Best Brake pads !!

[p.k]

My question is... what are the best brake pads and slotted and grooved disks that money can buy for a p38.

[ian4002000]

It depends on your driving style and what you use the vehicle for, and if you live in hilly country.?

I like the standard Repco disc pads and i havent had a problem with Rotors but the grooved ones are better if you are happy to spend the extra money.

Ian
Bittern

[p.k]

Snowy mountains kind of steep.
Any brand better on the discs.?
thanks for your time.

[redandy3575]

I had the grooved discs on the front of mine, but found them not so durable in heavy duty situations. I have since returned back to a good set of DBA non-grooved discs, and a good set of heavy duty brake pads. The only downside is that the heavy duties won't give you the best braking performance, however they won't fade that quickly either, as they can handle the heat far better!!

So it's a bit of a comprise on brake performance versus endurance i guess.

[p.k]

I’m after the best braking performance. Any brand you can recommend. My braking capacity has dropped considerably.
thanks for sharing your experiences.

[rick130]

If you want better than stock bite with fade resistance, QFM make excellent off the shelf and custom compounds, but they don't come cheaply.
Head office is on the Gold Coast.

I like the bite of slotted rotors, and they have the added advantage of giving a slight increase in performance by letting the pad out-gas under extremes use.
DBA and Delios are my picks there.

[p.k]

Awesome information. Thanx a bunch!!

[ramblingboy42]

this is what we do here pk, we do awesome......

[FisherX]

I fitted RDA rotors (gen 3) and pads (GP) to our Freelander 2 a couple of months ago and I was very impressed with the improvement over the stock rotors and Bendix Euro pads.

I would defiantly recommend RDA and the prices are pretty good too.

[garybrook]

I installed 4 x Brembo disks (certainly hard) and 'Blue' DBA pads when I bought my P38 4 years ago as the front disks were very worn and a little on the rear, and the very dusty pads (LR I think) were marginal on wear too. This set are a bit dead at first when cold, but run much better when they are warmed up. I've never got them really hot as we don't tow much, although I did I had 650 kg in the boot recently and the brakes were good when I worked them more. When I installed the new brakes it took a long time to bed in the pads, especially at the back, but in 20,000 km of use they don't seem to wear much or throw much dust on the wheels. If I stomp on the brakes quickly, which is very often, they do work very well and the ABS do work in the rain or greasy conditions so the sensitivity is capable. I've flushed the brake fluids completely a handful times over the last 3 years so I expect the system is normal', what ever that is. The next time I replace the brakes I'll try some of the QFM/QDB pads as I have had good experiences on other cars in my family.

[p.k]

Thanx for all the advice . Decided to go with QFM only to ring up and be told they went out of buisiness last year. Hmmmm rang brakesdirect.com.au they recommended brembo ( I will be towing soon) asked about Dba said no good for towing. Brembo it is . $84 a set .Cheers

[rick130]

Thanx for all the advice . Decided to go with QFM only to ring up and be told they went out of buisiness last year.

Bugger.

Searched and found this Queensland Friction Materials Pty Ltd 103 013 814 | Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation | Appointment | Select One | Published : 01/11/2019 | ASIC Notice Details (https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-notices/notice-details?notice=7c1e9394-b068-4dfe-bbd5-2b26a25fc369)

[garybrook]

I pulled down the front right corner for replacing the ball joints and during the process I noticed that the ventilated disc was barely worn, yet the outer surface had one 2" surface crack. The casting doesn't seem to have cracked through to the ventilated space and is not cracked on the inner. I'll have to check the other 3 corners later as the car is sitting on 3 tyres with 3 more stands but all new discs were the Brembo brand. Has anyone had similar problems with surface cracks of any brands, and why do they surface crack? I haven't towed at all since I installed these brakes, and they brakes haven't got even warm since then, so .... I went to the local brake supplier in Woden and found they could order discs for the P38, RDA for $100 for one front single disc, but I thought that none were cast, heat treated or machined in Australia any more. So all are manufactured and imported, mostly from China, including DBA or any other no-name ones, or aren't they?

[FANTOM P38]

I fitted DBA Slotted discs front & rear with std pads also stripped down all 4 calipers & re kitted them as I found they were almost seized giving a hard pedal but little pressure obviously. I also fitted braided hoses all round. The change is remarkable much better feel & response!
p.s I also re-kitted master cylinder with S/steel discs replacing the fragile oem plastic units.
Dont take chances with brakes!

[Gav 110]

I pulled down the front right corner for replacing the ball joints and during the process I noticed that the ventilated disc was barely worn, yet the outer surface had one 2" surface crack. The casting doesn't seem to have cracked through to the ventilated space and is not cracked on the inner. I'll have to check the other 3 corners later as the car is sitting on 3 tyres with 3 more stands but all new discs were the Brembo brand. Has anyone had similar problems with surface cracks of any brands, and why do they surface crack? I haven't towed at all since I installed these brakes, and they brakes haven't got even warm since then, so .... I went to the local brake supplier in Woden and found they could order discs for the P38, RDA for $100 for one front single disc, but I thought that none were cast, heat treated or machined in Australia any more. So all are manufactured and imported, mostly from China, including DBA or any other no-name ones, or aren't they?

on my VW transporter I recently had a disc disintegrate (one side only)https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200904/6847198bfb7a60e6a4ba0397bf2dd4d4.jpg
I had a little bit of a shudder every time I braked and when investigated by a mechanic friend we found that the shock had leaked oil out and assumed that caused the problem
A week later I heard a couple of clunks under the car and when I braked a loud “wirring” sound
When I pulled over and had a look I could not see a problem as it was the inner side of the disc and the van is so low I couldn’t get my head around to look from the inner of the car
I drove home only using the handbrake and gears to find the problem when the van was jacked up
We now realise the shudder must have been a cracked disc☹️

[garybrook]

If I was very clever, which I'm usually not, I would carefully clamp a ventilated disc, vertrically and parallel to the blade on a bandsaw, and slowly cut through the vented 'middle' pattern, this would look this picture. But how could this disc fracture evenly, yet it seems to not spin or rotated without chipping or locking the casting bits? I have, though, seen this machining process of DBA advertising of their new pattern disc castings, so it is do-able. Ummm.....