Where have Ferodo ThermoQuiet (TQ) pads gone?

[Legoman]

I've got a very ugly brake groan from my rear Akebono shod brakes in reverse when stone cold. ie. only when first reversing out of driveway in the morning. It's a loud, horrible, long groan from a vibrating caliper or rotor I guess. It's hard to get under there and watch while you're reversing the car from the driver's seat. I went with Akebono pads because my #1 pet hate with brake pads is dust. I cannot stand the blacked-out wheel look and I do not have the time or motivation to be cleaning my wheels every second day. I do not consider painting the wheels black to disguise the fact they're filthy as a reasonable solution either. So to solve this I went with Akebono as being the only price-competitive ceramic composition pad where I live that had an 1131/1132 fitment for my E32.

It's been successful to an extent. The dust problem is solved, and the cost of the pads was very reasonable. They are also very gentle on rotor wear. That's all good. On the downside is the vibrating noise at slow speed when stone cold and their friction is such that a longer than normal pedal is required to stop. The pedal pressure is not a big deal as you soon get used to it and the car is not destined for the race track ever, but the noise problem when cold is starting to shit me.

On other cars I have Ferodo ThermoQuiet pads installed which are brilliant for my purposes. Cheaper than the Akebonos, almost dustless, completely silent, gentle on rotor wear and provides for a very linear, easy to control pedal pressure. In short, they tick all the boxes I'm looking for in a brake pad.

So I go to buy a set of Ferodo TQs for my E32 (DB1131 + DB1132) and am told they've been removed entirely from the market in Australia by the importer. Apparently the importer even went so far as to buy back all the unsold stock from distributors to ensure they were comprehensively not available down here anymore. I have no idea why this was done, but they're impossible to find now. I can't even find them for sale on eBay!

Anyone know what's happened to Ferodo TQs? Were they so good because they were filled with blue asbestos or something? Does anyone know of any suppliers anywhere who can still source and sell FTQ's?

[shogun]

ask Ferodo directly http://www.ferodo.co.uk/
these are listed on their site when I search with 1992 E32 740iL http://www.ferodo.co.uk/catalogue.ht...h_type=vehicle
the ones listed there have different numbers than you mention.

[Legoman]

these are listed on their site when I search with 1992 E32 740iL http://www.ferodo.co.uk/catalogue.ht...h_type=vehicle
the ones listed there have different numbers than you mention.

Yeah, those don't sound like the ceramic composite ThermoQuiets to me. The website used to be www.justquietly.com.au but that's been disabled and is dead now too. There's still a brochure here, but that's all I can find now.