Brake Pads: OEM vs Aftermarket

[JSG]

I will be changing the rear brake pads (and rotors) on my 2011 328i coupe very soon. Just curious if the OEM pads are worth the premium. Frankly, I am looking for a quiet and relatively dust free pad with good stopping power. I do not mind paying more for a quiet pad. This is a daily driver and not a track car so I'm assuming OEM will do the job nicealy as they have for the last 106,000 miles. I am open to suggestions for an alternative quiet and low dust pad. Thanks in advance.

[dworthy]

The OE provider to BMW tends to be Textar, you just don't pay the BMW price for them is all. Now if you are looking for a pad with low dust qualities, Akebono is a good brand for the price. As an FYI, less dust tends to wear out the rotors faster. Also you can invest in a "Wheel Wax" (https://www.amazon.com/WheelWax-Ultimate-Protection-Wheels-Ounce/dp/B000IMB5CC/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3RM3YUE2DY9HY&dchild=1&keywords=wheel+wax&qid=1606306563&sprefix=wheel+wax%2Caps%2C916&sr=8-3) or have the rims ceramic coated to keep the dust down too.

Like an oil thread, you may see several other member post their preferences for brake pads, and some may get a bit argumentative.

[White94RX]

I always, always recommend OEM pads. A lot of aftermarket pads don't have the same initial "bite" as the BMW pads do. Textar and Jurid are usually the OEM suppliers of brake pads. However, just this week, we had an instance of a customer installed Textar pads on their X5, and after about a week the front wheels are nearly black with brake dust. This wouldn't happen with BMW pads. It seems that the pads had a softer material than the BMW pads. The customer was not too happy about the dust (we were not the ones who installed them).

[dworthy]

I too like the initial bite from the Textar pads, and have used them on my 05 wagon with ATE power slot rotors. On my M3 I have kept the OE pads and rotors from BMW upgraded to the CSL style, you know to maintain the value of the car of course.

[jclausen]

I use textar pads and rotors

[JDStrickland]

RELATED BUT DIFFERENT
What is the general rule of thumb about brake pad life? I'm all over the idea that front brakes go at a rate of 2 to 1 to the rear (F, then F & R, then F, repeat) but what is the expected life of the front pads. The reason I ask is that I bought a car with 67,000 miles, I expect that I am roughly 15,000 miles into the second set of front pads.

[JSG]

RELATED BUT DIFFERENT
What is the general rule of thumb about brake pad life? I'm all over the idea that front brakes go at a rate of 2 to 1 to the rear (F, then F & R, then F, repeat) but what is the expected life of the front pads. The reason I ask is that I bought a car with 67,000 miles, I expect that I am roughly 15,000 miles into the second set of front pads.

Thank you, gentlemen for your advice regarding the brand of pads to use. As far as pad life goes, I believe it is 100% dependent upon two things: (a) the type of transmission your vehicle has; automatic vs. manual and (b) the driver himself. I see poor drivers all the time. Holding their foot on the brakes while going down a hill as opposed to downshifting; hard breaking when they knew there was a stop up ahead, and other bad habits. As I mentioned, I have 106,000 on the original pads and if I really wanted to I probably could get another 10,000 miles out of them before metal on metal. The sad fact is 95%+ of folks simply do not know how to drive or there would a lot more cars with manual transmissions if they did. :)

[dworthy]

Yeah, on most auto cars, I tend to see the front brakes worn by 50k miles on average. I think I got close to 70k out of the wagon before putting new pads on it, but again like you noted above it all comes down to how the car is driven.

One think I will say, stay far away from Duralast, pure crap in a box IMO.