Back story:
After driving my moms honda element for a week while she was on vacation, i got back in my forester and realised how bad my brakes sucked, so it was clearly time for new front pads.
Initially I had Hawk HPS all the way around on the car, and the H6 upgrade in the rear. I was never really impressed with the HPS's, even with SS Lines and Super Blue fluid, they just didn't seem to have the improvement in stopping power i wanted over OEM, and they dusted & squeeked way more then i expected. Last july i had to swap out the rear pads for OEM pads because i had screwed up the install and my hawks were shot & i needed something asap that came with all the OEM hardware. There was a noticable decrease in braking from that, but I knew by new my front pads were getting to need replacing also.
I wanted to try Bobcats, but after looking them up they were far too expensive.
I looked around and saw the ET500's immediately on Racing Brakes site, cause i always check there first since they're local to me. I couldn't find any reviews on them and they were a couple dollars more then the hawk HPS's. However they were a few dollars cheaper then the hawk HP+, and were supposed to offer greater stopping power then the HPS's while still remaining usable at Ambient temperatures for daily driving. From what i read in the specs they're supposed to have the daily driving manners of the HPS's while having the extra stopping power of the HP+ pads. Despite not being able to find reviews of them i figured Racing brake is a good company, i'll give them a shot.
Review:
The pads came in yesterday, and I installed them promptly. Before installing them i checked my front rotors which are racing brake slotted rotors and they were in excellent shape so I proceeded to throw on the new ET500's. After the install i did my best to follow the included Bed In procedures.
Once the brakes were bedded and cooled, i noticed an immediate & vast improvement in stopping power. The car has never stopped as hard & as fast as it does now. I've only gotten to drive around a little bit on the pads, but my first impressions so far are great. This morning when driving into work I did notice they do need to warm up a bit though, but after one stop they're good to go.
I'll update this post later with info on how much they dust, squeak, and treat rotors. Right now though I could not be happier with these reasonably priced street/track pads.
The pads can be found here: Brake Pad (RB ET500) - FORESTER FRONT 03-09
After driving my moms honda element for a week while she was on vacation, i got back in my forester and realised how bad my brakes sucked, so it was clearly time for new front pads.
Initially I had Hawk HPS all the way around on the car, and the H6 upgrade in the rear. I was never really impressed with the HPS's, even with SS Lines and Super Blue fluid, they just didn't seem to have the improvement in stopping power i wanted over OEM, and they dusted & squeeked way more then i expected. Last july i had to swap out the rear pads for OEM pads because i had screwed up the install and my hawks were shot & i needed something asap that came with all the OEM hardware. There was a noticable decrease in braking from that, but I knew by new my front pads were getting to need replacing also.
I wanted to try Bobcats, but after looking them up they were far too expensive.
I looked around and saw the ET500's immediately on Racing Brakes site, cause i always check there first since they're local to me. I couldn't find any reviews on them and they were a couple dollars more then the hawk HPS's. However they were a few dollars cheaper then the hawk HP+, and were supposed to offer greater stopping power then the HPS's while still remaining usable at Ambient temperatures for daily driving. From what i read in the specs they're supposed to have the daily driving manners of the HPS's while having the extra stopping power of the HP+ pads. Despite not being able to find reviews of them i figured Racing brake is a good company, i'll give them a shot.
Review:
The pads came in yesterday, and I installed them promptly. Before installing them i checked my front rotors which are racing brake slotted rotors and they were in excellent shape so I proceeded to throw on the new ET500's. After the install i did my best to follow the included Bed In procedures.
Once the brakes were bedded and cooled, i noticed an immediate & vast improvement in stopping power. The car has never stopped as hard & as fast as it does now. I've only gotten to drive around a little bit on the pads, but my first impressions so far are great. This morning when driving into work I did notice they do need to warm up a bit though, but after one stop they're good to go.
I'll update this post later with info on how much they dust, squeak, and treat rotors. Right now though I could not be happier with these reasonably priced street/track pads.
The pads can be found here: Brake Pad (RB ET500) - FORESTER FRONT 03-09
