Has anyone from europe ever ordered from them? I really like the look of their ceramic C900 brake pads, and I know from experience with other cars, Ceramic pads perform better and make so much less dust than conventional ones.
OT Reply. Advance apologies ;-)
Don't you think the pads may be worth more than the car? ... and when it comes to selling it you will have to sell a set of pads with a car attached to them :-D
Carl, sell the damn car! Buy a new(ish) 9000 and rename yourself to NeedforSwede3.
Go back to meatballs (Skoda) but if you are into meatballs here is another option
Nope.
Already considering it, as the roof fix will be too expensive, but I do like to keep my cars clean and safe even if I am moving them on. It is a repect thing.
They look OK, but what cars have the greeks ever made? At least the Turks have the Tofas brand. But these are the meatballs I used to refer to.
The "keftedes" are also Turkish, the ones I pointed you to are called Izmir Kofte (if you can figure out the spelling).
So the bottom line is you are trying to repair the car ... but you are uncertain what to fix. OK onto your other questions.
C.
I'm just wanting to improve rather than fixc the brakes a little. I can get performance but not ceramic pads for the C900 in the UK and=20 normal performance pads make even more dust than normal. Plus we tend to get ripped off. For decent performance pads in the UK, you are looking at about =A380-
150GBP for a set for the front from one of the known brands. Also, to be sold in the UK, brake parts must have the E-Mark. That means=20 they can't perform more or less than within 5% of factory items.=20 Compared to standard OEM grade parts, it is one hell of a price premium=20 for 5% increase, when non-european brands who produce good kit and live=20 upto their reputation can be far better for similar money or cheaper.--=20 Carl Robson Car PC Build starts again.
I actually have ordered from them, was back in 2001. If memory serves, they're based in Connecticut?
Anyway, I bought a kit that allowed the removal of the air box in my
1991 900, and for the installation of a K&N cone filter in its place (the consisted of the filter and a bracket with which to mount said filter).I was satisfied with the price, shipping time, and customer service after the sale, as well as the bracket and supplied hardware. The directions for installation came complete with step-by-step photos (although a little grainy, looked like a photocopy of a photocopy of a low-res picture). I'd buy from them again if I found them to be the lowest-price dealer.
thanks James. I think that is them. It is a case of rarely finding interesting products in the UK that are common in the US.
I had ceramic pads on my Volvo 740 for a while since they were only marginally cheaper than good standard pads. I found they did indeed stop well, but they also wore the rotors down at an alarming rate and were starting to squeal when cold with about half the pad left so I swapped over to PBR Deluxe pads and while a little softer they still work quite well and they're quiet.
Ceramic pads are always *more* expensive that standard pads.
How did you ascertain that?
Brake squeal has very little to do with the pad material. It is primarily caused by movement of the pad backing (steel plate) against the caliper piston and/or caliper.
I happen to like the PBR deluxes too. They are a non-metallic pad and so are rather soft, but give good breaking power and feel and a re quite kind to the rotors. They also don't throw off as much dust as the semi-metallic pads.
Because I've been so impressed with the PBRs, I bought a set of PBR Ultimate Ceramic pads for the front end of my BMW 540i. This should be a pretty good test of a brake pad as it's a pretty heavy car with exceptionally strong stock brakes. I have 1/2 worn-out ATE Power-slot rotors on it now, so I should be able to tell how quickly the rotors wear down too.
Oh, the PBR ceramics were only ~$10 more per axle than the Deluxe (PBRs base model).
Er, I meant the standard pads were only marginally cheaper.
A substantial lip at the inner and outer edge of the rotors after only about 15K miles which didn't form on the last set of identical rotors after more miles than that, replaced them because one warped due to a siezed caliper slide.
Trust me, I tried that. Took the brakes apart numerous times, cleaned everything up, installed new shims and a good coat of anti-squeel compound, beveled the edges of the pads, the latter helped for a while but eventually it would come back, they were fine when warm, but squeeled in the morning.
The PBR ceramics were exactly what I used, with ATE Powerdisc rotors. Probably a great setup for track use, just less than ideal for my daily commute.
Just wish they made them to fit a 9-5 Aero. I wanted to use them for the low-dust benefits, but I just ended up putting OEM pads on the front of my '02 Aero, because nobody could find anything (including the PBRs) to fit the Aero. And they're squealing like mad after about 300 miles. :-(
OK, I'll let you know how it goes with (apparently) the exact same set-up.
Not knowing what the PBR pads are ... you are right about squeal. However, I am also convinced that I had two break pads on my C900 and the curren 9000 that it was the pads that produced a finer than normal dust that clogged them up. In both instances they were/are Mintex.
The current ones might produce a just audible noise on light breaking ... of course it can be the car that is getting a bit more worn ... etc.
One explanation I have come accross is that that dust can make pads squeal thus they have a cut in the middle of the friction material to allow dust to escape. No idea if it is true or false.
Still, they sound a lot more expensive than the car we are talking about.
Charles :-)
The Akebonos I had on the Celica, with DBA Discs (slot machined Brembo blanks) were great. The pads showed no signs of wear, and the discs were still like new after 8k miles. If it was going to be a problem, I would have expected noticable wear at 8k of the disc, even if it wasn't terminal.
In my case it isn't. Even a scruffy C900 convertible is worth a couple=20 of thousand pounds. A mint one might rarely reach =A35-7 thousand.
--=20 Carl Robson Car PC Build starts again.
I'd have to side with false. The only way that dust could effect the brake squeal is if it somehow a) makes the pad move laterally more (I don't think so) or b) gets between the pad backing and the caliper and allows it to slide more or differently (I also doubt this)
It may be down the powerdiscs then? I've always used the solid ATE discs, and the non Powerdisc wented ones. But for grooved or drilled you really want to be using anything based on a Brembo Iron blank.
Even the vented ones seem to weigh twice what anything else does.
I've been using Brembo rotors on cars I've worked on lately, been really happy with them. I still have the Powerdisc grooved rotors on one car but I doubt it really makes a difference for street use.
Apart from the wear characteristics if using uprated pads.
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