OEM vs aftermarket brake pads?

carboncow · Post by **carboncow** » 25 Apr 2011, 17:49

Hello, I'm a v70 owner that will be doing some brake work for a family members XC90. They are down on their luck a bit with money so I'm trying to help them out. The local dealer has them scared that anything but OEM brakes will sequel badly but my experience of 20 years with BMW, Saabs, Porsches and Vws says that is BS...but then again I know nothing of the XC90, yet

What is the opinion here on aftermarket. Are you guys seeing comments again and again on wear and sequels?

I've read a few posts that talk about getting the right pad size (they have a 2007 V8), so I'll assume these are large of the two. The procedure looks very straight forward.

thanks for any opinions.

Post by **gshadow325** » 26 Apr 2011, 05:46

i have a set of duralast pads i bought at auto zone for $75 on a sunday afternoon with 600 miles on them, you can have for free.

I hated them for months, finally gave in and bought new aftermarket rotors again and new OEM pads,
$28per rotor x 4pcs
$75 for pads
$52 for oem pads
= two brake jobs, 2.5hrs of my life i will never get back, 600 miles of torture, and not to mention ~$125 pissed away.

Pads had piss poor gripping power compared to oem. lets not mention they cost more than oem, lets not forget they sucked even more when they got wet. dont even try and say i had aftermarket rotors, because i have the same rotors on with new oem pads for about 2000 miles now and they are great.

my opinion: OEM Pads and aftermarket rotors, your labor for free sweet deal.

Post by **kcodyjr** » 26 Apr 2011, 07:24

I've got PBR Deluxe on the rears of my 97, and no complaints except the dust. The ever so slight squealing was due to using the aftermarket non-cut shims, which went away when I swapped in the correct shims. That's actually more critical than the pad itself.

My opinion, any brakes FCP sells for your car will suffice, if installed correctly. Very important that the pads be matched to the rotors, more so than which particular set you go for. Do NOT use resurfaced rotors on Volvos, they will groan.

Some have said the ATE rotors are good, I haven't tried them. I'd trust the Brembo rotors based on name, just make sure your particular set wasn't manufactured in China. Zimmermans are spoken highly of if you can afford them, and they're only about $5 each over OE rotors.

If I had to hang my hat on something, get the brembo+akebono brake job kit from FCP.

Post by **jblackburn** » 26 Apr 2011, 07:58

There's plenty of good pads out there - use ceramics! And not cheap ones.

carboncow · Post by **carboncow** » 26 Apr 2011, 08:19

gshadow325 wrote:i have a set of duralast pads i bought at auto zone for $75 on a sunday afternoon with 600 miles on them, you can have for free.

Why would anyone buy duralast that cost as much as OEM? Convenience at the time?

I appropriate the comments but I'm not sure I would lump all non-OEM pads together after trying Autozone-house-brand-china pads!

I have questions for some of these posts that are new to me after 20 years of wrenching!

What "shims" are you guys talking about? I've never seen pads in all my years that needed shims.
What is "matched pads to rotors"...do you simply mean new for both or sold in sets?

Post by **kcodyjr** » 26 Apr 2011, 08:32

Pads matched to rotors: They can both vary in hardness depending what materials were used. Put a hard pad on a soft rotor, and it wears the rotor too fast, or generates excess heat and leads to premature warping. For instance, I wouldn't try a metallic racing pad on the OE rotors, and I wouldn't run the OE pads (organic, I think) on a cross-drilled plated Zimmerman rotor.

Shims: yes, the rears have a particular shim that only covers half the back of the pad. This is necessary to avoid squealing.

elchopperfreak · Post by **elchopperfreak** » 26 Apr 2011, 08:59

Dont know about what "problems" with the autozone pads, but for the money, and lifetime warranty, yes, they will rlace the pad, if tight in $$$ its not such a bad idea for 30 bucks or so

Post by **kcodyjr** » 26 Apr 2011, 09:15

+1 to that. Nothing wrong with a cheap pad that's only good for 15K, if they warranty it. How DO they make money, I wonder... but if you're capable of changing your own brake pads, then labor costs aren't an issue, and they will make the car stop.

elchopperfreak · Post by **elchopperfreak** » 26 Apr 2011, 17:33

My guess is most people dont take the time to go get a new set of pads, or simply dont want to have pick the pads at the mechanic, get them and bring them back.
Gshadow can go change them for brand spanking new and give em away...
They say the warranty works if they do no reach metal.