Brake Pad recommendations?

[300kplus]

E39 540i brake pads recommendations anyone?
Is this an oem must or has anyone had a better "bang for the buck" with certain manufacturers? [I'm more concerned with performance than brake dust] Any and all good, bad, and indifferent opinions and experiences welcomed.
TIA!

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[XAlt]

I like my Akebonos, the loss of stopping power isn't as bad as it's said to be.

Textar or the like is perfectly fine if you're not concerned with dust.

[nikh23]

I like my akebonos as well but most I do is some spirited road driving in my i6. I've had hawk pads on some of my previous cars, wasn't a huge fan for road driving as they cooled down too quickly for stop and go useage in my opinion. have ebc green stuff on the wife's suv and am quite happy with their performance

[JaxPlanet]

+1 Akebonos. Paired with plain Brembo rotors, they are silent, clean, and last.

[MIKYZZ4]

Low dust=Akebono Euro
Performance=BMW OE

[OnTheFence]

What was OE for the E39 ? Jurid?
At $60/set, just stick with that.

[ptarditi]

Put 120k miles on akebonos, i do use the engine for braking alot( despite that I'm on my original clutch with 190k on the odo), and the only reason I replaced them was after the car sat while I got around to doing the chain guides the rotors had oxidized, so the parts person ordered the wrong pads, I'd go back to them in a heartbeat, but I'd really like to try a set of cool carbon, not cheap, but get great write-ups.

[auaq]

Will never buy Akebono's again for complete lack of brake bite. They're only good for keeping your wheels clean for a long time. You will not like the performance of these pads. You will feel soft brake pedal. If you are not too worried about brake dust then stick with OEM. Not sure why people recommend Akebono's a lot.

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Cool carbon are not great either despite of their advertised excellent ratings. Plus, your wheels will get dirty pretty quick.

[MIKYZZ4]

Akebonos are fine for the average daily driver,they are my favorite pads also.
Most persons who disprove of them are the track,autox,de types.
They are an excellent pad, and serve their purpose-minimum low dust levels, preserving a wheels appearance.

[gmak]

I like EBC Red Stuff for the 540i.

[Da Beemers]

Will never buy Akebono's again for complete lack of brake bite. They're only good for keeping your wheels clean for a long time. You will not like the performance of these pads. You will feel soft brake pedal. If you are not too worried about brake dust then stick with OEM. Not sure why people recommend Akebono's a lot.

^This. They might be fine for someone that does not care about initial bite, but when I'm stopping I DO!! I will replace them with OE and give them away or something because they will never be put on any car I drive again.

[MIKYZZ4]

Will never buy Akebono's again for complete lack of brake bite. They're only good for keeping your wheels clean for a long time. You will not like the performance of these pads. You will feel soft brake pedal. If you are not too worried about brake dust then stick with OEM. Not sure why people recommend Akebono's a lot.

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Cool carbon are not great either despite of their advertised excellent ratings. Plus, your wheels will get dirty pretty quick.

I understand your disdain for Akebonos, I would feel the same-if I was trying to bring a 4000LB,V8 powered vehicle to a complete stop!

[auaq]

I have never tracked my 530i. It was my daily car having 50/50 highway and city miles. I even did the bed in procedures a couple of times, and despite that these pads still felt soft, and still had a lot of pedal travel. These pads are no way near "excellent" pads even for street use. They are below average in my honest opinion.

[Da Beemers]

I even did the bed in procedures a couple of times, and despite that these pads still felt soft, and still had a lot of pedal travel. These pads are no way near "excellent" pads even for street use. They are below average in my honest opinion.

Same here, even though I knew I had bedded them correctly the first time, and the second. I have yet to achieve what I consider to be acceptable performance from them after 2500 miles. To me stopping is more importing than going, and they will not perform the way I had hoped. When I hit that pedal there is a reason, and I might want something to happen right away, not 10 milliseconds later. Those milliseconds translate to feet traveled.

[MIKYZZ4]

Lucky for all of us, there are multiple options available,
different strokes for different folks!

[auaq]

My understanding is that Jurid and/or Textar are the OEM pads.

I had Cool Carbon pads with Brembo rotors in the rear. As per their advertised ratings they say these are the best pads that you can get. They gave it 5 star rating for performance, brake bite, dust, and noise. While I can't comment much about their performance, but I can tell you from my experience I had to clean my rear wheels more often than my front ones.

[300kplus]

Thanks guys for all the feedback! Much appreciated! Shopping time...

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[geargrinder]

Low dust=Akebono Euro
Performance=BMW OE

The wisdom is in how this answer is posed.

OP asking "what brake pads" is just axng to start a pizzing match.

