Hawk Pads are Best Upgrade Ever

[MTV]

Just went stuff it, do it properly and ordered the Street and Track pads with the BSPK Carbon Ceramic Kit.

 

[rowenofpts]

Does @GRP or anyone know if it’s okay to run Hawk on the rears and EBC reds on the fronts?

I’ve had the Hawk rears sitting on my shelf and have been waiting for the fronts to be available for almost an entire year now. It’s ridiculous and I’m tired of waiting at this point. The ETA keeps getting moved. First it was May. Then August. Then October. Now December? I highly doubt December will be the final delay, seeing how this has gone.

Is running two different brands okay for the car?

 

[Glowtus]

Does @GRP or anyone know if it’s okay to run Hawk on the rears and EBC reds on the fronts?

I’ve had the Hawk rears sitting on my shelf and have been waiting for the fronts to be available for almost an entire year now. It’s ridiculous and I’m tired of waiting at this point. The ETA keeps getting moved. First it was May. Then August. Then October. Now December? I highly doubt December will be the final delay, seeing how this has gone.

Is running two different brands okay for the car?

I am Running the Hawk rears and Porterfields on the front. Works great.

 

[rowenofpts]

I am Running the Hawk rears and Porterfields on the front. Works great.

How is the dust level on each? Do you see less dust on the rears where the Hawks are? Or are the front and rear pretty even?

 

[Glowtus]

How is the dust level on each? Do you see less dust on the rears where the Hawks are? Or are the front and rear pretty even?

They generate very little dust. I’d say it’s been pretty even. I’ve been very happy with this combo. It has the added benefit that the porterfields are significantly cheaper than the Hawks too.

 

[kitkat]

Does @GRP or anyone know if it’s okay to run Hawk on the rears and EBC reds on the fronts?

I’ve had the Hawk rears sitting on my shelf and have been waiting for the fronts to be available for almost an entire year now. It’s ridiculous and I’m tired of waiting at this point. The ETA keeps getting moved. First it was May. Then August. Then October. Now December? I highly doubt December will be the final delay, seeing how this has gone.

Is running two different brands okay for the car?

It’s fine they’re so similar in terms of compound, I’ve had both and could see them being close to interchangeable for street driving.

 

[papadop88]

Another update on the EBC Red Stuff. Hope this helps some of ya'll with squeals still present.

Not long after I posted here that the squeals had gone away after some hard bedding, the squeals returned, pretty loud too. The rotors looked ok....maybe a bit of glazing around the edges. So I had enough. I removed the pads.

The pads were glazed, so no matter how many times I tried to do some aggressive bedding, the squeals wouldn't go away.

I performed the following:

1. Took each pad and rubbed them fast in small circles on some 80 grit sandpaper on my workbench to remove the glaze. Cleaned them off with some brake cleaner
2. Applied a very thin coat of brake grease to the back plates of the pads
3. Applied a very thin coat of Sil-Glyde on the pins

After 100 miles of driving in the past couple of days, zero noise. They are dead silent.

Not sure if it's the combination of all three of those things that shut them up, or if it really was just sanding off the glaze. I would bet it's the sanding part, but the greasing doesn't hurt.

Dead silent again and I love the feel of them now. Hope this helps.

BTW, the dusting is almost non-existent now.

 

[Orchardbike]

Mine have been silent from the day I installed them. I put a thin smear of copper grease on the back of the pad.

 

[Foosh]

Mine have been silent from the day I installed them. I put a thin smear of copper grease on the back of the pad.

My experience has been identical with the EBC Red Stuff pads front and back. They have been dead-silent since day 1, which was 2K miles ago.

As their website guidance implies, being very gentle on the brakes for the first 300-400 miles seems to be important. I was very diligent in following that guidance, and fortunately, never had reason to hard brake during that period.

 

[GrahamClark_60-68]

So much water under this bridge since the Hawk ceramics were declared to be the best ever for street driving insofar as significantly less dusting and grabbiness compared to stock, that I've now lost track of the many past impressions of EBC Reds by comparison. Now with the Hawk fronts hopelessly out of stock, I'm starting to considering the EBC Reds for both front and back.

So this is a very specific question that probably not many have direct experience with, but I have to ask just in case there are those of you out there. For those of you who have tried BOTH the Hawk Ceramics and the EBC Reds (and on the Emira specifically), what are the differences you've noticed and are they so similar as to make them nearly interchangeable?

 

[Foosh]

They appear to be similar enough that a number of folks here are running EBC Reds on the front and Hawks on the rear, but I'm not sure why one would want to do that. Front brakes are much larger than rear and do the majority of the work.

 

[papadop88]

I believe @kitkat has run both Hawks and Reds. He preferred the Hawks slightly over the Reds, but I have to believe the two brands are interchangeable for those who don't plan on tracking the car. For daily driving, run either of them. I didn't like the reds because of the squeal. Now that I removed the glaze off the pads, they are great, as many here have stated with zero noise. Just get the Reds from Greg and be done with it.

