# StopTech Pad Review



## Chickenman35 (Jul 28, 2006)

If you're looking for a good Street/Autocross/Track day pad I can highly recommend the StopTech Street Performance pads. Very, very impressed with them. 

I bought some for my Audi A4 running Porsche Boxster calipers. Paid $76.46 landed in Blaine Washington from an E-Bay store. 

Pro's: 

1: Easy on rotors, both on street and track. No squealing. 

2: Very little dusting on street or Autocross. Minor dusting on track days. 

3: StopTech rates these a suitable for light track days, but I pounded the living s**t out of them at River Edge Raceway in Mission BC, and they kept on working fine. Got the brakes so hot that the fresh WilWood 570 boiled..but pads never faded. ( Rivers Edge is notoriously hard on brakes ). Rotors were seen glowing in braking area for turn 1. 

4: Good modulation hot or stone cold. Pads work right off the bat when wet as well. 

Con's: 

1: They aren't free. 

Some other pads I have tried on the Audi ( and my Camaro ): 

Bendix Titanium II ( Audi and Camaro ). Great pad for street and Autocross, but has an odd problem of not working for a second when they are wet. Not a good thing in the Pacific NorthWest. Would be OK in dry States. OK for light track days. 

Pagid D940. Very aggressive pad. But very dusty and hard on rotors. These were used when I had the stock Audi Calipers. Don't know the compound, but they are a classed as a European Performance Pad. I'll see if I can find the compound number later. Not recommended unless you like cleaning wheels and replacing rotors. They do stop well for Track Days though. 

Edit: See update in post #3


----------



## crrdslcvr6 (May 3, 2006)

Sounds good. I bought stoptechs in December for my corrado. Will be putting them on soon.


----------



## Chickenman35 (Jul 28, 2006)

Update on StopTech Street Performance pads. After putting about 5,000 KM on these pads I can no longer recommend them.

Seems they have a huge problem with uneven pad transfer to the rotors. Got progressively worse as I put more mileage on them. Thinking that it may have been a problem with possibly overheating the rotors and getting " compound smear ", I purchased brand new Bendix rotors from Rock Auto. Previous rotors were Zimmerman. 

The uneven compound buildup was very evident on the old rotors, but as it was mainly on the inside it was hard to see. Checked the pads and they looked good. Not glazed or showing any evidence of over heating ( I've road raced for over 30 years and know what " cooked " pads look like ). Just to be safe I flat sanded the pads with some #120 grit to expose a new pad surface. 

Drove the car normally and followed proper bedding procedures and guess what. After about 1,000 km I started to get uneven pad transfer on the rotors again. 

Talking to a friend of mine, he had the same issue running StopTech pads on his wifes Honda. Uneven pad buildup on the rotors. 

I've run dozens of different pads brands over the last 30 years, both for street use and all out racing pads. I have NEVER had any make of pads exhibit this type of behavior before. 

Based on this experience ( and my friends Honda ) I can no longer recommend these pads.


----------



## kmf (Jan 26, 2006)

Chickenman35 said:


> Bendix Titanium II ( Audi and Camaro ). Great pad for street and Autocross, but has an odd problem of not working for a second when they are wet. Not a good thing in the Pacific NorthWest. Would be OK in dry States.


PF pads are like that, drove on them for a long time and they were great. Then one day it is like a monsoon with standing water all over the street. I hit the brakes and there was nothing there. It would only be an issue if it was really, really, really wet out.

I really like their pads so I would just make sure to drag the brakes a little here and there to keep them dry.


----------



## rootrider (Feb 18, 2004)

Chickenman35 said:


> Update on StopTech Street Performance pads. After putting about 5,000 KM on these pads I can no longer recommend them.
> 
> Seems they have a huge problem with uneven pad transfer to the rotors. Got progressively worse as I put more mileage on them. Thinking that it may have been a problem with possibly overheating the rotors and getting " compound smear ", I purchased brand new Bendix rotors from Rock Auto. Previous rotors were Zimmerman.
> 
> ...



I've put around 25k miles on the Street Performance pads this year (maybe more or less.. can't remember what exact mileage I had when they were installed). I had new Zimmerman rotors installed at the same time as the pads. I daily drove the pads for nearly 6 months before taking them to the track (Pacific Raceways) with no issues.. the performance remained very consistent. When I tracked them that first time it was _very_ wet out, and I really did not get to test my brakes well.

I drove around for few more months before being able to track the car again.. this time at the same track and in about 85F weather. I braked more deeply than most of the cars there and had no issues with fading or a change in performance.

A month or so later I tracked them once more on a much more technical track (Oregon Raceway Park) in about 95F weather. I boiled my fluid (Brembo LCF600 Plus, which was a little old at this point) and probably overheated the pads a little as well. After that track day the rears started squeaking a little and the initial bite I had experienced on the street was gone. Overall brake performance was also down some, but some of this blame lies in the old fluid.

My rotors are a little worn now.. I'll probably replace them in a few months, but so far I'm not seeing any signs of weird wear or pad transfer that you described. I figure that I've beat on the pads pretty well for a "light use track pad" and I really can't say enough about them.

I bought a new set for the Brembo calipers I just installed and I'm looking forward to going back to the track once the rain dies down again. I remain surprised at how quickly they bed in, and how nice their initial bite is when driving around town.

So, I agree with all of the positives you mentioned in your first post, but haven't seen the uneven pad transfer you describe. They've been great.


----------



## Chickenman35 (Jul 28, 2006)

Thanks for the reply. I'm wondering if we got a bad batch? I think I'll give Rock Auto a call about a replacement set.


----------



## rootrider (Feb 18, 2004)

yeah.. if you look at people talking about the pads on some other forums there are a lot of positive comments. Very few of them have actually tracked their cars, but they definitely have put a lot of street miles on the pads with no issues.

I _have_ heard of uneven pad wear with some pads when using the VW single pots... but you said you had some Brembo 4 pistons, which obviously shouldn't be contributing to any pad wear issues.


----------

