OK, my Mom just got her '03 Subaru GT sedan inspected in NY and shop stated front and rear pads could use replaing. Still stoping good and no fade or warped rotors. It has 62,000 miles on it and is on it's second set of front and rear pads. Is teher any pads I should avoid for the car. My Mom is 65 and drives the speed limit only if weather is good. Most of the time she is traviling 2 MPH under posted speed limit. I was just going to get a set of Raysbestos organic pads rough up the rotors with sand paper. Bleed teh system and call it a day.

That sounds like a lot of brake pads for 62,000 miles. Does your mom ride the brakes?

 

Maybe I'm just too used to 90% highway driving, and not worrying about brakes for 50,000 miles...

i would get higher quality pads...ceramics for instance. i've found that it's not even "pad dependent". some pads just wear worse on some vehicles than others. i've actually seen cheap pads last a long time on Subaru's and the same brand/pads last about 15,000 miles on my parents new dodge caravans multiple times before they finally got better pads and have had much better luck.

 

ceramics are a great price and worth the money.

very strange for rear pads to need replaced already.

 

make sure you buy disc brake caliper lube and then clean and lube the caliper slides. do not use regular grease. that is crucial to better gas mileage and longer lasting pads.

 

as for sanding the rotors, i wouldn't touch them, they should be fine as is. you've already mentioned they work properly and in my experience subaru rotors don't experience problems when the pads are changed properly.

i would get higher quality pads...ceramics for instance. i've found that it's not even "pad dependent". some pads just wear worse on some vehicles than others. i've actually seen cheap pads last a long time on Subaru's and the same brand/pads last about 15,000 miles on my parents new dodge caravans multiple times before they finally got better pads and have had much better luck.

 

ceramics are a great price and worth the money.

very strange for rear pads to need replaced already.

 

make sure you buy disc brake caliper lube and then clean and lube the caliper slides. do not use regular grease. that is crucial to better gas mileage and longer lasting pads.

 

as for sanding the rotors, i wouldn't touch them, they should be fine as is. you've already mentioned they work properly and in my experience subaru rotors don't experience problems when the pads are changed properly.

 

OK, well will semi-metalics do it. Ceramics I see are $40 for a set! I always use silicone greese or anti-seize on teh rub spots when I replace the pads. I thought Raysbestos were a good brand are you talking high performance like EBC Green Stuff etc??

 

My Mom does not ride the brakes just a lot of around town and very hilly here in the Northeast.

While you're at it, you should probably lubricate the caliper slides. That's especially true if you notice any significant difference in wear between the inner and outer pads.

While you're at it, you should probably lubricate the caliper slides. That's especially true if you notice any significant difference in wear between the inner and outer pads.

 

I usualy do. My old '99 legacy L wagon had a big problem with that!

Bendix, found some Bendix ceramics in the $30 range, is that a good brand for Subaru applications?

Bendix has a decent reputation. In the $30 dollar range, it's probably their Bendix Global line, which will probably work just fine.

Said Kingdom on the box? Found semi-metalics with copper instead of steel ? These should be better at noise correct?

I'd buy the $30 ceramics put the goop on the back, lube the caliper slides and be happy my mom has good brakes.

We do a half dozen brake jobs a week at our shop and we always use the best pads we can find that works best with the least amount of comeback complaints from customers, and with cost a distant secondary concern. Day in, day out, year around NAPA's Application Engineered pads has fit that bill.

 

Sometimes the AE pads have very little metal in them, like the Mercury Grand Marquis I did yesterday. On other applications there's so much metal in them you wonder if they'll be noisy. They aren't. I can't recall ever having to replace their pads under warranty, they've been that good.

 

NAPA's Adaptive One Ceramix on the other hand have caused some comebacks so we've quit using them. A couple cars came back with brake squeal and one came back a couple days later with enough brake noise it sounded like they were metal to metal (my boss/sidekick did that job and his hearing isn't so good). We even had a couple trucks where the pads were too thick to fit over new rotors.

 

They look good on paper, and worked fine on most jobs, but as they're fairly new and the number of applications in stock is low, we really didn't install that many of them. Their return/fail rate was way too high for the relatively small numbers we installed.

 

Nothing but NAPA Application Engineered (AE) for us now. As usual, your milage may vary.

I'd buy the $30 ceramics put the goop on the back, lube the caliper slides and be happy my mom has good brakes.

 

I have the noise goop. Is it needed on Soob applications?

I have the noise goop. Is it needed on Soob applications?

i've never had to use anything on subaru's except caliper grease for the slides. just make sure all the retaining clips are in good condition and there (they should be if the current brakes work fine, don't make noise, and the car being so new).

I have the noise goop. Is it needed on Soob applications?

 

from a non-engineer, layman's perspective, it's not really noise goop. it's glue, sort of. it in effect glues the prake pad to the shimm and/ or caliper which keeps it from making noise. so use it.

 

engineers and mechanics please insert corrections here.

engineers and mechanics please insert corrections here.

don't encourage them JCE! i'm an engineer and like not hearing engineers talk about most things!

from a non-engineer, layman's perspective, it's not really noise goop. it's glue, sort of. it in effect glues the prake pad to the shimm and/ or caliper which keeps it from making noise. so use it.

 

mechanics please insert corrections here.

If it has the original thin metal shims on the back of the pads, I'll reuse them but I don't glue them to the new pads or calipers. It just makes them hard to get off without damaging them the next time you do a brake job.

 

If you don't have any shims go ahead and goop the backside of the pads.

 

If the pads came with stick on shims, I would throw them away and goop the pads if you don't have the correct shims.

 

When I did my brake job last weekend, one side had no shims, the other side had stick-on shims that had slipped, and both sides were squealing. Since my local parts store didn't have the correct shims in stock I went ahead and gooped the new pads. I will have the correct shims on hand the next time I do a brake job on this car though.

I've never needed the goop on the Akebono calipers, which work very well and are used by Subaru.

 

Just make sure all the sliding surfaces are clean. You can use a small wire brush to clean up the pad contact points on the caliper.

If it has the original thin metal shims on the back of the pads, I'll reuse them but I don't glue them to the new pads or calipers. It just makes them hard to get off without damaging them the next time you do a brake job.

 

If you don't have any shims go ahead and goop the backside of the pads.

 

If the pads came with stick on shims, I would throw them away and goop the pads if you don't have the correct shims.

 

When I did my brake job last weekend, one side had no shims, the other side had stick-on shims that had slipped, and both sides were squealing. Since my local parts store didn't have the correct shims in stock I went ahead and gooped the new pads. I will have the correct shims on hand the next time I do a brake job on this car though.

 

 

Well did what you said took off the stock shims that were in OK shape. Some rust affecting them. Will only last this last pad change. Car stops pretty much like it did before. Fluid flush but it was in pretty good shape anyways. Pads were down to 1/4 material left. Thanks for all the help, rear pads were prtty stuck and no track of lube from when the stealship did the job. Hopefully this wll keep the rears from wearing out so fast!