Brakes???

What are the best brake pads for a 01 325i? I've heard good things about Hawks'. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm solidly an EBC Green Stuff kind of guy, they provide great braking on the street, autocross and a couple of times a year on the track...

that depends somewhat on the rotors it's mated to and mostly what you want the pads to stop best at: cold, medium or hot (track)

I just bought a set of Hawk ceramic pads. I did my research and they are claiming to provide 20-40% more stopping power!!! I'm super pumped and will let everyone know how they work.

I'm in the same situation here as soo many others... trying to make a purchase of rotors and brakes on my 03 325i and was looking into both of these pads so I am definitly curious on your feedback

I like cross drilled and slotted rotors from turner, brass pins for your calipers. And ebc pads personally. Red greener yellow read what they r for and which best suits you. And if u r doing it I'd recommend also doing SS lines. For the extra 125$ it's worth it IMO

Stoptech or Performance Z Rated pads...

Oem

Don't want to hijack a thread but so far I spent 3 days reading two forums to help me make a decision and as of now I was already deciding on the Zimmerman X-Drilled for front and back and still trying to figure out the pads. This is a regular street car , sure I drive a little aggressive... heck we drive bimmers :-) but seriously I live in Florida and drive about 600 miles a week about half highway but plenty of stop and go. I already know I will do a fluid flush and decided on the ATE Blue but I have been wondering if SS lines actually make a difference or if its really worth it.

The pads have me and obviously others confused... Suffice it to say that I do not like the amount of brake dust that the OEM pads create and I completely get the common feedback that OEM have the best cold and initial "bite" but it's hard to translate what that really means to me in real life. I mean how long does it take for the pads to warm up and get passed the "initial bite" issue. I have 2 stop signs and a traffic light before I'm even out of my housing development... is that warm enough for me to get past the initial "bite" difference? I'm not trying to sound silly just trying to understand this is real world terms... like when I stop and go shopping in a store and then leave the parking lot after a few stop signs and speed bumps am I passed the "bite" thing by then?

Am I completely mis-understanding this??? Is the initial "bite" difference noticeable every time I have a sudden stop because the dope in front of me on the highway is texting and the traffic is horrible :-)

I was going to get Hawk ceramics but read about some problems with the pads so now I hesitate, I was ready to get the Greens and then read some really negative comments on those, I looked at Akebonos but keep reading about the initial "bite" and grab... in all frankness I think the more I read I eventually find some negative comments about most pads so I am having a hard time pulling the trigger today and making a purchase. I also can't seem to find anything that helps me decide relative to the fact that I understand their is a trade off with OEM versus 3rd party pads... meaning if all thee of the pads I reference have less initial bite than OEM... in a general street car use is there actually a difference between the three?

I hope I am making sense in stead of rambling and any advice would be greatly by me and probably many others... thanks in advance.

Akebonos brake okay, but I don't like mine anymore. Too much squeal, and you already mentioned the rest.
Take a look at this article http://blog.caranddriver.com/perform...c-yellowstuff/

Interesting article and comments as well... I actually never even considered those street/racing pads

I called 2 vendors and spoke with them and they pretty much agreed that the Hawk HP Plus was a good pad and streetable although a little dusty and noisy and additionally would wear the rotors a little harder, they said the Hawk ceramic was a good pad and better than the Akebono, they both seem to think the greens were also a little dusty and not as good as the Akebono or the Hawks.

Guys here report the Hawk HP Plus as being really noisy so I think those are out but I am surprised that the Akebono's squeal. Pretty much still brings me back to where I was with the Akebono vs the Hawk ceramics and learning for myself what the "initial bite" issue really is.

I hear ya, it's a struggle. Unfortunately, I was hit and they ran messed up my front grill and hood. I have to get that fixed and then I'll be putting on the Hawk PC's with slotted SP Performance rotors. Once they're broken in I'll report back as to dusting and noise. It may be a few weeks as my body guy is on overload right now and can't get me in until the 8th. I'll let you know. One last thing, I used to use EBC green stuff pads on my Jetta and they were extremely dusty, drove me nuts!

With work and the holidays it took me awhile to get this going but I finally ordered the Hawk Ceramics and the Zimmerman rotors. I installed them last week which was basically easy with one exception; the two bolts that hold the rt front bracket for the floating caliper were so frozen on it took me two days to get them off. I had to use a 12 ton hydraulic jack under a long box wrench to actually almost lift the damn car an apply the full force of the jack numerous times to finally break the bolts... WHAT an ORDEAL!!!!

I can't report on the brakes yet because I need to start a new thread since I now have a transmission that is locked in the emergency mode and not sure what to do.