Except that Axxis marketing told me, personally, that all these words are marketing bullshit (he used nicer terms than that).
Do you think I don't call these people up when I have their numbers?
Hmmmmhmmmhmmm... this is interesting. I like it! If the test works, that's a nice test. I'm gonna have to bring a magnet with me to the web when I look them up online! :)
Seriously though, it's nice if the pad is in your hands. I'll bring a magnet with me if I end up buying them from the parts store. And I can test the old shoes and pads when I take them off.
Good idea if it works. Can others concur it works?
The Ameca engineer talked about 1st tier but he wouldn't tell me which companies that is, so I don't know what you know.
He did say that aftermarket makes only a handful of formulations that they fit to all cars.
That's like saying you decide the characteristics of a wife, and then go and marry her. It's not extrapolatable with the information you have.
It's just not.
And you seem to buy on a number line, like most people, and that's fine, for you. I like to buy by specs, and they just don't exist.
SO I'm f***ed.
Of course. That's a given that the hardware needed is there, and that it fits. In the case of the Toyota drums, the only hardware needed for sure is the U clip which has to be bent. The OE pads come also with circular retainers.
You missed what I said, or I didn't say it right. Specifications are not bullshit. Marketing spin is bullshit.
The science is only in the hands of the formulators. Nobody else has access to that science.
This is good to know because Rock Auto has really low prices! They were so low, they scared me. That's how low they were.
I don't have any paranoia. You *think* I do, and that's fine. But I don't. I just don't trust marketing as much as you seem to trust them.
That's a good question. The AMECA engineer said only the OEMs spend the immense time to get the formulation right. So that would say that, if you like what the OEMs did for you, that you should pay the $157 for OEM FF shoes and not the $20 for aftermarket FF shoes.
In the case of Toyota, it's Nisshinbo Automotive Manufacturing, Inc.
But you bring up a good point, which is what the AMECA engineer said, which is to buy "regionally" if you don't go OEM.
His algorithm was to buy a brand from the same region as where your OE shoes were made. If OE is from Germany, then buy a German-built pad. If OE is Japanese, then buy a Japanese pad.
He didn't explain in detail why, but his point may be the same as yours, which is that there aren't a whole lotta' manufacturers out there, but luckily, with the AMECA Edge Code, we know the manufacturer of *every* brake pad out there, and the code for the specific material.
I *hate* not being able to make an intelligent choice based on specifications. I just hate it.
And, you just can't make an intelligent choice based on specifications for brake pads because all you really know are who made it, what it's friction is, and whether the compound is exactly the same as another.
That's not enough to make an intelligent comparison. And you never will have the capability to test them scientifically.
So we're all blind - although most people don't seem to realize they're blind.
I've had Jurid, Textar, Akebono, and PBR on my car. They're all the same to me. The first week they feel vastly differently, then the same forever more.
The first week, we're comparing old pads to new pads, mind you.
Yes. I know. Everyone knows that. Even non engineers. But my point is that it wasn't obvious until Gallileo tested it. So millions of people thought otherwise, because intuitively it seems that it woudl be the case.
You knew that. A feather and a bowling ball will fall differently, in air, but the same in a vacuum. We all know that.
My only point there was that intuition is almost always wrong. Anyone who trust their intuition, is almost always wrong.
Don't even get me started on high-octane claims in commercials.......
Yup. That's the only logical conclusion anyone can make using Occam's Razor.