Our brake pad installation test and review was part of a complete brake overhaul on our rust-ravaged 1989 Mitsubishi Montero. Road salt and corrosion damaged the brake calipers and rotors beyond repair, so we opted for a total disc brake job. Ironically, the brake pads still had some meat on them, but we purchased a selection of stock replacement brake pads along with new rotors and remanufactured calipers for the task. Materials, quality, grade, and ease of installation were deciding factors.
From a DIY standpoint, the best brake pads come with everything you need to get the job done. And since the Montero won’t be running the Dakar Rally or towing a boat anytime soon, the standard stock replacement grade was the way to go.
Our reviews are driven by a combination of hands-on testing, expert input, “wisdom of the crowd” assessments from actual buyers, and our own expertise. We always aim to offer genuine, accurate guides to help you find the best picks.
Learn moreBrake pad wear indicators make contact with the rotor and a loud noise occurs when the pad material is at the safe limit. That ear-splitting metal-to-metal screeching is your brake pads telling you it's time for brake service. Newer cars have electronic brake pad wear indicators that trigger a warning light, Mike Bumbeck
Brake pads fall into types based on their friction materials, and each blend has its advantages and drawbacks. Brake pad formulations are a closely guarded secret, and there are no standard definitions of what combination or percentage of materials makes one brake pad ceramic and another organic. Upcoming regulations on copper content are changing material use industry-wide.
Brake pad materials often vary within the same product line, depending on the platform. TRW lists copper-free ceramic, semi-metallic, and low metallic within its same Ultra series. Our Wagner TQ ThermoQuiet brake pad set was a new ceramic formula part number that replaced an older semi-metallic part number. Friction materials are less critical than brake pad grade. Choose a value line, stock replacement, premium, high-performance, or heavy-duty brake pads based on your driving needs.
Predictable, quiet performance that meets most drivers’ everyday needs makes NAO organic brake pads the most common type. Not to be confused with organic broccoli rabe or garbanzo beans, organic brake pads can contain a blend of materials including fibers, rubber, glass, carbon, ceramics, metals, Kevlar, and resins that bind everything together. The NAO stands for non-asbestos organic. Asbestos was a common brake pad friction material until it was determined to cause irreversible lung damage and cancer.
Organic pad compounds are easier on rotors than others, and while they can wear out faster, they are generally the least expensive. The forgiving formulations don’t stand up to the heat of repeated heavy braking, and dust can be a concern. Most new vehicles roll out of the factory with organic brake pads, so look for stock replacement pads to restore original performance. NAO low metallic organic brake pads can have some metals in the mix, but the percentage generally falls under 30 percent.
Semi-metallic and metallic brake pads pick up where organic brake pads fade away. Brake pads with over 30-60 percent metal content make up the majority of this category. The higher metal percentage improves stopping power and fade resistance with superior heat transfer over organic formulas. Full metallic and sintered metal brake pads more common on motorcycles and ATVs than cars and trucks.
Semi-metallic brake pads perform well in cold and hot temperature extremes with superior durability over organics. The more aggressive bite and resulting heat can accelerate rotor wear. Depending on the metal percentage and material blend can be noisy and create excessive dust. Some compounds require a break-in procedure. A wide range of formulations from daily driving to high performance makes semi-metallics a popular choice.
Ceramic brake pads are the latest in pad technology and can deliver the best of all worlds with excellent performance, durability, and quiet, low dust operation. The dense combination of kiln-fired ceramic material like porcelain blended with carbon, ceramic and metallic fibers, graphite, fillers, and binders varies by manufacturer. Ceramics are the most expensive type of brake pad but are more durable than organics or semi-metallics.
If ceramic brake pads make noise, you likely won’t hear it, as the frequencies are outside the range of human hearing. Low wear and tear on rotors and low dust are another bonus, and ceramic dust is less noticeable due to its lighter color and low adhesion. Some formulations can be problematic in extreme cold or high-performance applications. Ceramics are increasingly popular as original equipment and offer a durable choice for daily-driven vehicles.
Bosch Automotive is the aftermarket automotive parts arm of Bosch, a multinational electronics and engineering company with a reputation for manufacturing premium products for the automotive, home, and industrial markets. Bosch is an OEM supplier for automakers worldwide, and its extensive line of aftermarket automotive parts meets or exceeds original equipment quality and performance standards. Bosch QuietCast brake pads earned our best overall rating for our application.
H.A. Wagner founded the Wagner Electric Manufacturing Company in St. Louis, Mo., in 1891 with a self-starting desk fan motor that relegated hand cranking to history. Wagner moved into the burgeoning horseless carriage market with lighting and brake products, and today the company is a global leader in those segments. Wagner manufactures a wide range of automotive brake parts and lighting components for passenger car, medium-duty and commercial applications.
