Does anyone know a good brand of brake pad?

Combat squirrel

Combat squirrel

Combat squirrel

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Joined
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As title, I have a campervan - a Renault Master LWB Mk3 - and the rear brake pads are often worn quite quickly - mechanics checked them etc, its fine I just do a lot of adventures and travelling.

However in the past couple of years iv just had a mechanic replace them but they seem to wear out fast so I'm wondering if they are the cheapest ones money can buy - this time I'll replace them on my own but want to use high quality parts.

In my reasonably limited knowledge, I've found some Bosch brake pads - they any good? Any other brands I should look at? OCUK motors knowledge would be much appreciated!
 
Combat squirrel said:
As title, I have a campervan - a Renault Master LWB Mk3 - and the rear brake pads are often worn quite quickly
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When you say "quickly", roughly how many miles do the rears last would you guess, are we talking about a new set every two/three thousand miles or every ten thousand miles etc?

I ask because you mention you do lots of travelling and most "average" rears pads would usually last 20k-50k miles, even on a converted (and therefore heavier) van, and so knowing how long yours last, if they are wearing excessively quickly, might point to an actual problem like a sticking handbrake or caliper etc.
 
Can be normal on cars this side of the millennia with EBD to favour rear-bias braking in gentle city-speed braking and I suspect vans may be similar.
Check the rear wheels are not hot after a long run without too much braking as if they are, the pads may be excessively dragging.
 
snapdragon69 said:
Can be normal on cars this side of the millennia with EBD to favour rear-bias braking in gentle city-speed braking and I suspect vans may be similar.
Check the rear wheels are not hot after a long run without too much braking as if they are, the pads may be excessively dragging.
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Yea my Volvo gets through rear pads and discs quicker then I'm used to, I need to change them more regularly than the fronts, where as in the past it has always been the opposite.
 
snapdragon69 said:
Can be normal on cars this side of the millennia with EBD to favour rear-bias braking in gentle city-speed braking and I suspect vans may be similar.
Check the rear wheels are not hot after a long run without too much braking as if they are, the pads may be excessively dragging.
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why would ebd compromise/ use less grip ,on the front tyres ? more steering feel preserved on front wheels , distribute tyre wear on a fwd. ?
I can see modern torque-vectoring / esp .. , especially for (fly-by-wire) 4wd ev's, might solicit rear brakes more, during driving.

On a bike you put more on front, compensating weight transfer, and, to avoid loosing rear.
 
Thanks all! Yes I've been keeping an eye on it for a while and have adjusted various times, it's not dragging any more but yes the rears wear faster - also the pads are smaller than the front wheels so likely a contributing factor to faster wear.

While I'm here - anyone got a recommendation for a decent value for money torque wrench? Not specifically essential and managed for 24 years without one removing wheels and calipers etc - but thought I'd get one now to do it by the book! Needs to be 250NM minimum wrench ideally with a range of say 30-250 would be good (wheels are 235nm and caliper bolt is 36nm I've read)

Thanks! :)
 
Combat squirrel said:
Thanks all! Yes I've been keeping an eye on it for a while and have adjusted various times, it's not dragging any more but yes the rears wear faster - also the pads are smaller than the front wheels so likely a contributing factor to faster wear.

While I'm here - anyone got a recommendation for a decent value for money torque wrench? Not specifically essential and managed for 24 years without one removing wheels and calipers etc - but thought I'd get one now to do it by the book! Needs to be 250NM minimum wrench ideally with a range of say 30-250 would be good (wheels are 235nm and caliper bolt is 36nm I've read)

Thanks! :)
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I've had this silverline one for years and it's been very good. Some guy in the reviews took it to his work at some sort of engineering company where he tested it on a calibrated tester and found it to be very accurate. It's gone up a bit since then though - I think i only paid £20 for it!


This is likely to the same one as this one (tool manufacturers rebox tools):


And, i would get your user manual out and check that wheel torque. 235Nm is really quite high, even for a camper van. The internet is full of erroneous information and it's not one of the things to get wrong.

Also, you're likely to have two sets of caliper bolts - one which holds the carrier to the hub which are likely to need 100NM+ and the caliper slide pins which need only about 30NM or so.
 
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I have always had great experiences with Brembo pads, running them in standard cars right up to my highly modded RS6's quite happily, they are my go-to pad where possible. I have tried many makes over the decades, but as others have mentioned, you can't really go wrong with Brembo/Pagid pads.
 
Gaygle said:
I've had this silverline one for years and it's been very good. Some guy in the reviews took it to his work at some sort of engineering company where he tested it on a calibrated tester and found it to be very accurate. It's gone up a bit since then though - I think i only paid £20 for it!


This is likely to the same one as this one (tool manufacturers rebox tools):


And, i would get your user manual out and check that wheel torque. 235Nm is really quite high, even for a camper van. The internet is full of erroneous information and it's not one of the things to get wrong.

Also, you're likely to have two sets of caliper bolts - one which holds the carrier to the hub which are likely to need 100NM+ and the caliper slide pins which need only about 30NM or so.
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Great info, thanks so much ! Yes I've read its 235nm from other sources too - its actually a normal van that I converted, so I'm assuming its that high based on its potential cargo carrying capacity - however I'm no where near its maximum load weight & it's under 3500kg for licence limits.
 
I like Brembo.
Eurocarpsets sell the standard stuff too which is a nice bonus as they can be cheap when running some offers. All the discs have been coated whereas with Bosch I found this variable.
 
plenty of good recommendations above, but yep we find that on a lot of our taxis with autohold they absolutely eat rear brake pads and generally wear as much as the fronts
 
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