Hawk HPS vs. EBC redstuff
 

well friends its time for new pads. just wanted you opinion on pads. im quite the fan of EBC but recently i heard of hawks ferro carbon pads and just wanted anyone opinion on the matter. apparently redstuff is ceramic and ive had good results when it came to the occasional autox and normal street driving but apparently hawk hps has a lot higher friction coeffiecnt and high heat fade.

As in more friction? If that's the case then they'll eat your rotors faster.

oh contrare, i already have a A8 brake upgrade on my car and i have cryo treated rotors. i had ebc greenstuff until the organic compund caught on fire one day (that is why your not supposed to autox with them) and am currently running pbr ceramics which are good but i want more bite or atleast good resistance to brake fade. i just saw a fellow member selling a RPI equipped 4pot brake setup but unfortunaly i just spend my money on school and i have just enough for new pads. ebc redstuff and hawk hps are what ive been reading up on and they're both going to cost me just under 100 so thats what im looking at right now.

Hawk HPS is hands-down the best pad you can buy for your street-driven/Auto-X B5. Period.

i had the EBC redstuff on my audi for a fews years and was happy with them and when it came time to change the pads on my a8/tt brakes i went with carbotech bobcat pads and they are way better then the ebc redstuff the bobcat pads have no warm up and bite hard as a pissed off pit bull and i have not experanced any fade when i do my high speed mountain runs with lots of switchbacks, but i have never auto xed with the bodcat pads or the redstuff pads.

i have Hawk hps on mine and my wifes camry's and they have lasted a long time and work great, but a camry is no speed machine

pad info
http://www.purems.com/products/product.php/II=401

well i think its settled then looks like im going with the hps

HPS is a better choice, and I say this as a former believer in Greenstuff. The problem with EBC is that you need Greenstuff for the street, but they don't do well in auto-x or especially road racing, so you need Redstuff for that, but Redstuff sucks for daily driving.

If you're doing a lot of track work, though, the HPS isn't good enough. You'd want the HP+. I would say the HPS should be better than Greenstuff for track, but shouldn't be used for anything but light track work.

Greenstuff is simply OE style replacement pads, so you won't see an improvement over the stock replacement pads. Redsuff are ceramic and thusly eat through rotors and do not stop as well under certain conditions (cold rain, for example). Personally, I wasn't impressed with Redstuff on my Jag at DE events at Limerock, but they were the only "upgrade" available for X-Type brakes.

HPS is the best for the street, combined with blank OE replacement or OEM rotors. For an even better stop, upgrade the fronts to A8 rotors. This combination is great for the street and weekend Auto-X events or DE events; way better than Redstuff.

If you are doing a lot of track driving, of course you're going to need a different compound. You'll also need different rotors and tires to accommodate your needs, but these "race" setups are not optimal for the street. Since the thread is mostly about street pads/ occasional weekend events, I think we agree Hawk HPS wins.

Not true. They will stop better than stock and they will wear rotors faster. No two brake pads are the same. I wouldn't do the A8 brake upgrade for street stuff because they're just going to add unsprung weight. For daily driving, a bigger rotor is not always better. Of course, for track work, you need more.

The benefit of the extra braking torque from a set of A8 rotors FAR outweights the ill effects of the negligible amount of added weight on the street or the track. Weight an A8 rotor against an A4 rotor. You're scale will read what, like a couple of ounces different??

A8 upgrade is proven and used by a large amount of B5 owners on the street and track. They should have come with the A8 sized rotor for the factory.

If you can lock up your tires while braking (or get ABS to come on) then your brakes are not even your weak point. Can/could you not do that before? Or are you overheating them on the street?

With almost every car I've owned, people always complain about brake sizes and say the car should have come with better brakes. Those people are usually wrong.

A4 rotor = 7.25 lbs

A8 rotor = 11.25 lbs

Not that I care I'm also running 19x8.5's lol

unsprung weight is 10x as bad as sprung weight

ive heard only good things about hawk

What rotor to buy?
 

I have an A8L 2004 and now is time to change the rotors and the pads. I have read all the posts about the rotors and the pads in this forum.
EBS tunning and also genuineaudivwparts.com both claim that they sell the genuine parts from Audi?!
I not an agressive driver and drive mainly highway/city = (80/20%). There are a lot of posts for and against ECS redstuff pads. So, all things considered can I come to the conclusion that the best choice for me in terms of the brake performance, noise, dust, etc. is;

Genuine Audi rotors + Hawks hps?

Thank you for your thoughts,
A.

This argument has been popping up a lot recently, especially on vortex. But I have not seen a single person who has done this upgrade complain about it or wish they didn't do it. I almost decided not to do the upgrade because of all the "weight issues" I heard, but when the mod is done you instantly feel much better braking and the car does not feel any heavier or more sluggish.

For your A8L, yes, stock rotors and Hawk HPS pads are a great combo. You can substitute Zimmerman or ATE plain rotors if the OEMs are too expensive.

A word of warning about HPS: they do squeak a little. Its NOwhere near as bad as Redstuff, but they are noisier than stock pads. But then again, they stop better than stockers. ;)

My HPS pads started squeaking after a few months because I forgot to put the anti-squeal paste on them. But after applying that to the outside of the pads, I haven't heard a peep out of them.

Can you put anti-squeal paste on the pads, even sfter they were installed?
Tnx,

I run Yellowstuffs w/ATE Elliptical Slotted rotors on my A4 with HUGE success. Great cold bite and bite only improves the hotter they get. However my friend ran Greenstuffs on his MINI with the same rotors and hated them. Ive never heard anyone give a great review od reds or greens, but everyone I know whos ever run yellows LOVED them. My friend runs Hawks on his Z32 & loves them, idk what model pad tho.

I did, seems to work great. Totally eliminated the squealing.