I've been away from this forum for a while, but now I'm back. A while back, I was contemplating which way to go reguarding replacing my brakes. Well, I finally got around to actually doing it.

I used Centric rotors in front, because they're cheap, and I heard that they actually hold up quite well. They also have black coatings on the hats and edges. The rear rotors, I left alone, except that I brushed the loose rust off the hats, and spray painted them with black engine paint.

I used EBC Greenstuff pads all around, and I cleaned the oxidized and grungy-looking calipers and sprayed them with silver caliper paint, along with the brackets.

The results are excellent. The car brakes noticeably stronger than it did before, and it's not like the car really needed brakes; they were only about half-worn in front, much less than that in rear. No more scary delay in pedal travel to initial bite. I can also now hold the car still at a stop light with just the weight of the tip of my foot, whereas before, I needed to actually apply slight pressure. My brakes are now better than those in my Miata. That definitely was not true before. There may be better pads out there (?), but I feel like I got the best value for the money spent.

 

EBC has a good rep and centric is made by StopTech so you cant go wrong there either.
Pad thickness is one factor of old brakes, when the pads get lower they lose their abilty to turn friction into heat and then shed that heat.
Bed the pads and rotors in so you get a nice transfer layer of material on the rotors
then they will last longer and work way better than they already do!
Here is one proven method- stoptechs is similar just not a specific- this was written to eliminate misunderstandings about stopping fully with hot brakes
http://heeltoeauto.com/httech/YaBB.pl?num=1184261899

 

Yep, did a similar bedding procedure already. I did a few moderate slow-downs from 30 mph in quick succession, then I did a bunch of heavy slow-downs from 60 mph, in quick succession, then I just drove the car around normally for 20 minutes (then marveled at all the dust on my wheels). Also, the Greenstuff pads have a highly abrasive initial bedding coating (red in color), that quickly wears off as you're bedding, and helps the procedure along. The first time you apply the brakes, you can hear the grinding from this stuff. The noise is gone after the first heavy application. Did I mention that I'm VERY happy w/ these new brakes?

 

bedding is not a one time event- they get better with use too!

 

I'm curious about one thing, reguarding the transfer of material onto the rotors, in proper bedding. What happens when the car sits for a couple of days, and it rains, and the rotors get rusty? If what we're saying here about transferring pad material onto the rotors is correct, wouldn't that mean that, in this situation, the mating surfaces would be disrupted (by rust), and the bedding would have to be done all over again every time this happens?

 

not at all- surface rust is nothing to be concerned with.

The high HEAT required to get the pads material hot enough to make the transfer layer of pad material- to where it BONDS with the metal of the rotor- rain isnt going to hurt that at all.
I rebed if the wife did some hi speed panics slow downs near abs - if it picks up a wobble I take it for a fun run and fix by rebedding.
Once the shiny is gone from the rotors- you have pad material on them- thats good