakes RC6 and fitted large cooling ducts and now it's relentless and really not bad re. wear either. Horrible on road though, god awful.
 
Clarkey said:
RBF600 fluid.
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Absolutely 100% change the fluid after a trackday, it's only £20-30 and get some some proper stuff like Clarkey suggested or AP Racing R4, ATE Type 200, Castrol SRF (expensive but amazing) etc rather than OEM.
 
See if you can find any CL5+ pads, i really love them. Very nice road manners (apart from some squeal) and can take quite a pounding on track too, i could do 20 minutes with no issues at all in my old STi and that's quite a heavy car.

I'm also in the brake at the last second camp, it's the same energy being put into the brakes so stand on them hard :D i've always enjoyed the sensation of hard braking on track days just as much as the cornering or acceleration.
 
Clarkey said:
Honestly my experience is that it makes no real difference to pad fade if you brake slow and long or hard and fast, end of the day you're still putting the same amount of energy into the brakes.

I'm in the latter camp tbh, stand on it hard at the last moment. Always used to kill the brakes but then I got CL brakes RC6 and fitted large cooling ducts and now it's relentless and really not bad re. wear either. Horrible on road though, god awful.
Click to expand...

I'd have thought braking longer they might be cooler as theres more time for air to cool the discs?
 
My five has drilled and groved EBC disks and i had greenstuff pads which performed well. I since swapped these for mintex pads and i haven't noticed much difference, although im yet to do a track day with these.

When i looked into it myself i didn't find much useful advice with many conflicting opinions. I think because its quite a light weight car any reasonable set of pads and disks will do a good job stopping it. I would love to see some actual testing though rather than reading the advice of 18 year old's who have nothing to compare it to :P
 
Evening chaps,

The company I've bought the bits off called to say that afterall they had some greenstuff in stock and have shipped them next day, which was what started all of this second guessing as to whether they were needed if I couldnt get any.
I've ended up buying Brembo discs, Yellowstuff front pads, greenstuff rear pads, pagid brake fluid for over winter (since it was £5 and I need the car ASAP) with ATE TYP200 on order and to go in next year.
Half and half on whether to order braided brake lines and change them when I go to the better fluid, if it's worth it.

Also got some oil and a filter as a treat since the car did so well at oulton park and it's due soon, a little early won't hurt.

I did some research and found Paul Roddison does his own pads for the Mk3 as mentioned in this thread, which are supposed to perform with similar characteristics to the EBC yellows, so that's where I'll end up next if (when) I ruin these pads.

Thanks for the advice guys, even though this time it wasn't necessarily needed for this order, it's given me a lot to read up on with regards to trackday performance vs cold winter commutes especially
 
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