Today I swapped in Carbotech's Bobcat-series street brake pads (taking off my XP8s), to see if they'd cut down on the cold/low-speed squealing. I mainly chose them out of fear of Carbotech's statement that their pads should only be mixed with their own other pads on the same rotor without scrubbing/prepping the rotor surface when changing and re-bedding completely. I figure I'll try to follow the mfg's recommendations and save some labor.
Pad swap was easy of course thanks to the nice design of the Akebonos. I bedded them per Carbotech's directions. I still get a little bit of a squeal in the <5mph range coming to a stop, but it's not anywhere near as loud or frequent as the XP8's, totally livable on the street. Given that it sounds so similar to a muted version of some of my worst XP8 squeals, I wouldn't be surprised if the cause was leftover XP8 material on the rotor that hasn't been abraded/replaced by the Bobcat pads yet, so it may fade completely in a few days.
My stock pads and my Hawk HPS's never made a peep though, so while it's not a big deal if it doesn't, it be nice if this little squeal went away.
As far as pad performance goes, it's definitely a big step down from XP8. I've gotten used to the quick bite on the XP8's, and this is back to feeling more like my old HPS's. Still, it's plenty good enough for a street pad, and seems a bit more consistent and fade-resistant than OEM/HPS I've had on the car in the past. My XP8's still have plenty of material on them, so they're boxed up for the next track event, which looks like it will be the weekend of Jan 21-22 back at MSR Houston again, hopefully in the opposite direction from the last few times out.
Last edited by wstar; 12-08-2011 at 08:44 PM.
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