After doing allot of digging on web I have not been able to find solid answers on this.
I bought Wearever Gold pads last week and installed them on the front. Went back to Advanced Auto yesterday to get shoes for the back. Come to find out that Wearever does not make the ceramic golds for the rear. All they have is Wagner Thermoquiet organic shoes. I would like to match the friction coefficient on all 4 tires by buying ceramic shoes for the rear. I am told that this should be done. Can anyone advise me on this?
Will I have a front biasing issue (or ant other issues) if I install Organics shoes on rear with ceramics pads on the front?
Simple answer, No. This should not cause a problem.
Replacement brake pads are supposed to have the same friction coefficient as the OEM pad, in theory. All pads react a little differently in initial “bite” and temperature variation depending on their formulation. That might affect the feel of the brakes either for the better or the worse. Without trying it out, you’ll never know. You could have the same feel issue even IF the rear pads were also ceramic. I’ve installed the same brand and style of pads all-around and later switched to another brand brand because I didn’t like how they felt - but I’m really picky.
The bigger issue will be the extra brake dust created by your organic pads at the rear compared to your ceramic fronts.
Your car was designed and built with ceramic pads in front and organic shoes in rear for optimum brake performance and wear. Why are you trying to out-engineer Honda?
Is there some specific problem you’re addressing? If so there are a number of aftermarket upgrades available at substantial cost. If not, stick with the “as-built” brakes. Works fine for millions of Hondas.
I put ceramics on my front when the time came, and then drove it that way until the rears needed changing too, at which point I used ceramics in the rear too. There were absolutely zero side effects. It really doesn’t matter.
I use ceramics mainly because they seem to produce less brake dust. Can’t get that stuff off the wheels.
SMB, the OP has drums on the rear, I have never seen ceramic shoes for drums, although I don’t know why that no one produces them. Rear shoes on a disc/drum setup seem to last the life of the car so i guess there isn’t much market for high end brake shoes.
Thank you for all your replies!!! You have all been very helpful. So I guess the choice now is metalic or organic shoes. Autozone has a mid grade semi-metalic. I called the Honda dealership and asked them what material the original shoes were. All they could tell me was, “they are some sort of composite”. “Probably Metalic”. They actually had to call me back with that vague answer. Ha ha.
Asemaster, I certainly am not trying to out-engineer Honda. I want it done as close to original as possible. My buying ceramics for the front was a mistake because I did not check original OEM spec. However based on the answer I received from Honda, I am still not convinced as to what type the original OEM’s were. I think that Honda now ships with ceramics all the way around.
The ceramics were not a mistake. The coefficient of friction for the ceramics used for general use is the same as for the organic pads, but they last a lot longer, produce less dust and less wear on the rotors.
You will find that the shoe liners are only about 1/8" think when brand new. So if you are looking at what looks like worn shoes based on older standards, they may not be worn at all.