I find myself washing the car almost after every time I drive it because of the brake dust. What quslity replacement pads are out there that won't have all the brake dust and will allow me to track the car occasionally. Ceramic?

 

Do a search on Carbotech

Just put a set on my Z51 this afternoon. There are lots of threads on this topic.

I changed mine cos of the dust.

 

Perhaps you could tell everyone if you ordered the Z51. There are many new and prospective owners that peruse this site. I have the non-z51, wash the car weekly and have yet to see where brake dust has accumulated, so I would assume yours is a z51?

 

I agree. Brake dust on my non-Z51 is almost non-existent.

 

You want to take a look at the Carbotech 1521 pad. We sell these like hot cakes for the C7. Price is $326 for the front and rear. You need to call me at 216-780-8825 to order as they are not listed on our sight or I can send you pay pal request. A description is below along with my link from another post.

Carbotech™ Bobcat 1521™ The Carbotech Bobcat 1521™ is our high performance street compound that is our most successful compound. The Bobcat compound is known for its awesome release and modulation, along with unmatched rotor friendliness. Like our AX™ & XP™ line of compounds, Bobcat 1521™ is a Ceramic based friction material offering minimal rotor damage and non-corrosive dust. Bobcat 1521™ offers outstanding performance, even when cold, low dusting and low noise with an excellent initial bite. This compound’s virtually perfect linear torque production provides incredible braking force without ABS intervention. Bobcat 1521™ operating range starts out at ambient and goes up to 900°F. Bobcat 1521™ is suitable for ALL street cars, perfect for your tow vehicle, police cruiser. The Bobcat 1521™ compound has been found to last two-three times longer than OE pads you can purchase at a dealership or national retailer. That’s one of the beauties of Carbotech Ceramic brake compounds. Bobcat 1521™ is NOT recommended for any track use.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1586963138-post88.html

 

One of the first things I did to both my C6 Z and GS was yank the stock pads and put on the Carbotech 1521 pads. Life is too short to fuss with brake dust for street driving and the Carbotech pads perform very well.

 

Is this a relatively easy swap on a C7? It's been a long time since I've done anything with brakes myself but I'm pretty generally mechanically minded.

 

It might be worthwhile to check if base and Z51 pads are interchangeable. If so I can verify that base pads produce no visible dust (and the rotors don't rust after getting wet).

 

The best choice is Carbotech IMO. No dust. Similar braking force. Reportedly better life. No noise at all. Win, win, win, win...

 

I had pretty much decided on some ceramic pads such as offered here on the forum. I'm sure they're good but when I was at the bash I had the opportunity to bring it up with one of the engineers. He's well aware of the brake dust issue and explained it this way. The factory pads are high performance pads that will work well but offer some dust. On the Z51 models both front and rear wheels duct air from under the car to the disks to cool them. A secondary effect is the dust blowing to the outside and coating the wheels. There's no other way to duct cooling air. He said you'd have to change the rotors if you went to ceramic pads as they would scar the Z51 rotors badly. He said if ceramic pads would be satisfactory they'd have them in the parts bin. They don't. So I decided the high performance braking as part of the Z51 package is worth enough to clean my wheels . There are lots of good tools to make the process easier. I also found that when it's too cold to want to do that, the high pressure wheel & tire wand wash at the local car wash would do a decent job for a buck's worth of quarters. But I still hand washed the rest of the car or used the waterless wash and terry cloth rags in the garage.

BTW, I just got back this morning from Vets for Vett's at Talladega and we got to do several track pass runs at fairly high speeds (above 140mph). That required some healthy braking effort to avoid passing the car in front which would get you kicked out. I was grateful for all the stopping power my stock Z51 had.

 

Not all ceramics are created equal. For example, the Hawk ceramics are said to have issues. The Carbotechs are said to be EASIER on rotors and longer lasting... and my personal experience is they brake as well or better than OEM. The issue with talking to the GM engineer is that he/she is likely generalizing and, also to some extent, defending the pads they use. A lot of Corvette owners of all gens use Carbotech pads (as do other manufacturers) and I'm not aware of a single issue of "scarring" the rotors in all of my research.

I'm not suggesting he is wrong relative to all ceramic pads but he is also generalizing which is dangerous.

The reasons I can see why GM would not use, say, the Carbotech 1521, would be cost (they ain't cheap) and Carbotech says no track usage. For the Z51, GM would need a better compromise pad whereas most Carbotech users will have a dedicated track and street pad. Besides, I would be shocked if GM actually tested the 1521 pads.

 

The only reason I would hesitate to get the Carbotech brake pads is because on rare occasions I might want to track the car. What would be the downside of the Carbotech brake pads at the track? Would the performance be measurably different and/or could you damage the rotors?

 

You won't damage the rotors but you very well might overheat the pad and it will be less effective. This is a reality even for the Z51 pads... there is a thread on Z51 brakes failing during a track session and, although no one knows what happened, there is speculation the OEM pads may have overheated.

Personally, if I only rarely tracked the car and if my driving skill was a beginner's level, I might just keep the OEM pads and deal with the brake dust. If you track the car a couple of times a year and are a decent driver, you really need street AND track pads. Super easy to swap in your driveway and gives WAY better results on the track (better braking force, better resistance to heat) AND on the street (less dust and noise).

 

Just had the 1521's installed by the dealer. Virtually no dust and braking actually seems stronger than my Z51 pads. Will save a lot of cleaning time on these chrome rims. Adam was great to deal with!

 

Thank you