The TRW brand is part of ZF Aftermarket and ZF Group, a global leader in driveline, chassis, suspension, and safety systems technology. ZF Aftermarket brings a full line of original equipment quality components to professionals and consumers, and TRW manufactures a wide range of brake, steering, and suspension parts. Innovative engineering backed by in-house and independent testing house testing ensures quality and performance.
Manufacturers engineer and test brake pad materials to meet or exceed the platform’s original equipment specifications and offer a range of performance grades and product lines to suit the driver’s needs. If your F-150 is a light commuter, then stock replacement grade pads are the best choice. If you haul around a boat or another truck with your F-150, then grab some premium or heavy-duty grade brake pads. Friction materials and formulas can vary within the same grade by platform so choose the brake pad grade that matches your needs.
Orange arrows point to two letter brake pad coefficient of friction ratings. TRW is rated GF, Bosch QuietCast FF, and Wagner TQ ThermoQuiet EE. New copper content requirements are changing brake pad material formulations industry-wide, with ceramic formulas at the forefront., Mike Bumbeck
A two-letter DOT grading system printed or stamped on every brake pad designates the coefficient of friction or COF at cold and hot operational temperature ranges. Higher letters represent higher COF. Most replacement pads have an EE or FF rating. A GF rated pad has more cold bite, and a GG is more aggressive hot and cold for high-performance or heavy-duty applications. The letters are more guidelines than gospel due to differences in brake pad thickness, cooling slots, chamfers, construction, and rotor designs.
The three-leaf symbol indicates compliance with regulations concerning toxic and environmentally harmful materials. One leaf means the brake pads meet Level A requirements for cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and asbestos. Two leaves or Level B meets Level A standards as well as 2021 limits on copper content set by legislation in Washington and California due to water runoff contamination. Three leaves or Level N means compliance with standards that mandate less than 0.5 percent total copper or “copper-free” by 2025.
A firm brake pedal is constant reassurance of braking performance. Brake pad compounds play a role. Organic brake pad materials tend to be softer and compressible and can result in a softer or spongy pedal. Semi-metallic or ceramic compounds are less compressible than organics and provide a firmer brake pedal feel overall. Spongy or excessive brake pedal travel can also result from air in the system, worn or leaking hydraulic lines, or a malfunctioning brake power booster.
If you’re doing the job yourself, note what is or isn’t included. Brake pad sets are sold per axle or as a full set for both axles or all four wheels. Some brake pads sets come with all the hardware, grease, shims, and even caliper pin seals to get the job done. Some sets don’t, but this isn’t a DIY deal-breaker. Our brake job was a good example. The Wagner ThermoQuiet set only came with shims, but the remanufactured calipers came with replacement clips and caliper grease. Success!
Excessive heat is the enemy of brake pad durability and performance. Your driving style and operating environment are key factors when choosing brake pads. Everyday driving can heat the brakes to 400 degrees, and stock replacement pads can handle short bursts of higher temperatures without fading. Sustained 500-degree temperatures created from all day stop-and-go urban driving can accelerate wear. Towing, hauling, and high-performance street or track driving can push temperatures past 1000 degrees and literally melt stock brake pads.
The Bosch QuietCast line of brake pads and rotors meet or exceed original equipment performance for a wide range of domestic and imported vehicles. Bosch is an OEM brake parts supplier, and its aftermarket products undergo the same level of testing. QuietCast brake pads feature semi-metallic or ceramic friction material formulations engineered for platform-specific performance. QuietCast Premium brake pads are a step up from the Blue value line, and Bosch offers a Severe-Duty lineup for taxis, police, and heavy hauling.
There was no QuietCast disc rotor part number for the Montero, so we only picked up a set of brake pads for review. Part number BP349 features semi-metallic friction material with a rubber core shim adhesive-bonded to the back of the brake pad, and the set came with caliper hardware and high-quality grease. The QuietCast set earned our overall best brake pad pick with its premium quality apparent from the second we opened the box. Each brake pad came individually wrapped in paper that added a premium touch that helped prevent grease contamination during installation.
The TRW brake pad set came in a few dollars under our other contenders on price and beat them on quality and performance rating. TRW part number TPM0349 came complete with hardware, grease, instructions, and most importantly a high-quality set of brake pads. The semi-metallic pad material carries a high GF coefficient of friction rating with a cooling slot and chamfers that help prevent excessive heat buildup for reduced fade.
The large nitrile rubber-coated steel shims are bonded to the pads for quiet operation. The TRW pads feature silicate-compound Citec or Coating Innovation Technology that helps the pad material break in properly with the rotor. Platform engineered material compounds undergo high-temperature testing to deliver better than original equipment fade-free performance with low dust. TRW brake pads are a high-quality choice with excellent value if you’re looking for a mild performance upgrade.
