I've been using the Duralast Gold cmax pads for about two years now. No problem with them. Never gonna have to get pads again. Just save the receipt and as long as you don't wear them all the way down, take them back to autozone and they will replace it free.. I'm on my second set now.

 

factory honda fit brake pads are ceramic. has anybody swapped their brake rotors for cross drilled and slotted ones?

 

Good to know, I'm seeing they do run clean.
Unless your FIT has the need - slotted rotors are eye-candy and will only eat pads__

Recently came across this, thanks Jodele

Some interesting reading. Check out 'Myths'

 

Hawk HPS. Great for daily driving.

 

EBC greenstuff.. i dont like them

 

I dunno about that.

I'm seeing way too much brake dust in just one month to think they're ceramic.

 

55k on my pads and they are maybe 30% worn. by the looks of it i will be going 150k before they will need to be replaced. i have tracked my previous car, a 98' BMW 540i and had to finagle the front brakes on that car a whole lot. IE: hi temp pads, custom brake cooling channels...

my Fit seems to stop on a dime. my whole point being why mess with something that works. which the stock Honda brakes do.... car manufacturers normally put a lot of research into their brake/pad combinations. i love the brakes i have now. the car stops great, no noise, very little dust. why mess with a good thing?

 

I will second that, I pad slapped the Fit at 40k and just replaced the rotors at 60k and the replaced the pads no questions asked. I got the ValueCraft rotors from Autozone and haven't had a problem yet.

 

Sums up my opinon well. Just save your receipt, and never pay for new ones again.

 

do you guys use the oem shims on aftermarket pads or do you use the aftermarket shims? I am trying to prevent noisy brakes.

 

High-quality aftermarket pads often come with new shims. In that case I would use the shims that come with the pads. In any case, use anti-squeal compound or Molykote 77 (brake grease) on all surfaces that touch the backing plates, to prevent noise. Also make sure that the new pads fit loosely in the edge guides...if the are tight they will begin to vibrate and squeal after a few thousand miles. (I have often needed to file the edges of aftermarket pads to make them loose in the holders.) Remove any rust scale on the round caliper piston also, to assure a firm pedal feel.

Lesser-cost pads (yuk) don't come with shims...in that case I would re-use the OEM shims, again making sure there is no rust and that the old shims are not bent or corroded.

 

I just swapped in a set of Bendix General CT pads (from Australia?) with the ceramic technology thingie. Pretty inexpensive to boot.

I hope I didn't make a bad decision.

 

Bendix is and has been a major name in brake products for many years, you can't go wrong. Ceramics will perform cleaner and wear well.

 

Hey einstein,

I've used ceramics on my car and didn't like it at all! 1) There's a lot of dust that comes out of it. 2) From my experience, the ceramics had quite a bit of slippage. I would hit the brakes, and everytime I would have to wait for the car to slide to a stop after the brakes hit the bottom.

It was a bit unnerving. I took it to a local mechanic and he said that I should switch back to OEM. He also said that Honda brakes tend to be very sensitive, and aftermarket pads generally are not good for Hondas (this was news to me). I changed out to OEM and it feels much better. No dust, no slippage and better feel than the aftermarket ceramics I bought at AutoZone.

 

Hawk HPS, overall good stable pad although I'm experiencing more dust then with the factory pads. Got'em for $22 bucks +TAX at Pep Boys due to a contract cancellation with them. I dunno if they have any stock left though!

 

Dixcel on my front, OEM on rear (Jazz sports rear disc but they're so tiny you won't envy them too much )

 

I'm using Duralast Cmax's on mine along with Duralast rotors. I highly recommend them. The cmax's come with nitrile rubber shims and grease in the box. This all translastes to quiet stopping power. They don't stop too well until seated after being broken in. But from that point on your golden. Mine throw very little dust and stop great with no noise. Its awesome.

I work at autozone and have been selling brakes for a long time. I rarely see a set of cmax's come back for the worn out warranty thing we offer. They really are nice pads.