Out of these 4 brands, which brake pads are for me?

[Spaz]

I highly recommend AGAINST the PBR Metalmaster pads. They might be fine for the street, but they scared the crap out of me at Buttonwillow a years or so ago., and don't feel as good for daily driving, either. Laugh if you want, but the stock pads are much better, IMHO.

The price may be right, but I wouldn't skimp here. I threw mine in the garbage with less than 1000 miles on them.

Jim

I had several thousand miles with my PBRs after lots of spirited driving and getting them heated up while practicing multiple braking maneuvers and whatnot. I had them with ATE powerslots in the front and OEM rotors in the rear. It beats me how they didn't turn out good for you.

edit: btw i was running on all stock rotors....but that is soon to change!
yah i'm courious also, it kileld my rotors, btu they are not warped bad at all, and i am extremly hard on my brakes, i must go road racing at a close track at least once every 2 weeks and i've never had fade or any problems with these pads.

[SlammedE30]

I use Mintex Red Box pads on the street. They work great and don't dust much. You can ask Andy (tobybmw) on here how they work
-Ted

[jim89325is]

Seems like a lot of people on this board have had good luck with the PBR Metalmasters. Like I said, they were highly recommended to me, but I just didn't like them at all. I went with (new) slotted rotors (don't remember which brand, but they have the angled slots, maybe 5-7 of them, I can dig out receipts if I need to), and the Metalmasters. I was running these on the front only; the rears were stock (new) Jurids and stock (new) rotors. I did everything right, I think :) , including replacing and bleeding my brake fluid with new ATE Blue and seating the pads as per the manufacturers recommendations. This is not an unfamiliar process for me, as I replace pads, rotors, and fluid at least every six months when I'm DE'ing regularly.

I just had a bunch of fade going into high speed corners, most notably coming off the back straight (counterclockwise) at Buttonwillow. The speeds in my lowly 325is were right around 110 before braking. It was bad enough that I was having to adjust my braking to a point a bit farther out than where I was with the stock pads.

I switched back to stock pads, and had no more fade issues at BW, Thunderhill, and Willow Springs. Maybe I got a bad set, or they weren't seated properly, or something else, but I probably won't run the Metalmasters again.

I do have a set of Ferodos and drilled rotors for all four corners that I'll install before the next track event. I've heard good things; we'll see.

Your milage may vary, so good luck! :D

Jim

Oh yeah, if you get a chance, go drive an E36 M3 on a racetrack. Talk about good brakes! :shock:

[EtaSport]

Oh yeah, if you get a chance, go drive an E36 M3 on a racetrack. Talk about good brakes! :shock:

You got that right.. The brakes in the ///m roadster are perfect. Even if I rest the weight of my foot on the pedal I am flying forward at a halting stop with nearly no front end squat. But with all the power up there, its nice to have something that good to get it stopped.

Ive decided to get the brakes on my car taken care of shorty.. I am going to try the PBRs and see how it goes. I am also going to get a set of brembo rotors.

[Charlie]

Chipping in way late on this one:

The standard Pagid OEM pads rock for street/light track usage. Good stopping power, excellent life span, with the only downside being a good amount of dust.

-Charlie

[nando]

stop and go traffic is NOT the same thing as braking from 100+mph for 5 turns on a 10 lap race..

in any case, other than the dusty aspect, I'm happy with the way OEM pagid perform on the street. no fade, good bite, and easy on rotors. I'm not sure what I'm going to try this year, but when I get my BBS I'll probably want something with low dust.

[jim89325is]

Did I say Jurid? :? I must have meant Pagid. Sorry for the confusion, if there was any. The box of BMW track stuff is buried beneath the box of 911 engine rebuild parts, and the track tires for both cars, and, well,................. you get my drift. I gotta fix that! :D

-Jim

[trent]

Seems like a lot of people on this board have had good luck with the PBR Metalmasters. Like I said, they were highly recommended to me, but I just didn't like them at all. I went with (new) slotted rotors (don't remember which brand, but they have the angled slots, maybe 5-7 of them, I can dig out receipts if I need to), and the Metalmasters. I was running these on the front only; the rears were stock (new) Jurids and stock (new) rotors. I did everything right, I think :) , including replacing and bleeding my brake fluid with new ATE Blue and seating the pads as per the manufacturers recommendations. This is not an unfamiliar process for me, as I replace pads, rotors, and fluid at least every six months when I'm DE'ing regularly.

I just had a bunch of fade going into high speed corners, most notably coming off the back straight (counterclockwise) at Buttonwillow. The speeds in my lowly 325is were right around 110 before braking. It was bad enough that I was having to adjust my braking to a point a bit farther out than where I was with the stock pads.

I switched back to stock pads, and had no more fade issues at BW, Thunderhill, and Willow Springs. Maybe I got a bad set, or they weren't seated properly, or something else, but I probably won't run the Metalmasters again.

I do have a set of Ferodos and drilled rotors for all four corners that I'll install before the next track event. I've heard good things; we'll see.

Your milage may vary, so good luck! :D

Jim

Oh yeah, if you get a chance, go drive an E36 M3 on a racetrack. Talk about good brakes! :shock:

I totally agree. MetalMasters are 80s technology garbage pads. Leave those things in the dumpster where they belong.

[EtaSport]

+edit+

all this time I had been talking about PBRs, I never specified which pads I was commenting on. PBR offers two sets for the e30. They make the metalmaster pads, and they make a deluxe pad set. The deluxe is the recommended set of pads.

Check www.importedcarparts.com You won't find better prices on most of their inventory. I deal with these guys a lot, promt shipping and high quality parts.

[nkell09]

re:

Have 5000 miles on PBR Deluxes right now... I had the intent of ordering the r mintex red box pads from europartsdirect.com, but they were out of stock at the time. I gave them a call and they recommended the Deluxes for a step above the stock pads (what they were currently running on their european cars).

Overall, no complaints at all about these brakes, and lets be real here, I didn't notice I big difference in braking vs. stock pads, as they are not a "race" pad.
But some differences were noticable.
-In beltway/city/stop/go driving, fade has greatly diminished.
-Much less dust noticable, especially with rims.
-Low noise

The only gossip that I have heard on metalmasters has been good....

Take a look at europartsdirect.com stock on brakes for euro cars... Great selection and great prices.. (I'm not advertising.. just recommending from past orders)

[DaN]

Well, I ended up ordering the Axxis Ultimates for my 325e.
What are your opinions on this pad?
I'll give mine after I install them.

[Rob]

I have the same ones waiting to go on my car. The ITR guys love them for a street pad