Akebono Performance Ceramic Pads - a fix for brake dust?

[ITS_320]

I'm plagued with car detailing OCD and one of the things that quickly bothered me with the Type S was the copious amounts of brake dust that the stock brakes put off. The wheels were caked with the stuff after just 50 miles of standard pace city driving, not even pushing the car.

Based on what I had read many of the FK8 and FL5 Type R owners have tried Akebono performance pads and had good results. I ordered the following from Rock Auto, these part numbers appear to be identical to fitment for the FK8 R and newer.

Part No ASP1001 - Akebono Front Performance Ceramic
Part No ACT1878 - Akebono Rear ACT Ceramic

I swapped the pads at 518 miles and the rotors were still perfect and had the factory machining grooves still on their surface. I knew I'd probably pad swap them due to the dust so I didn't try to bed-in the OEM pads and potentially score the rotors even more.

Fast forward a few days later and these pads are great for street use! I bedded them after install and they have a strong initial bite but still very easy to modulate. When you hit the pedal quickly they bite immediately and still haul the car down like you would expect from our performance oriented brake system. For spirited daily driving use I think these are a great pad and there is virtually no dust. I can drive 20 miles, do the finger swipe test on a wheel and barely see anything.

After shipping with rockauto it was around $115 for the set. Highly recommended if you aren't tracking the car and the dust bothers you.

 

[Krazydan19]

good to know. So less dust and performance is better than stock? Thst what I’m getting ?

 

[ITS_320]

I think its important to nail down what "better" would be. For me, its definitely better because they have very similar initial bite to the OEM pads and they don't shed dust like crazy.

However, the OEM pads are quite robust for high heat, high load applications like track days.

I did a few 90-20 decels on these new pads and they still felt strong but, I wouldn't assume these have the same load carrying capacity as the OEM pads. So "better" can be somewhat subjective here. I'd say for non-track use, just performance oriented street driving these pads are a better compromise compared to the OEM versions.

 

[Azkyrie6]

I'm plagued with car detailing OCD and one of the things that quickly bothered me with the Type S was the copious amounts of brake dust that the stock brakes put off. The wheels were caked with the stuff after just 50 miles of standard pace city driving, not even pushing the car.

Based on what I had read many of the FK8 and FL5 Type R owners have tried Akebono performance pads and had good results. I ordered the following from Rock Auto, these part numbers appear to be identical to fitment for the FK8 R and newer.

Part No ASP1001 - Akebono Front Performance Ceramic
Part No ACT1878 - Akebono Rear ACT Ceramic

I swapped the pads at 518 miles and the rotors were still perfect and had the factory machining grooves still on their surface. I knew I'd probably pad swap them due to the dust so I didn't try to bed-in the OEM pads and potentially score the rotors even more.

Fast forward a few days later and these pads are great for street use! I bedded them after install and they have a strong initial bite but still very easy to modulate. When you hit the pedal quickly they bite immediately and still haul the car down like you would expect from our performance oriented brake system. For spirited daily driving use I think these are a great pad and there is virtually no dust. I can drive 20 miles, do the finger swipe test on a wheel and barely see anything.

After shipping with rockauto it was around $115 for the set. Highly recommended if you aren't tracking the car and the dust bothers you.

Thank you for suggestion, I will definitely consider .

I ceramic coated all wheels and they greatly help with rinsing brake dust right off. Looks like getting Therese ceramic pads will be icing on the cake!

 

[OEMjoe]

Interesting! I went from OEM to Akebono Ceramics on my A4.

Brake dust was like night vs day. The stock ones looked like you drove through a cool mine after a day.

The initial bite was softer for me and I had to put more effort on the brake pedal to stop in the same distance as stock. Made me stop much later than I liked at stoplights in NJ/NYC traffic when I first put them on. But once you get used to it the brakes feel more predictable/consistent. Granted this is just my experience and it is a different car.

Pretty fun that a swap in brake compound can change how you drive tho!

 

[ITS_320]

This is my first run with Akebono Ceramic so I'm not sure if their compounds are vastly difference between different makes. However, I noticed the front pads are actually from their "performance ceramic" line. They also seem to have a standard ceramic line that is for regular street use (the rear pads are the standard line).

The front pads are very grabby and have good modulation still. I was also impressed with their low temperature performance. I had the car out in 4*F conditions the other day with snow falling and the brakes had as much bite as they would on a warm day.

Again I'll stress that these are NOT track capable pads. I'm not even sure I'd run an AutoX with these pads. But for performance street use these have done great. Still effectively zero dust even after several hundred miles between washes. I'm very happy with them so far. At this point I have about 1500 miles on the pads.

 

[Compromise]

Any squealing? I noted some users had issues with that.

 

[ITS_320]

No squealing to report as of yet. They are as quiet as the OEM pads so far.

 

[Krazydan19]

Anybody know anything about these endless brake pads ?

 

[crepr12]

over 400 commuter miles and I cant see any brake dust...yeah Akebono pads for the win...zero performance drop off and no squeals yet...

 

[bpebler]

over 400 commuter miles and I cant see any brake dust...yeah Akebono pads for the win...zero performance drop off and no squeals yet...

I would very much like to see a zoomed out full pick of your car with these wheels there's a wheel fitment thread we started too if you'd like to add your setup there!