Ceramic brakes

You can get ceramic brake pads as pad replacements, but high performance cars also have better rotors than regular cars.

Jeff

You would be wise to stick with Toyota OE Pads. Toyota engineers go to great lengths to formulate pads that meet motor vehicle safety standards, stop quietly, don't unnecessarily wear the rotors, don't over heat the rotors, etc., etc. Ceramic pads have some advantages for some application, but unless you are doing something extraordinary you would be better off with OE pads (and hardware). I know they cost more, but over the life of the pads, the cost per mile is trivial.

Ed

"Ron Peterson" ...

Yes. Check it out at your auto parts store. They are the most expensive ones.

I put ceramic pads on the front of my Jeep TJ some time ago. They made squeeky noises after a month for about a few months and have been silent since. Stops nicely.

When I changed pads on the Sienna I went with the bimetallic because it was at the time that the Jeep was squeeky. Tomes

Ceramic pads do not necessarily shorten stopping distances in normal driving conditions. Ceramic is more resistant to brake fade and the resultant loss of stopping ability at high temperatures, which is why they are on some high performance vehicles. The disadvantage to ceramic pads is that they can be noisy, increase stopping distances when the brakes are cold, wear rotors more quickly, and are more costly.

Sure, but availability differs on makes and models. People could use slotted or cross-drilled rotors. But beware of allowed combination of slotted/drilled with some brake pads.

Besides "performance ceramics", Carbon Metallic should handle heat better but can turn your wheel black in something like two stops. These things GRAB. ;)

For normal street driving I'd recommend Akebono ProAct ceramics. Quiet even without noise shims on with Raybestos Raymold noise dampening (~ $20) rotors.

If you buy over the dealer counter just make sure you aren't getting the cheap NBK pads (NBK markings), get AK markings (Akebono) if that's the batch they happen to get.

What brand on the Jeep? Might want to make sure the caliper pins are clean and slide well.

The only cermaic pads for normal driving I'd use on these imports are Akebono cermaics. On the Japanese side two other companies (NBK and Sumitomo) got together initially with Akebono to develop ceramics years ago (everybody's got them now). But IMO Akebono makes the best. NBKs glaze and fade too easily. Haven't seen Sumitomos. European cars often EBC not sure.

Don't remember now. Got them at NAPA. The caliper pins were indeed sliding nicely, thanks. Tomes

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"Ray O" ...

But they last a _lot_ longer, no? Tomes

Ceramic pads can last a lot longer, but the tradeoff can be shorter rotor life. Brake pads and rotors are wear parts, and since pads are usually less expensive than rotors, I prefer to replace pads instead of rotors. There are a lot of different combinations of aftermarket pads and rotors, and a combination that works well on one vehicle may not necessarily work well on a different model vehicle. Rather than spending money experimenting on which combination will work best, I take the easy route and use OEM pads and rotors because I know how long they will last, how they will perform, and I've never had fit problems with OEM brake parts.