[g340ix]

Hello, I have a 2017 340ix with 340x300 vented discs in the front and 320x20 discs in the rear, the gray brakes.

I've previously had the akebono, currently on the hawk 5.0. Haven't been a fan of either and was interested in trying ebc redstuff pads. It doesn't appear that they make pads for the rear single-piston rotors, am I wrong?

[danb1979]

Personally I wouldn't pi$$ on EBC brake pads if they were on fire; absolute crap. Used to run them and towards the end kept having issues with both Redstuff & Yellowstuff. Never again

ATE Ceramic and Ferodo DS2500s would get my vote for aftermarket

But have you tried OEM BMW (probably Textar); they're absolutely fine for every day driving but probably a bit dusty if you drive your car hard etc

[g340ix]

Originally Posted by danb1979

Personally I wouldn't pi$$ on EBC brake pads if they were on fire; absolute crap. Used to run them and towards the end kept having issues with both Redstuff & Yellowstuff. Never again

ATE Ceramic and Ferodo DS2500s would get my vote for aftermarket

But have you tried OEM BMW (probably Textar); they're absolutely fine for every day driving but probably a bit dusty if you drive your car hard etc

thank you for the recommendation. I have not tried the textar, back when I was on the stock brakes I got a lot of fade, and was looking for something a little better. I don't beat on the car at all, but after the brakes would fade a lot on back-to-back highway pulls.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by g340ix

thank you for the recommendation. I have not tried the textar, back when I was on the stock brakes I got a lot of fade, and was looking for something a little better. I don't beat on the car at all, but after the brakes would fade a lot on back-to-back highway pulls.

You must be being hard on them enough to make them fade; obviously OEM pads are meant for day to day driving and with some hard braking etc; but not track runs or really 'fast road'

But I'd still run OEM pads over EBC any day personally; they've been nothing but crap for a good while

The Ferodo DS2500s would be a good shout IMO; they can be dusty, but a good ceramic coat of your wheels will soon help with that

[casualDIYer]

Originally Posted by danb1979

Personally I wouldn't pi$$ on EBC brake pads if they were on fire; absolute crap. Used to run them and towards the end kept having issues with both Redstuff & Yellowstuff. Never again

ATE Ceramic and Ferodo DS2500s would get my vote for aftermarket

But have you tried OEM BMW (probably Textar); they're absolutely fine for every day driving but probably a bit dusty if you drive your car hard etc

This love-hate thing for EBC seems a bit unique. I mean you've got people who don't prefer a brand, but EBC, it seems you get 'Best ever' or 'worst garbage I've ever used'. I wonder why there is such a range of opinions? Was there a change in ownership? Product? Review bombing? Review spamming?

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by casualDIYer

This love-hate thing for EBC seems a bit unique. I mean you've got people who don't prefer a brand, but EBC, it seems you get 'Best ever' or 'worst garbage I've ever used'. I wonder why there is such a range of opinions? Was there a change in ownership? Product? Review bombing? Review spamming?

No idea; but here in the UK they're favoured by the 'Barry Boy' boy racers and those that know no better IMO

I've had a number of unfortunate issues with them on various cars and never again

Have stuck with OEM BMW, Ferodo and ATE since - depending on which car I owned etc... But having been in BMWs since 2010 and ran EBC Redstuff & Yellowstuff all round on my first 2 E39s before realising they were shit and moving to ATE; I've avoided them since

I think they get more likes & buys via their marketing than anything else; you see them recommended all the time. A lot of car channels on YT use them as they're 'sponsored' by EBC - so basically they're getting free brakes etc; maybe they know no better as they've ventured elsehwhere

[E90lova]

Just to chime in. Anything under EBC BLUE stuff is absolute crap. YELLOW is worst than many stock options. I personally use Bluestuff on my Audi Q5 and love them. Orange stuff for street/track use on my F30 335 with front M3 380mm Brembo brakes and love them also and Orange stuff on my Volvo S60 T5 . All the Yellow EBC pads I used came off in a month or sooner if I had time. I laugh when people say they did a track day with EBC Yellow stuff.

