take a look at this..



notice how it tapers off on the edges. Why do some manufacturers do that? When they do that, wouldn't that decrease the surface area amount of the pads that actually come in contact with the rotors, and thus would decrease braking efficiency? I know PFC does that also. One thing i notice about them is that when i do install pads like that, i kind of notice that you need to put more brake pressure on to get the same amount of stopping power. I think it has something to do with that tapering. N e thoughts on this? thanks

 

bump, i wanna know too

 

i'm not much of an expert but i read around alot on aj.com and google and I found the most common answer to be to reduce the likelyhood of squeeling

 

i can second that. i'd rather have squeaky, better pads than silent, inefficient others.

 

my uncle used to do alot of brake bad changes and he would scrap the edges on the ground to create that angle on the pad.

 

The more the pad is wearing out, the more braking surface you will have...

 

Reduce squealing by eliminating a portion of the pad. Yep, that would reduce squealing alright, but also reduce braking efficiency.
if you look at the pads, that is a huge chunk of pad that is not making contact with the rotors, if i were to estimate, at least around 20% of the pad is not touching the rotors where it could be.
I installed some cheap autozone brake pads for my friends, and they did not have that tapered edges, but it squeaked really bad. I then installed Performance friction ones, which has those tapers, but it was very obvious to him that the bite on the pads arent as good as it used to be with the cheap pads. I know i can find good pads that don't have the taper that don't tend to squeal. Do you guys think those have better braking capabilities than those that are tapered off?


Modified by mingbling96 at 3:27 PM 7/3/2005

 

I'll guess.

The rounded shape will eventually be worn away by wear and tear. When worn away the brakes will start to feel different and perhaps change the sound. This is your warning that you might want to have your brakes checked out.

 

Why not go to Zone, Advance, or Oreilly and get some ceramic pads....they reduce brake dust, don't make a lot of noise, and they seem like they bite pretty good to me....