 

[Nelumbo nucifera]

Brake Pads.
In reading the posts on this subject, I get somewhat confused as to which pads are best. I’m at the stage of changing worn OEM pads.
I go to the track about three days per year. Other than that it’s around town and rural driving. While I treat the brakes kindly, track days (only thrice per year) are pretty well hit hard, with late , heavy braking.
I’m looking at Hawk pads, as many on this forum seem to like them and give good reports. My dilemma is which ones. I would rather preserve the rotors as the replacement cost is horrendous. Brake dust is a problem. Since track days are not a regular occurrence, could anyone advise which Hawk pads will cater for: low dust, low rotor wear (from harsh pads), suitable for around town driving, yet handle reasonably the occasional track day.
Thank you in anticipation of advice.

 

[kitkat]

Brake Pads.
In reading the posts on this subject, I get somewhat confused as to which pads are best. I’m at the stage of changing worn OEM pads.
I go to the track about three days per year. Other than that it’s around town and rural driving. While I treat the brakes kindly, track days (only thrice per year) are pretty well hit hard, with late , heavy braking.
I’m looking at Hawk pads, as many on this forum seem to like them and give good reports. My dilemma is which ones. I would rather preserve the rotors as the replacement cost is horrendous. Brake dust is a problem. Since track days are not a regular occurrence, could anyone advise which Hawk pads will cater for: low dust, low rotor wear (from harsh pads), suitable for around town driving, yet handle reasonably the occasional track day.
Thank you in anticipation of advice.

I don't think any low dust pads for iron rotors are going to handle any kind of track day unless they're just parade laps. Two sets of pads is the answer here. The stock pads last like < track 2 days before they're worn through and worse if they overheat.

 

[Foosh]

That's correct. The amount dust coming off a brake pad for steel rotors, is an indication of its ability to shed heat, thus track-ready pads are going to be dusty. If lack of dust in street use is your priority, the only low-dust alternative available as a matched set now are EBC Reds. The low-dust Hawks for the front have been out of stock for as long as I can remember, and front brakes are the most important.

GRP advises that EBC Reds and the low-dust version of Hawk pads are almost equivalent in street use. If occasional track use is your priority, keep the OEM pads and live with the dust. Both EBC and Hawk offer a track pad, but they aren't low dust.

I love the EBC Reds in street use. They are totally quiet, stopping performance is great, they are far less "grabby," and the lack of dust after they are broken in is wonderful.

 

[Nelumbo nucifera]

One of my only pestering complaints of my Emira was the brake pads. Insanely dirty and the worst pads I've ever encountered when trying to do a smooth stop. I finally pulled the trigger and swapped the stock pads for the Hawks about two weeks ago. INSANE! The pedal feel is night and day better and brake dust is almost completely gone. This pic was after about 200 miles and you can see the caliper and wheel are still almost completely dust free. This is a mandatory upgrade.

I did a full wheel and caliper cleaning when I installed them so the whole process took about three hours. The actual pad swap is maybe five minutes...easiest I've ever encountered. Here is a video I found on how to do it:

Hawk Performance Ceramic Street Brake Pads - HB585Z.660 $146.11 USD
Hawk AP Racing CP7040 Performance Ceramic Street Brake Pads - HB586Z.660 $165.89 US

View attachment 67560

Now that you have had the Hawk pads in for over 12 months, are you able to comment on the overall performance compared to the OEM? Is the dust factor still much better than the OEM? What about rotor wear? Are they chewing into the disks more than the original OEM set? Would you describe them as more street focused, or track focused?
Thanks for any feedback.

 

[kitkat]

Don’t even think about tracking the hawk ceramics, you can start to fade those pads in the canyons in 3-4 hard brake zones.

 

[Nelumbo nucifera]

Don’t even think about tracking the hawk ceramics, you can start to fade those pads in the canyons in 3-4 hard brake zones.

Thanks so much for your feedback kit Kat. Which Hawk pad are you referring to? Is it any ceramic Hawk pad or a more specific model?
To compare “apples with apples” could you give us a comparison of the particular Hawk pads you are referring to, with OEM pads, using the same course of travel?
Finally, what pads are you using? Look forward to your assessment. Thanks again.

 

[kitkat]

Thanks so much for your feedback kit Kat. Which Hawk pad are you referring to? Is it any ceramic Hawk pad or a more specific model?
To compare “apples with apples” could you give us a comparison of the particular Hawk pads you are referring to, with OEM pads, using the same course of travel?
Finally, what pads are you using? Look forward to your assessment. Thanks again.

Hawk Performance Ceramic, the ones mostly discussed in this thread.

For the street the Hawk PC are fine, so the real comparison is if you were to put them on track or an environment where repeated hard brake zones were to happen. The PC just aren’t up to it at all, the stock pads could handle a few hot laps but they disintegrate quickly and you risk overheating them and smearing pad material on your rotors. The PC won’t even last a lap.

I use PC on regular street driving, project mu hc+ for canyon driving, and pagid rsl29 for track.

And before anyone gets any funny ideas, no the HC+ are not good daily low dust pads, they’re like oem with more thermal capacity.

 

[Foosh]

This discussion remains academic. Hawk Performance Ceramic front brake pads are NOT not available for the Emira. That's been the case at least since I purchased my car 6 months ago, and I'm told much longer than that.