I just got confirmation from my buddy. We'll be installing these pads tomorrow!

-Jalal

 

Sweet. Can't wait hear your opinion. You already know I feel about them!

 

Install Notes & Initial Impressions

Justin and I got these installed in about an hour and half. This included dealing with several stubborn lug nuts, jacking the car up, as well as cleaning up the rotors and calipers. I sanded down the flat outer edges of the rotors where the rust accumulates to smooth it out and get any loose debris off. I did this to all my rotor while Justin slipped the pads into the calipers. On the rear rotors I also cleaned up the rear inside portion where the e-brake clamps on. I did this to get rid of any loose debris and give it a cleaner surface. I didn't go crazy digging into the metal. I just cleared the surface. I should have taken photos of the dust/crumble pile I had after I was done with all 4 rotors. It was pretty bad. I also sprayed down the calipers with windex and afterward quick detailer to get all the salt, road grime and brake dust off them. They still need much TLC. Hopefully I'll be able to send them to TCC sooner than later.

After the install, I pumped the brakes a whole bunch of times to get the pressure back in the lines and get the pedal feel back. It was pretty loose before I did this. Right off the bat, I noticed that I had brake feel and grip from the pads immediately after backing out of the driveway to stop the car and get into gear. I was pretty damn surprised. Coming to my first stop, I had normal brake grip right away. No delay, no slack, just straight up grip. Is this due to the layer of pad already on my rotors? Possibly. I'm not sure how these pads would react on brand new rotors. Maybe there would have been some delay that we're normally used to when installing brand new brakes. The pads do make some noise, but it's nothing annoying, at least not to me. I want brakes that will stop. Knowing I have race pads on the car, I don't care if they made a tad bit of noise. I know my car will stop, and stop damn well for that matter.

That's all I have for now since I still need to take a week of easy daily driving to let the pads scrub the rotors. I felt a little bit of shudder when slowing down on the highway at highway speeds. Not hard braking, just normal braking. It seemed to go away when I applied more/greater pressure. I'll be able to comment more on this tomorrow since I drive 30 miles round trip to and from work on pretty much 85% highway. So far I am very pleased.

Photos have been added to the OP!

-Jalal

 

Can a mod please adjust the thread title and remove the "(Coming Soon)"?

Thanks!

-Jalal

 

You won't regret going with these pads

 

For Street use and track use, the RC5+ has worked very well for us.
No need to swap back and forth from street to race pads.
This is of course if you are using standard high performance street tires.

Great review Jalal!

and great pictures too!

 

Thanks, Mike! I PM'd you back.

-Jalal

 

I have been running these for around 8 months now - so far so good. They are noisy however, at least for me. I even pulled em and reapplied a bunch of paste to the back, didnt help to much.

That said, i used em on VIR - got up to around 135-140 and then would be stomping on the brakes. Never had any fade, or issues of any sort. Now i drive around daily, and they're still fine.

Edit: I also picked mine up from togue, but thats not to important.

 

Yeah, I drove around a bunch last night mostly city driving to get a better feel for the brakes and they feel great. But like you said, they are definitely noisy, but it doesn't bother me! Hah! Others might not like it as much. I do t care, though, because I know my *** is stopping when I need to! GF didn't necessarily like it, but whatever, she's cool and got over it. She <3's the Evo!

-Jalal

 

Are either one of you guys running the OEM shims on the back to help lessen the noise?

 

I don't have the OEM shims anymore and I didn't use any when I installed mine. Who knows if that will help. I plan on bedding the pads in first and then going from there. If anything I'll try Brake Quiet on the back plates.

-Jalal

 

Also, could you define "noisy"? I.e., is it braaaaaaake .... squeak . stop -- or - brake . squeeeeeeaaaaaaak . stop

I used to run HP+ pads on my car, and I loved the initial bite of the pad, but my car sounded like a freight train stopping.

The OEM shims have always helped me a lot in quieting down a pad.

l8r)

 

Towards the end of the stop it's like Race Brake squeeeeeeaaak. It def gets loud. I don't mind it.

The more and more miles I put on them, the more and more I'll be able to comment.

Remember, I still need to really bed these pads. This will happen next week and I'll let everyone know how they are after that!

-Jalal

 

I'm still running my OEM shims - and its mostly under light braking that i get squeal. Think the last 15 feet before the light, where you're barely slowing from coasting.

I have to stop alot at guardpost to get on-base, and they squeal at those guys. From speed i dont have noise, until i get to threshold level force, then its just noise from the pads on rotors, not squeal.

 

Jalal, would you consider doing a partial test with the shims installed to review noise levels with and without shims? When I ran the RC6+, shims made no difference in noise levels. But the RC5 may be different.