[E90lova]

Originally Posted by danb1979

No idea; but here in the UK they're favoured by the 'Barry Boy' boy racers and those that know no better IMO

I've had a number of unfortunate issues with them on various cars and never again

Have stuck with OEM BMW, Ferodo and ATE since - depending on which car I owned etc... But having been in BMWs since 2010 and ran EBC Redstuff & Yellowstuff all round on my first 2 E39s before realising they were shit and moving to ATE; I've avoided them since

I think they get more likes & buys via their marketing than anything else; you see them recommended all the time. A lot of car channels on YT use them as they're 'sponsored' by EBC - so basically they're getting free brakes etc; maybe they know no better as they've ventured elsehwhere

I think the deal is the Lemming thing. Monkey see monkey do. That's why a ton of people think EBC Yellow stuff is a great pad. Fake car guys if you ask me. Then EBC has a more dedicated track pad for light and heavy cars for our cars as well.

[E90lova]

Originally Posted by g340ix

Hello, I have a 2017 340ix with 340x300 vented discs in the front and 320x20 discs in the rear, the gray brakes.

I've previously had the akebono, currently on the hawk 5.0. Haven't been a fan of either and was interested in trying ebc redstuff pads. It doesn't appear that they make pads for the rear single-piston rotors, am I wrong?

You would like the Orange or Blue stuff but ATE and EKEBONO also makes great pads. The stock ATE pads on the B8.5 Audi SQ5 is killer brake pads. I had that 380mm kit on my Audi A4 and it stopped like track pads over and over and over again.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by E90lova

I think the deal is the Lemming thing. Monkey see monkey do. That's why a ton of people think EBC Yellow stuff is a great pad. Fake car guys if you ask me. Then EBC has a more dedicated track pad for light and heavy cars for our cars as well.

Yeah

I've heard good things re the Bluestuff; but only on lighter cars (Hondas etc) and deffo not road use

Personally Ferodo and ATE have always done me for fast road pads; some tack time (when I was younger and had more track related cars etc) and now; ATE or OEM BMW for road going/fast road pads

Never had any issues with them; more so partnered with decent braided lines and fluid etc

[Ennoch]

The issue isn't necessarily that EBC can't make decent pads, but they can't make them consistently, and they very much under spec them for their intended use (reds aren't even 'hot hatch' territory). I mean how many pads have they released and called them either a track or a race pad, only to then bring out another pad above and call it the same thing. Yellows are passable, Blues work well when they work but fall off a cliff when they overheat, and Oranges are good but inconsistent batch to batch. I've used many of their pads in various cars over the years, and the only ones I quite liked were the Orangestuff, but then the second set I had were terrible with little bite and inconsistent feel. They also wear pretty quickly. I certainly wouldn't go recommending EBC red stuff - if you're after a good performance pad for fast road then I'd be looking at either HP2000 or DS2500. Up front you can definitely get both of those options as it's the same fitment as I have, but the rears might be more of an issue.

I always liked Carbon Lorraine RC5+ (and even RC7+) as a fast road pad where you only really did hard driving, less so as an all rounder where there was more daily driving as they're aggressive on discs when cold and would soon lose 'bed in'. The RC7 was even worse in that regard but the performance was utterly amazing when they were hot and in their working window (as were Mintex M1166). DS2500's are the classic fast road pad and are a good all rounder but I always found they weren't so good at chilled dailying as they took a few stabs at the pedal to get some bite out of them, especially the first time out after a hard run. The Brembo HP2000's might not have quite the same peak performance, although that said I haven't compared them on the same car (and the BMW is a heavy car, so I suspect that most realistic fast road pads would fade on or before the same point), but they are outstandingly good cold too which for me is a crucial consideration with the number of deer up here that you need to avoid. And when they do start to fade, they do so very progressively rather than one corner working and the next not, like some do. I've pushed them to the point of fading quite a few times, but then I also got less than 10k out my rear PS4S on XD which might give an indication of how they get used at times, and when they have gone to fade I've generally gone 'yeah, fair enough, I've been taking liberties'. I really like them for both what the car is, and how it gets used.

The problem with pad recommendations is that everyone's driving is different (both in style and the roads you're on), and cars are different too. My 335Xd estate is nudging two tons with me, a tank of fuel and a few bits in the boot. In contrast my Impreza is 1450kg with the same (and the same power). That 500kg mass can be hidden by bigger brakes to an extent, but unless your cooling's spot on the heavier car will fade quicker if they're not getting much chance to cool off between corners. And you can always go up the temperature range on pads, but then the trade off is usually the daily/cold performance. The stock 294mm Impreza Sumitomo brakes were god awful for a 'performance' car with stock pads, but can be made to work with proper Carbon Lorraine RC8 rally pads, but they literally don't work cold. A bigger syestem with gentler pads will provide a bigger window of operation, but at the expense of consistency during harder use.