- Hawk Performance Ceramic Luxury & Touring Compound Pads (Front HB366Z.681, Rear HB145Z.570) ~$160
- Duralast Gold High Carbon Steel Coated Rotors (Front 31275DG, Rear 31315DG) ~$235
After a few years of driving on my previous RacingBrake/Duralast setup (see review), I knew the time was approaching when I'd need to do brakes again. I went into the dealership for obviously unrelated battery issues and they informed me that my rear pads were "getting low." That, along with subtle pedal vibration at high-speed stopping, was my cue to look for my next brake setup. The previous setup was good but unless you kept the pads warm, they didn't feel any better than OEM. The initial bite was almost non-existent and it required some pretty serious pedal pressure to get impressive stop distances. Aesthetically, the rotors were looking quite drab too. A few New England winters had all but reduced my hand-painted rotor hats to bright orange and pitted rust.
The brake job went fairly smoothly and in fact, the RacingBrake ET500 pads had about 85% life left on the fronts. The rears were, as Acura put it, "getting pretty low." This is likely an indication of the brake balancing technology for stability and traction control acting a bit aggressively. Oh well, safety first!
Review:
First, I want to comment on the coated rotors. They are black. However, this is just the coating. Yes, they do claim to be manufactured using a high carbon content steel; however, this black color is not the steel, it is a coating. What's nice about the coating though is that it is only removed from the rotor surface that the pads actually contact. Some painted rotors only have the paint/coating on the rotor hat and therefore leave a small area of the rotor surface (where the pad doesn't contact) exposed...ready to rust. Another nice thing about these rotors is that they have a 3yr warranty! Sorry, a 3 YEAR WARRANTY! That's unheard of. If these things let you down in 3 years, take them back and you get new ones. This is incredible for a wear item on a car. How could I not give them a shot? A note to potential buyers, they do cost quite a bit more than the regular Duralast rotors I used in my last setup. In fact, the fronts cost about 67% more and the rears cost a whopping 110% more! My logic is to always spend a little extra on safety parts and since these parts have the potential to last a very long time, I felt this "splurge" to be justified. One more note, the coating on the rear rotors did get in the way of a smooth installation. Slight imperfections in the thickness of the coating on the inside surface of the rotor hat caused clearance issues with the rear hub. Some slight persuasion was required here to get the rotors to sit flush. I simply put the wheel on and slowly tightened the lug nuts in the usual star pattern and on they went. I was a bit disappointed in this fit because it surely means extra work when I replace them.
Now, on to the pads. Unlike the ET500s, these pads come with the proper caliper lube and shims (at least for the rear). In fact, my TSX developed a really weird and loud clunking noise that was reproducible when parking and any other low-speed turning scenarios. I traced down the clunk to the brakes. In fact it was a sloppy fitment between the RacingBrake pads and the caliper. After putting in the Hawk pads, 100% of the clunking noise vanished.
How about performance? Well, the new setup is night and day versus the old setup. Initial bite is amazing. You do still notice a difference between cold performance and warm performance but the difference is more subtle. Besides the great initial bite, they require FAR LESS pedal pressure to stop in normal scenarios and inspire major confidence when high-speed stopping and emergency stopping are required. I'm not sure how much of a role the rotors are playing in this but I'm sure they are contributing especially during high-speed and emergency scenarios where very high temperatures are generated. Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this new setup and I fully recommend it. It's worth every penny.
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