As proven already - What's one guys go-to perfect awesome couldn't be better stroke my nads pad is another guys suck ass POS hatekill pad.

Cuz some guys flip the sh1t out if they have the tiniest layer of dust to wash off every 3 months or of they ever ever ever hear any imperceptible princess-and-a-pea noise ever from their brakes.

While other guys flip out if the pads don't grind down the rotors by %3 thickness on every hard use and can't sustain continuous unlimited 100MPH-0 threshold braking in 100F ambient temps and consider squealing and giant clouds of toxic cancer dust to be manly indicator that you have a big package.

And everybody in between.

Theres a lotta good pads out there. Depending on what you want.

I never tried the notorious bukakeboners but I have a feeling I wouldn't like em from friends who've not enjoyed 'em. Some guys swear by em.

On to my 2 centimes.

I have used hawk HPS for ages on many cars as an aggressive "street plus" pad and they are great for that. They bite well and cant ever remember them fading but admit I haven't truly fully tracked them. They aren't track pad messy and I find the dust washing workload acceptable, but for sure aren't bukakebono super clean either. They are somewhat hard on rotors and wear them out. I'd recommend them if that kinda balance is what you like.

Ive got Hawk PC'S on the front of the 540 now and those are much cleaner and easier on the rotors but for sure not as aggressive in bite. That was intentional as originally I setup the car w PC'S in front and HPS in rear to balance the front only BBK, but I'm about to do a rear brake job and gonna put PC'S back there too. They are a good semi-pussy-grade clean but decently strong grabbing pad as far as I'm concerned.

On the M3 I have Performance Friction carbons Which were on the recc of a person who later ended up being somewhat dbag. They're fine. Pretty clean. No objection for bite or feel but don't feel like a massive upgrade. Maybe if I heat them up to 9000 degrees they turn out to be super awesome. Wouldn't say they were either great or terrible for the street, I suppose they are good for a "pretty clean but not dustless" option.

I've had buncha other stuff but not much that stands out. TextarJuridPagid. They all have the range of dustless hard to cancer abrasion and you can take your pick AFAIC.

[RuskiE39]

Akebonos FTW!

[6spd540]

The brake pads last so long on my E39 that I only have experience with whatever came with the car (I assume the ones that came from the factory) and the Cool Carbons I've been running for most of the 10yr I've owned the car (I think they have about 100k on them and are about 50% worn).

The Cool Carbons are slightly better than what came on my car (probably OEM) or the OEM's on the E53 I had prior to my E39 on dusting so you'd want to at least wipe them down every few weeks. Performance wise, they better but I don't track my car or take out for spirited drives(I have motorcycles for that stuff) however I'm pretty aggressive on my DD'n and also drive many of the roads I ride for fun 2n my bikes.

Note: I have normally gotten a lot more miles out of my brakes on any car I've driven the most plus I have a manual transmission in my E39 so brake life also goes up due that.

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[sealbeach740]

As per above, Akenonos lack the initial bite of OEM pads (Jurid/Pagid).
However, if you just press the brake pedal a tad more, they bite.
What I can tell you is you can easily cause the ABS to kick in with Akebono pads. I don't believe you can stop any faster in a panic stop than having the ABS manipulate the brakes for you (unless you're a professional driver, which I'm not).
Also, as mentioned above, some people like Ake's, some don't. Some like OEM pads, some don't.
Take your pick.
Or search. I do believe there's TONS of info on brake pads on the boards.

[geargrinder]

. I don't believe you can stop any faster in a panic stop than having the ABS manipulate the brakes for you (unless you're a professional driver, which I'm not)..

Absolutely true. The mitigating factors to that will be..

Most people dont jam the brakes to ABS cut-in until it's really late. Often too late. For many people the pre-ABS pre-panic stopping might be important cuz it slowed them down MORE before they realized oh shit and truly matted the pedal. The temp characteristic of pads is critical. All pads will have a curve where before a certain point they won't bite and after a point they won't bite. In fact super cold pads even flat matted may not be able to lock up the traction patches for some micro amount of time until they warm up. In the end - that could be as bad as if they dropped off at the end of the event...

[philly98540]

Spend a few bucks and get Carbotech 1521's! I like these the best. Lower dust, not no dust, but stock feel and bite. Shuts my car down from 150 in a hurry.

[sienayr]

Who knows maybe part of the problem some people experience is the fact that they are trying to bed in akebono pads as if they were racing pads when they don't need it. I'm pretty happy with the akes, had them a few months now.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...f-Akebono-pads

[JaxPlanet]

It boils down to the same debate as selecting the "right" oil with the same solution. Stick to the major brands, replace at the proper interval, and you will be fine.