I have to put brakes on all my cars real soon. I just put brakes on my 90 Caddy (front) and I was going to put ceramic on and the parts guy talked me out of them. He said they wear out real quick. I only put 1500 miles on that car a year so I should have put them on and had clean wheeles. Now with 2 cars to go, what to do?? I will be putting fronts on my 95 F-150, and backs on my 02 Caddy. One local mechanic I think is really good like Wagner non-ceramic. Another local guy raves about ceramic. I know I’m going with new rotors. Good on the 02, cheap on the 95. Any opinions or real life experience??
Unless you’re racing, go with OEM replacements. There’s no need for exotic replacements if you don’t overheat your brakes. You need to do a lot of high speed braking to need ceramic pads.
I agree with jt. Your car came with semimetallics, likely because the engineers determined these were best for the typical owner and his normal driving habits. Ask for OEM brake pads.
Thanks for the reply. I agree on original equipment. I am sorry however that I put original on my 90 Caddy. Why?? Because I drive the car less than 2000 miles a year and mostly on a 100 mile trips with little braking. Having clean front wheels would have been a plus. On the 02, OEM for sure. My wife uses that car for a lot of short trips. My 95 truck, I’m still thinking about that. I put the last pads on about 40,000 miles ago. I’m usually good with brake life. The trucks stick and I utilize engine braking. I am thinking ceramic on the truck just to try them and have my aluminum wheels stay clean.
I put ceramic brakes on my wife’s Ford Explorer after she went through a set of semi-metallics in 15 months. I’ve noticed no difference in the braking performance, but the mag rims don’t get that black dust on them anymore, and the rotors last a LOT longer. These rotors cost $80 apiece, and the ceramic pads are $40 a set. I would recommend them for anyone with mag rims.
Ceramic pads are not just for racing anymore. The street versions tend to match OEM semi metallics in performance and last a lot longer, and a lot of new cares have ceramics as OEM. You can use them on any car if you wish. If you want better performance, go with the composite brake pads, but they can make the brakes a bit touchy.
Your local mechanic should try the Wagner Thermo Quite ceramic pads, he may find that he likes them too. They are really good pads, a little pricy but worth it.
Well, I went with Bendix OEM semi metalic on the 02 rears along with new Bendix rotors.
I went with Bendix ceramic (which is a blend, not pure ceramic). I heard they don’t last as long, but Bendix will replace them once for free. I’ve been wondering about ceramic a few years now so I’m just going to put them on and see. I’ll try to update on how I like them. I didn’t get them on yet. Oh, the ceramic were about 20 bucks more than semi metalic. Like $68 compared to $48. And I could have got the store brand ceramic for aobut $52