I'm having a bit of an issue recently, where I can feel the vibration through the brake pedal. When I bought the car from second hand dealer, it had what looked like freshly resurfaced rotors, and unknown pads in there (I didn't take the brakes apart yet to look). Looks like I will be changing both front rotors, but I want to ask, what's the opinion on the OEM pads? Do they leave a whole bunch of deposit on the surface rotor, and cause the vibration, or are they good in that respect? I know that for cold stops, and just overall street braking performance it's difficult to beat OEM pad, so I'd like to get those ideally, unless they cause warping.

 

I'd try a re-bed of your existing pads if you haven't tried it yet. This will scrub the rotors and should tell you whether it's pad deposits or indeed excessive rotor run-out. OEM pads should be ok as far not leaving excess pad deposits but brake judder is a common issue w/ these cars and includes OEM pads.

 

If the temps are cold, or I've been cruising on the hwy for a while, the vibration is most evident during those times. I'm pretty sure it's brake pad deposit, again not entirely sure what compound is on it.

You've mentioned that stock pads create the same issue, are there street pads on the market that don't? Would be nice to get something that has similar type of bite as the OEM pads, because those usually have the best cold stopping distances.

 

Not sure if the Akebono ProAct pads are what is OEM on the Sport Akebono calipers, but the ProAct pads do get decent reviews.
For the most part the more aggressive pad the more likely they will leave uneven deposits. The Hawk HPS 5.0 get some of the best overall reviews but will probably lack some cold bite. Might contact Neal@tirerack and see if he can confirm if the Akebono proAct are the same as the OEM pads, would be good info to know.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll contact TireRack and see what Neal says. I've actually used HPS on numerous cars before this, with good results. I don't think I ever had vibration with those, however they definitely don't bite cold as hard as OEM would.

 

If you do decide to go w/ the Hawk HPS, be SURE to get the latest 5.0 version, the feedback on them has been much more positive than the regular (and older) HPS sets.