Hey guys, I'm looking for a new set of brake pads for the R. I'm stuck deciding between OEM honda vs bendix CT-3. I currently have $20 Hawk HPS and they are terrible. I'm not sure whether its because they were old stock, $20 at pepboys or because I had simply glazed them when I was bedding them in. Stopping power is terrible and it makes the pad squeel when I let off the brake pedal slightly.

I've read that OEM honda pads are GG rated and bendix CT-3 are also GG rated. The advantage of the Bendix is that they are ceramic so they will dust less.

Generally speaking, I'm looking for a pad that has a good amount of stopping power but a tolerable amount of dust for daily driving. (No axxis ultimate or stoptech here). What do you guys use and recommend?

 

Track or street?

 

For street use, I'm using the Project Mu B-Force pads. Low dust, nearly no noise and great stopping power over the oem ITR pad.

 

I'm lookin for a street use pad but I will be going to the track maybe once or twice. I know stoptech, axxis ultimate or cobalt pads are good for the track and have no fade. I do however want a good stopping pad with not so much dust. Are oem pads any good? Can you use them at the track? I read that they are rated GG and a little better than the hawk hps. I'm also looking into hawk hp+ too but they a quite dusty.

 

Hawk HPS for $20? They suck at stopping? Doesn't sound like HPS to me, breh. I use HPS on my rear axle and have used them as an all around pad. They stopped great...but the dust was an issue.

As far as street pads....my R came with parts store ceramic pads on it. On my EM1, those pads were junk. But with the R's brake sizing, they worked just fine for the street. I recently 5 lugged my GSR and I'm running parts store ceramics. The car still stops like crazy and there's no dust. The R's brakes are good enough for the car that you don't need much pad.

As far as OEM pads go, IDK how the stock ITR pad was formulated. The ITR's pad shape is the same as a lot of other Hondas. I'm not sure if it's the same compound as the Accord V6 and CRV or if it's actually a different pad.

S2000 pads were formulated as semi performance pads. You could try AP1 pads (ceramic) or AP2 pads (semi metallic). The AP2 pad is more aggressive, but dusts more. I'm not sure if Honda sells those pads as different part numbers, though...or if they just lump them into one part # for you to buy when the factory pads wear out.

But again....I have NEVER had issues using OEM Honda pads or parts store ceramics on the street on my 5 lug cars. You'd have to drive like 130mph everywhere for fade to be an issue.

As a disclaimer, I know from personal experience that Autozone Ceramics are REALLY bad. A couple of my friends tried those pads and had the same experience. People don't seem to complain about other parts store ceramic pads, but the Duralast ones seem to suck. Never tried them on my R...but they couldn't even stop my EM1 from 80 on the highway in a hurry without fading. I live in the chicago burbs...so on the highway, often times, you gotta come down from 70-80mph in a hurry.

I think the OEM S2000 pads are still cheap, plus you get a choice of 2 compounds. When I say that AP2 pads dust "more", it's a relative statement. They're still fairly low dust OEM pads. Those would be a good choice.

Your rotors may be glazed over as you said up top if you're having trouble stopping the R. It seems you got the pep boys $20 entry level pads. Those pads do glaze rotors over and make it impossible to stop. I also had the CHEAPEST option pads on my EM1 at one point. I literally couldn't get the brakes to lock from 45MPH!! They ruined my rotors too. No other pad would grip anymore. You probably wanna look into rotors too.

 

Agreed HPS are a very decent pad. I ran HP+ fronts and HPS rears at VIR and CMP. Had zero issues.

Oem is plenty good for street. And very little dust. I wouldn't track them though.

 

I had bought these $20 hawk hps pads from
Pepboys. They were 'discontinued' and on close out hence the cheap price. They were the older versions that same in a purple box instead of blue, said it was ferro carbon and also had a pack of red shim lubricant. You can do a google search on team integra, there is a whole thread about it. I'm guessing I had glazed them when I broke them in following their procedure. My brakes were smoking and I let them cool down. Could this be the reason why they squeak when I let go of the brake slowly? It sounds just like the pads have trouble grasping onto the rotor.

I know hawk hps are pretty good, but mine seem to have no dust. I have stoptech for my rears and they are quite dusty but stop very well.

Ive narrowed down my choices to bendix ct-3, stoptech, oem or maybe the legit hawk hps pads since I cheaped out on these.

As far as the s2000 pads, are they the same size pads ?

 

IMO hps kinda suck too.
I use then on my autox car and they just don't bite hard enough for rcomps.
At a minimum I'd suggest hp+ for light lapping.

Hps are a whatever pad on the street, but oem is better.

For track, swap out to a more aggressive compound that can take some heat.

 

S2000 pads are the same sizing.

ITRs, 5G Preludes, S2000s, 98-02 V6 Accords, 1G TSXes, 06-11 Civic Si's, RSX S's, CR-Vs, and I'm sure a ton of other Hondas share a brake pad size.