Wagner TQ ThermoQuiet brake pads take up the middle ground of the product line that’s a notch up from stock replacement but not quite heavy-duty or high performance. The quiet in ThermoQuiet comes from the Wagner Integrally Molded Insulator or IMI. The one-piece design fuses the friction material, backing plate, and insulator together to reduce vibration and noise while increasing heat transfer for improved performance. The Wagner TQ line meets the latest Level N zero-copper requirements.
We’ve used ThermoQuiets on other brake jobs, and they live up to their promises. The pads were easy to break in on resurfaced rotors, and the proprietary friction material delivers quiet and effective braking. The ceramic formulation strikes the right balance of performance and durability with little or no dust in the process. The PD349 part number we picked up for the Montero is an example of why manufacturer grade is more important than material when choosing brake pads. Ceramic formula PD349 superseded semi-metallic part number MX349 for the same application.
There simply aren’t a lot of brake pads part numbers out there for our oddball first-generation Mitsubishi Montero here in the states, but we’ve tried dozens of different brake pads over the years on everything from muscle cars to econoboxes. We’ve had good luck with Bendix, Beck-Arnley, Raybestos, and Centric brake pads and shoes in the past. OEM suppliers like Akebono and AC Delco are solid choices for aftermarket brake pads. StopTech and Power Stop offer performance engineered brake pad and rotor packages. If you’re looking for a no-brainer replacement, remember that genuine manufacturer parts don’t always cost much more than aftermarket equivalents. Cheaping out on brakes is like getting a great deal on brain surgery.
Brake pads sit inside the caliper and go along for the ride until you hit the brakes. The brake pedal lever pushes a piston inside the master cylinder that creates hydraulic pressure. Brake fluid is incompressible, and it pushes another piston inside the brake caliper that clamps the brake pads onto the rotor. Friction between the brake pads and the metal rotor slows things down as kinetic energy transforms into heat.
The most obvious symptom of worn out brake pads is a loud squealing or screeching noise when you hit the brakes. Built-in wear indicators contact the rotor and sound off when the friction material wears beyond its limit. Electronic wear indicators activate a brake wear warning light. Brake shudder, scraping or grinding noise, and poor brake performance probably time for new brake pads, rotors, and possibly calipers.
Brake pads last anywhere from 30,000-70,000 mile range. Check your owner’s manual for service intervals. Driving style and location play a role. Stop and go urban driving, high-performance motoring, and heavy-duty hauling or towing can accelerate brake pad wear. Short distance or infrequent driving where road salt is used can ruin brake calipers and rotors long before the pads wear out. Visual inspection is the best way to detect brake pad wear.
Total parts and labor cost depends on the overall condition of the brake system. If the rotors, calipers, and hydraulic lines are in good shape, expect to pay a repair shop about $100-400 per axle or two wheels. Some repair shops might be able to resurface your rotors, but installing new rotors and pads together is a more common practice. Replace worn rotors, frozen calipers, or rotten hydraulic lines with brake pads for safety and performance.
Yes and maybe. A brake job can be the first step into a lifetime of automotive DIY enjoyment, but all disc brake systems are not created equal. Sliding calipers and non-captive rotors are easy to service, but new brake pads won’t fix thin rotors or crusty calipers. Captured rotor setups that require removing the hub, wheel bearings, and seals with specialized tools then fighting rusty bolts to separate the rotor might have you calling the tow truck in defeat.
The procedure varies by brake pad. The idea is to introduce the new brake pad material to the rotor surface for a lifelong partnership. Map out a low-speed route with little or no traffic. Accelerate to about 30-35 mph. Apply light brake pressure to slow down but not stop. Let off the brakes and resume speed for a minute-long cooldown. Repeat the go, slow, cruise procedure about five times. Increase speed to 50-55 miles per hour and repeat again. Gradually increase the intensity of the heating and cooling process. Avoid panic stops or sustained hard braking for the first few hundred miles. Excessive heat can permanently damage new brake pads.
Take a moment and appreciate your brakes. Imagine a 2-ton flaming ball of metal, plastic, toxic chemicals, glass, and rubber hurtling down a hill at tremendous speed, then calmly stopping it cold in its tracks with just one foot as you order up a coffee. Every time you hit the brakes, you achieve this Herculean feat.
The best brake pads for most drivers are the stock replacements from the vehicle manufacturer, or aftermarket original equipment OE equivalents. Some brake pad manufacturers are also OE suppliers, and aftermarket brake pad product lines offer a more comprehensive selection of premium, heavy-duty, performance, and severe-duty choices.