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LS4FieroGuy
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APR 04, 11:26 PM
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Anybody have any experience with the Carbomet brake pads? Are they any better then normal semi metallic? ------------------
Joshua Seeger
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cartercarbaficionado
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APR 04, 11:44 PM
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fieroguru
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APR 05, 08:30 AM
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I ran them for years, but the first couple stops in the morning had much less bite and then they got better.
Yellow stuff pads are really, really good with strong initial bite and minimal fade. The only two downsides: they dust like crazy and are about $85 per end of the car.
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Vintage-Nut
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APR 05, 09:15 AM
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| quote | | Are they any better then normal semi metallic? |
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“It Depends”
Differences in brake pad materials have advantages and disadvantages...
Cold Bite
Temperature / Fade
Noise
Brake Pad Wear
Rotor Wear
Dust / Color
Cost
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Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT
Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles
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LS4FieroGuy
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APR 05, 01:27 PM
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I'm primarily looking for the fastest possible stopping distance (as much as you can get without a brake swap).
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Vintage-Nut
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APR 05, 03:15 PM
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Cliff Pennock
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APR 06, 02:59 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by fieroguru:
I ran them for years, but the first couple stops in the morning had much less bite and then they got better. |
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Same here. A few times, it actually put me in dangerous situations when I had to brake hard before the pads were properly warmed up. It's a scary feeling when you press the brake pedal as hard as you can and the car barely slows down... 😬
So I ended up switching back to regular brake pads.
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LS4FieroGuy
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APR 06, 01:01 PM
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Just all around performance. It's a street car but I still wanna be able to lock up all 4 wheels.
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1985 Fiero GT
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APR 06, 01:11 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by LS4FieroGuy:
Just all around performance. It's a street car but I still wanna be able to lock up all 4 wheels. |
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So cold bite, on the street it won't get hot enough or keep hot enough to "feel" performance, my 85 brake pads, Bosch premium something or other will only just lock up the wheels when cold, barely, when warm (after 2 stops from 50mph) they lock up easily, I wouldn't want any less for street driving, as it is it ends up feeling more sluggish as they almost never get warm enough to work as good as I might like, and those are fairly normal semi metallic pads. There are always drawbacks to each option, you need to decide what you want and what suits you, and what you can live without. For the Fiero you likely won't find "all around performance", everything is a compromise, want more cold bite, they will overheat and fade, want less fade and overheating, say goodbye to cold bite.
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Vintage-Nut
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APR 06, 01:43 PM
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I already said that differences in brake pad materials have advantages and disadvantages.
And like many things in the world, you can't have both cold bite AND high-temperature performance!
Please read members comments above and to me - COLD BITE is VERY important for a street pad so I use semi-metallic...
Consider This Example
You're late to work one morning and speeding in your neighborhood...
A kid darts to the street from the parked cars and your brakes didn't have any time to 'warm-up'...
Do you hit the kid or stop in time?
EDIT - My suggestion is to read more "Brake Pads" threads to decide on your "around performance"
https://www.fierosearch.com...=DoSearch&datesort=D[This message has been edited by Vintage-Nut (edited 04-06-2025).]
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