Nearly two months ago, I replaced my front stock pads on my '04 manual TL with a set of Rotex Gold Kevlar low dust pads. Thought y'all might like a follow should this be something you may be considering for you 6MT TL's.

First and most important is the bedding in process. My first time at this with these pads was not done properly. What I recommend is to find a nice section of highway where you are not a danger to others, and do 8 to 10 hard stops, just this side of ABS onset. At around the 6th stop (plus or minus one), you will experience brake fad. Ignore this and continue the bedding in. You must do these stops quickly and one after the other, from 60 MPH to 10 MPH.. DO NOT COME TO A COMPLETE STOP.

After the first set of stops for the bedding in, drive the car about 15 minutes at speed (60 MPH is good). This will cool them down to normal operating temperature. Then do the same thing all over again. You may have to do this bedding in three separate times if you experience squealing.

My pads squeal slightly when turning into a parking slot at VERY low speed. They virtually never make any noise when stopping under other conditions. However, they squeal quite a lot when backing up which I suspect might be due to the fact that I did not reuse the stainless steel shims from the stock brakes.. something I'm sure I should have done.

As for stopping ability and performance. These pads are not as good as the stock pads which come with our Brembo brakes. But you will only notice this IF you are hard on the car or if you race it. Under all other driving conditions, they do just fine.. you will not be lacking braking power. There is a difference feel to them. The stock pads have a bit of "give" or travel to the pedal that is progressive in the braking effort and effect. These pads have more resistance to your pressure and quite a bit less give or travel.

Now for the real reason I did this; dusting. I hated the rapid dust buildup with the stock pads. I am not at all hard on my car. I don't tax it to its limits in the corners, nor do I race it on a road course. I installed my Rotex pads on April 23rd. I have not washed the car or wheels deliberately since then so that I could monitor dust build up. I also washed the wheels inside and outside so that they were clean and free from dust back then. The amount of dust build up is just a slight bit more than the rear pads, which I would estimate to be maybe between 10 and 20% of the stock pads. In other words, there is a HUGE drop in dusting with these pads over the stock units.

If you are serious about your braking and want the maximum performance from your set up, stay with the stock pads.. they are quite good. But if you are willing to sacrifice a little braking performance for one heck of a lot less dust, you might want to consider these pads.

Anyway, hope this helps those who might be looking at the same things I was when I took the decision to replace my stock pads.

 

These pads have been sitting on my bookshelf for like 2 months.... I am hoping to put them on this week... Thanks for the writeup!

 

I also have these pads. Very very very low dust output, I'm happy with that. Not too much noise from them, and they do a good job of stopping the car.

 

Wow, did I have some typos in my post or what?

 

I am running the stock pads on a 2006 TL 6MT and I also experience the squeak when braking and turning into a parking space. Interestingly enough, when I test drove an Evo I heard the same squeak, also when turning into a parking space. I believe the Brembo calipers on our car are the same as those on the Evo so it may just be a problem with the calipers/pistons.

One thing I really hate about the stock pads is that the pedal is so soft as you mentioned. I am tired of the dust, but am unwilling to sacrifice any braking performance. I thought with the Brembos up front that the braking power would be good but it simply doesn't come close to the autobahn-bred brakes of German cars. Does anyone know of pads that improve both braking power and make the pedal firmer? Low dusting is of secondary concern to me.

 

^-I've heard good things about greenstuff. Havent had them on the car personally so I cant attest to anything. Check back in 18 months and I'll have some feedback.

 

where do you get these pads?

 

www.brakewarehouse.com

called to get the ones listed for the 3G as they are not on the webpage yet. I cant remember my total cost but it was around 75 bucks shipped (cross country)

 

I ran a set of the EBC Greenstuff pads and EBC rotors on my 3 Series. I wanted something that gave better performance than the stock BMW pads and less dust. The BMW pads gave off at least as much as, if not more than, the Acura stock pads. The cost wasn't all that bad either, I think I paid around $200-250 for pads & rotors for both axles.

The greenstuff pads are a good pad for day to day driving and the occasional autox. If you want real extreme performance go with the redstuff pads, but they're not as "street friendly" as the greenstuff.

I plan on getting some greenstuff pads for the TL as soon as I can find them.

 

^-thats good to know. a friend of mine with an m3 hates the dust as well so we both tried out different pads to see which would work better. I might be buying greenstuff sooner than i planned