OMG $439?!? I went to three dealerships looking for stock pads, the highest price I was quoted was $240, lowest was $181. That's insane.

 

I have a friend with the same pad in his AP's on his NSX and it works fine. I dono what the problem is.

 

Rob, I am confused by these two sentences, which seem to totally contradict one another:

and

Which is it? Rotor friendly or rotor scarring? Can't be both...

Have you determined if it's the front or the rear pads making the noise? If you still have the OE pads, change out the fronts and see if the noise goes away. Try the same with the rears. Whichever ones turn out to be the offending pads, I'd be delighted for you to send them back for us to take a look at them to see if we can determine what the problem is.

Perhaps you should give me a call again.

 

The pads are supposed to be rotor friendly, so I assume that's why it takes so long for them to get the rotor surface back again after they are machined. That's what I was talking about. But, they are scarring the rotors now that the surface of the rotor is shiny again.

I dont have the OE pads because I threw them out. I didnt anticipate any problems with the bobcats.

I'll give you a call tomorrow.

 

Guess what, bobcat's aren't track pads, they are street pads.

You might be thinking of the Panther Plus, which are a cross-over type of pad, good for street and track.

Panther XP's are more track pads.

Here, do some research:

http://www.carbotecheng.com/prod-ct-compounds.htm

 

My experience with the Bobcats is partially the same, but mostly different...

- They have lost some bite in the cold and it does feel like fade. What is funny to me though is, that I only notice the fade after doing a hard stop. That is, I can do one hard stop with no problem, but if I go to the brakes again soon after, they feel like they are fading. They have only done this since it's gotten cold here, but I seem to recall Carbotech saying they were rated for only down to 40F. While it was still relatively warm out, I was very happy with their bite and feel.

- WRT rotor friendliness, I haven't checked for actual wear, but visually, the rotors look like new despite several thousand miles and many autocross runs. EDIT: I took a look at my rotors after writing this and have to correct myself; they look very good, but are no longer like new.

- As for noise, I did get some squealing in the fall, but it has gone away for the most part. Not sure whether it was an abmient temperature issue or was related to two consecutive days of Evolution autocross school. The folks that installed my pads did not take the shims off the OE pads, so my Bobcats are currently shim-free. Matt said they recommend keeping the shims, so that may be part of the problem.

- Another noise problem I have is a slapping sound in the rear that I have had practically since I got the pads last spring. According to Matt, they have had problems sourcing a backing plate of the correct size. They have been using 3.00", but apparently the correct size is 3.02". 0.02" doesn't sound like much, but I guess it's enough. The latest I have from Matt is that they should have correct size pads in late Jan. Adding the shims might help that too, but I haven't tried yet.

- WRT dust, they do dust, but nothing like the stock pads.

As for myself, I would gladly buy them again...

JW

 

I'm not having much problems with noise or anything like that. My problem is that I can't get them to seat evenly against the rotors. This is only on the rear ones. They are leaving rust about 1 inch around the inner rim of the rotor, like only the outside half of the rotor is touching.

 

I have the Bobcats in the front. I had them on for about 3000 miles now and I have no complaints. They dont squeal for the most part and when they do its a lower sueal than stock pads. My rotors look like new and they stop immediately in the cold (trust me when I say cold, its been below 10degrees here in NY). I would guess its a bad batch because another guy from around here complained of the same problem. Maybe you didn't break them in properly? Fluid has nothing to do with this concern.

 

My Carbotechs squeal unendingly and it is driving me crazy. It generally only happens after the brake pads are warmed up a bit, but then every time I slightly touch the brakes, they sing out loud so everyone knows I am braking.

Matt, if you think threads like this only serve to **** people off, you ought to see what it's like for a driver who has to listen to his squealing pads constantly.

 

I've got a set of Bobcats (all four wheels) also. While they have been OK for me, I won't be buying a second set. The problems I've seen are the same as others here have listed, mostly noise and uneven seating.

One additional complaint I have is that the beveled edge design really blows where I live. The state and local highway departments drop salt or sand/salt mix on the road to melt ice. When that stuff gets kicked onto the rotors, these pads feel like coarse sandpaper; lots of nasty grinding. The only reason I mention it is because this is the only set of pads (on any car I've owned) that did this regularly. On sloppy days I need to tripple my stoping distances.

 

erioshi - when you say sloppy days, do you mean the icey days that they drop this mix on the road your stopping distances increase threefold? and it's because of the pads?

 

Mister2zx3 - The problem is that when the roads are really wet and covered with our slush/sand/salt mix it gets kicked up onto the rotors. The way the pads curve into the rotor builds up a film of the mix and then sandwitches it between th pad and rotor - really nast stuff. Most pads I have used have square edges that meet the rotor about a 90 degree angle with a slightly angled edge that helps prevent letting junk get caught between the pad and rotor.

If i need to, i can get on the brakes harder, but then I end up tripping the anti-locks right away; and pads then grind the slush/sand/salt mix into the rotors really hard. When it's sloppy out I generally need to stop my car by braking as lightly as possible if I don't want to grind up my rotors. On clear days after I've cleaned the pads, the Bobcats are fine. Another example would be braking on glare ice with clean pads is about three times as effective as braking on glare ice with the dirty pads. I'm sure the reason is that instead of having pad material against the rotor I'm trying to use a layer of water/salt/gravel/and slush as a friction surface.

On a positive note, I like the way the Bobcats have more initial bite than my stock pads did, and they do seem a bit more fade resistant, too. I also did some testing with my G-Tech Comp Pro last fall (before the cold and slush) and found that the Bobcats had stopping distances comparable to the stock pads.

Unfortunately the problems with noise, uneven wear and slush and gravel catching between the pad and rotor have really put me off.

 

I talked to Larry over at Carbotech and basically he says there is nothing they can do. The refuse to give me a refund for what I would term as a defective brake pad. You can disagree, but if you look at this page, it clearly states that the Bobcat "offers outstanding performance when cold, very low dusting, and low noise with an excellent initial bite." Clearly this is not the case and reality specifically goes against their false marketing claims.

I offered to make a movie clip of the noise that these pads produced on my Evo, but they flatly refused stating that they were aware of what brake noise is.

So, what have we learned? Clearly, Carbotech Bobcats are THE PAD to stay away from for any car that has large brake rotors, like the STI and especially the Evo8. In fact, go with ANYTHING other than Carbotech brake pads for the Evo and you will probably be a lot happier and won't waste money on a product that was clearly not designed for the Evo. Sure, they can buy OEM brake pads and dupe the layout and measurements, but it is clear that they never tested the product themselves on an Evo.

Off to Ferrodos I go.

STAY AWAY FROM CARBOTECH PADS FOR THE EVO8.

 

I got the same response from them. Will not be buying from them again.Unless they begin to show alittle interest in their product and how they can improve it.(IE send us your pads back and we will send another set and then maybe we can investigate what went wrong here),but they obviously have no interest in that! My prediction is that once enough people try their product once, they will no longer be in buisness.

 

Its funny how companys with a lot of potential like Carbotech can just go completely down the drain b/c of a few dumbasses that don't know how to manage a company...sad.