Ceramic vs. Semi Metalic Brake Pads

NDwalleyes

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Will be changing pads on the wife's CRV next week. It has ceramic pads on it now...as do all our cars. I've always replaced with what the manufacture installed.

Just for fun I got to looking at ceramic vs. semi metallic pads, and from what I read semi-metallic pads perform significantly better in cold weather and are easier on rotors. The only down side is you get more brake dust with semi-metallic pads and they don't last quite as long.

Anyone have experience with both?
 


TWN

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I always try to go with what came on the car as well. There is as much difference between ceramic/metallic as there is between the high and low quality of each separately.
 

NDwalleyes

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It's not to me.

It can make your brakes squeak. Most people don't like it because it gets all over their rims.
 

Biglunch

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Unless she's racing with her CRV does it really matter ? guess iv always just used stock ones
 


NDwalleyes

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Unless she's racing with her CRV does it really matter ? guess iv always just used stock ones

That's exactly what I was thinking! She's not racing and the ceramic will cost $20-$40 more (per axel) and they don't work as well in the 9 months of winter we have around here.
 

Ericb

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My mother in law has a Honda Oddesey. I seen to remember my f in law putting on non ceramic pads and it vibrated like crazy. He replaced a lot of stuff before taking it in and find g out it was the pads.
 

fnznfwl

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My mother in law has a Honda Oddesey. I seen to remember my f in law putting on non ceramic pads and it vibrated like crazy. He replaced a lot of stuff before taking it in and find g out it was the pads.

really? wonder how the pads could cause the vibration, as they are fixed and dont rotate?
 

eyexer

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That's exactly what I was thinking! She's not racing and the ceramic will cost $20-$40 more (per axel) and they don't work as well in the 9 months of winter we have around here.
so with her stock ceramic pads she has poor braking nine months of the year now?
 

raider

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really? wonder how the pads could cause the vibration, as they are fixed and dont rotate?


used to be pretty common to cut the rotors or drums when changing pads (25 years ago anyway)... if you didn't, you would get vibration till the new pads would wear to the shape of the rotors...
 


eyexer

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used to be pretty common to cut the rotors or drums when changing pads (25 years ago anyway)... if you didn't, you would get vibration till the new pads would wear to the shape of the rotors...
and they still do this. however, now days it's often times cheaper to buy new rotors than have them turned. especially here in Williston where machine shops are booked to the moon with oil field work.
 

Enslow

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Watch out for Zalinksy brake pads. They have a guarantee on the box, a guaranteed POS.
 

Taylorman55

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Had ceramic ones put on in Minneapolis one time when I couldn't do them myself. They were good brake pads, but there wasn't a huge huge difference as far as I could tell, except for the outrageous price. I owned my car from 39,000 miles and just sold it 2 months ago with 230,000 on it. Most of the time I used the higher end NAPA pads (non ceramic) and they did very well for me over time. I had to replace rotors and pads about once every 35-40k miles. In the summer time the pad "dust" would cause some noise on and off though, but it wasn't terrible.
 

Captain Ahab

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I've never had to put brakes on my vehicles. My wife's vehicles are a different story. Don't ever set anything on the dash when Mrs. Andretti is driving. She can burn 'em up in 30-40k miles. We have just replaced with stock style, but maybe she could benefit from ceramic. Never really thought about it.
 


eyexer

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I've been buying all my brakes, rotors, front end stuff like tie rod ends, etc off ebay for years. insanely low prices and great stuff. If you stick with Moog ball joints, etc. your golden.
 

espringers

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I've never had to put brakes on my vehicles. My wife's vehicles are a different story. Don't ever set anything on the dash when Mrs. Andretti is driving. She can burn 'em up in 30-40k miles. We have just replaced with stock style, but maybe she could benefit from ceramic. Never really thought about it.

i with you there! i've got 270K on my truck right now. this thread made me check em and i am finally changing them for the 2nd time. ya... i said 2nd... until now, i've only changed them once since i bought the thing. but, my wife goes thru the damn things about every 45K on average. so, that's about 3x as fast as me. and she goes thru vehicles just as quickly. its amazing how much longer shit lasts when you aren't so hard on the throttle and brakes.
 

Captain Ahab

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i with you there! i've got 270K on my truck right now. this thread made me check em and i am finally changing them for the 2nd time. ya... i said 2nd... until now, i've only changed them once since i bought the thing. but, my wife goes thru the damn things about every 45K on average. so, that's about 3x as fast as me. and she goes thru vehicles just as quickly. its amazing how much longer shit lasts when you aren't so hard on the throttle and brakes.


And when you try to talk to them about it, they think you are a giant a-hole. Right?
 

eyexer

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I've been buying all my brakes, rotors, front end stuff like tie rod ends, etc off ebay for years. insanely low prices and great stuff. If you stick with Moog ball joints, etc. your golden.
 

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