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Hot take: I used to swear by cheap brake pads until a close call changed my mind
Old-school mechanic at my shop told me to stop using the $25 pads from AutoZone on my personal truck. I thought he was just being a brand snob. After a long downhill grade on I-70 near Denver last month, the pedal felt soft and my stopping distance got scary. That convinced me to drop $60 on a set of Akebono ceramics next time.
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grace8913d ago
Oh man, I totally get that. I was the same way with cheap pads until I almost rear-ended someone coming down a steep hill in my old Civic. The fade was real and the pedal just went to the floor. Never again. A good ceramic set pays for itself the first time you need to stop hard.
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torres.grant13d ago
Funny how a near-miss turns you into a “brand snob” real quick, huh? I swear my wallet would rather learn the cheap lesson than the expensive one most days. Maybe it's just me but that soft pedal feeling is a pretty great motivator to spend the extra thirty bucks.
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The 2015 Subaru Outback I had almost put my kid through the windshield last fall on a wet road near the coast. I had the cheapest organic pads from O'Reilly Auto Parts on it because a friend swore they were fine. The pedal grabbed fine dry but hit a patch of rain and the bite was gone. I changed them out to some NAPA ceramics after that and the difference in wet braking was night and day. My old mechanic calls them "friction bricks" and he was right about the cheap ones being dangerous.
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