Quote:
Originally Posted by brakthru
Hey, what pad option did you end up going with? Can you share your experience? I'm looking to stay with good OE pads since I won't see track. Just aggressive street use. It would be nice to know if the M pads are any better than stock M240i pads.
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I ended up just going OEM pads & rotors and they've been great. I previously had the Ferodo DS2500 which were worse in every single way (noise when cold, dust, fade resistance, bite, you name it!) than the OEM M235i pads.
If I were to do it again, I'd go with the M2 pad for slightly more bite and better fade resistance as I am an aggressive driver. Or if I wanted even more bite and had aspirations of a trackday, I'd definitely get the Hawk HP+ pads. I tried those on my buddy's F87 M2 and they had huge bite, could handle pretty high temps, and good fade resistance. On track, if you're fast they will fade as well, but are pretty decent. The Hawk HP+ just squeal a lot, especially when cold, but I don't mind....I value stopping more!
I think the OEM M235i pads are a nice balance, you just need to "manage" them if you start going above like 6.5-7/10th's type of advanced group pace. My buddy has an F87 M2 and the stock pads held up fine on 300 treadwear rubber at a trackday. By held up, I mean they didn't completely fade out, although they were basically disintegrated afterwards lol. So I think the stock M2 pads are perfect for agro driving in the canyons where you might hover around 8/10th's pace.
ALSO, just a general word of advice I've learned over the last couple years that has made a difference. Make sure you really give your rotors a chance to come up to temperature gradually and you will drastically reduce the chances of warping your rotors. It was so apparent with the Ferodo DS2500 pads, that if I'd slow down aggressively after driving for 30 minutes without brakes (so brakes totally cold) on the highway, you would feel shimmy/warpage in the pedal. If you gradually brought them up to temp, it would do this less so or not at all, depending on how hard you're braking.
And lastly, I've always done this, but if your brakes are really cooking it's a good idea to drive round for a few minutes gently to let them cool off so pad deposits don't get melted onto the rotor. Alternatively, if you must come to a stop at a light or wherever with them extremely hot, stick the car in neutral (use e-brake if needed on a hill) as being off of the brake pedal with the brake pad/rotor not moving will help prevent pad deposits on the rotor.