The S2000 pad has a slightly more aggressive compound than the other pads in that size. IDK if the ITR pad does.

If you don't want go go OEM:

I would also suggest the Carbotech AX6 if you ever plan on some light track use. The AX-6 is kinda like the HPS....but a little more heat tolerant, IIRC. The modulation on Carbotechs is SUUUPPPERRR nice and they last a million years with no corrosive brake dust. They're a bit expensive, however. Maybe a bit overkill for your use.

The only thing I don't like about Hawks is the modulation and the corrosive dust. The modulation on Carbotechs is so much more linear with brake pedal pressure.

Maybe try out the Hawk Performance Ceramic? Those would be low dust and would perform more than well enough for the street.

 

on my TSX I got HPs and centric rotors, Love them for daily driving. not much dust and never any noise and TSX OEM brakes are known to SUCK @$$

I got a set of HP+ for front and HPS for rear on my ITR with Brembo blanks, and ATE superblue fluid. I havent put them on my car yet so can't give honest opinion yet but for my street/track plans thats what will work best for me. I have a damn near brand new set of OEM pads on my car now. Braking is alright IMO but for my track plans I know I'll want something more.

 

Can you confirm that these s2000 pads fit the ITR calipers? I read that they are designed a little different but I'm not sure it they will fit. They are also semi metallic.

I came across this, item #10 in the diagram, part # 45022-S2A-E50 $45.55
http://www.oemacuraparts.com/find-pa.../FRONT%20BRAKE


EDIT: The s2000 brake pads WILL NOT fit an ITR. I've ran through many cross reference numbers for the ITR, 94-95 LEGEND GS, and gen 5 prelude pads and they did not match with the s2000.


I need opinions on bendix Ct-3, hawk hps, stoptech, and oem honda.

 

loving the powerstop z16 ceramic pads..almost no dusting. good DD pad..track..probably not.

 

XP10's at all times like a true gangster.

 

ultimate axis .. lots of dust but does the job street or track

 

Axxis ultimate's are bit too pricey. They are the best for initial bite but they dust like a mother. I would put stoptech behind these, then oem, then hawk hps being last.

 

http://www.hawkperformance.com/parts/

The part numbers for an 01 S2000 and 01 ITR are the same. USDM ITR and S2000 brake pad dimensions never changed. So any year S2000 or USDM ITR will work, I guess.

Maybe the S2000 factory pads are a different pad thickness? Maybe the hawk part numbers are the same because hawk just uses 1 standard thickness for both cars since the backing plates are the same?

I'm very confident that S2000 pads will fit in ITR calipers. Maybe I'll try this when I'm bored. I have both cars. I have S2000 pads laying around. BAM!

Edit: I think that S2000 pads are thicker than ITR pads. I'm 99.9% sure that the backing plates are the same, however. I think that a lot of race pads/high performance pads (hawk, carbotech, etc) use custom thicknesses on common backing plates depending on the car. I don't unfortunately have a set of brand new ITR and S2000 factory pads laying around. I'll see if I'm right about the backing plates tomorrow and I'll try to take pics.

 

Yes, do so please. Other than that, does anyone know if OEM ITR pads are really rated GG? I found a ebay seller selling NISIN front pads and on the picture they were only rated FF.

 

Cheap and decent braking EBC Green stuff for street, Red stuff for track.

 

Idk about EBC. I used their yellow stuff track pads once with my S2000. They faded pretty bad on Autobahn full. I pitted and was wondering WTF happened. Turns out they crumbled apart and only about half the pad was left on both sides in the rear. The fronts had big chunks missing. My rotors were ruined. I could believe it was an isolated defect if it happened to one of my pads....but all 8 pads had chunks or large pieces missing. I'm apparently not the only one this happened to either.

I wouldn't say the red stuff is any good for the track if the yellow stuff couldn't even handle it. The red stuff is a high performance street ceramic pad. The green stuff is a street organic pad. I thought about using red stuff for street driving...but I'd always have to make sure that part of the pad hadn't fallen off. Not worth it.

 

I recommend ceramic pads for most street driving, and metallic pads for racing. I have the Powerstop Z16 Evolution Ceramic pads available at this time. They are formulated for low dust and low noise with a high coefficient of friction! If you are interested, please feel free to send me a PM for pricing and availability!

 

Are these comparitable to hawk hps or stoptech street performance pads?

 

Thoughts on EBC green stuff for itr?

 

I'ver personally never cared for them(used them many years ago) could be different now

 

I've had the Nissin Silver Sport pads on the R for a few years now. Same company that makes Honda pads and calipers, so the quality is great. Noticeably better bite than stock, with equivalent noise/dusting.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...=nissin&page=2

I'm still on the same set that I got in 2007. Got them from importrp.com

 

cheapest pads i could get for dd-ing and hp+ for track have me very satisfied. The rears are also cheapy duralast. Used them on the track with zero issues. I'm also a casual track day-er. Found hp+ for about $85 shipped... Swapping them in/out for the track is really easier than people think.