ok so it's time for some new pads. i searched on here and heard mintex and hawk alot as far as brands go. i was lookin on ecs's website and found "Mintex Red Box" pads to be much cheaper than the hawk pads. any suggestions as to why i should pay more for the hawk pads? or are the mintex fine for my daily driver? thanks for any input. also, do i need the pads with or without sensor wires? thanks again.

 

The red box's will be fine for a simple daily. The Hawk pads are more for people that take the car to the limits and need a higher operating temp.

 

i have a set of ebs green stuff w/ less the 5k on em. i sell em to you for cheap if u want em.

 

just get new pads, ebc greenstuff is good stuff and right now im running PBR ceramics which i guess are more than adequete and comparable to teh ebc stuff.mintex is OEM, all these are pretty much available for around 40-50 dollars.

 

thanks for the offer but i think im gonna go with some new pads.

on ecs's website they offer the mintex with and without wear sensors. which do i need? they were also advertising a "Piston Retractor Tool". do i need it? its only like $10 and seems like it would make some things easier.

 

As far as the wear sensors go, when you order your pads, the salesman should be able to tell you if you need them. However, when I ordered my Hawk pads, they sent them with the wear sensors, and I don't have the hookup for that. I cut the wires off flush to the pads and installed them. If you're in doubt, order with the sensors, and then if you don't need them, chop off the wires.

As for the piston retractor, that's for the rear calipers. The fronts compress with a C-clamp, but the rears have to be rotated back into the calipers. Before you buy a tool like that, which you'll likely never need again on your car, check with your local AutoZone. The ones here have a tool loan program, and yours might too. What I did was to go there and "rent" the retractor tool and fittings. You leave the full value of the item (in that case, about $40) and take it home to use it. When you return it, they refund your full deposit, effectively making the "rental" free of charge. No sense spending money you don't have to spend.

 

check what you have now. there's also 2 different connectors, a round and a square. i found that out the hard way but i used my old pad's connector by cutting it of the old pads, splicing the 2 loose wires together and then connecting it to the harness. it's cheaper without connectors in some cases i think

 

ok cool. if i have any problems during install, i'll post back. thanks for all the help!

 

looks like im a little late on this thread i had a set of hawk pads and they didn't agree with my brembo slotted and drilled rotors the hawks made lots of noise then i replaced them with ebc's red stuff and the ebc's are the best pads i have used ever