Brake Pad Choices

[ga41]

Another vote for RSL29s! I've had mine on RS29's for years on a mostly daily and fast-road driven Z4M on a big brake kit. They are very well performing, very, very good wearing and in my case squeal very infrequently. That said i'm going to replace them with DS2500 which i already bought as i don't track the car not nearly as much as i used to when i originally bought the Pagids.

[Ed Doe]

That's true! OEM setup was perfectly fine for me on the road, even with modest upgraded pads. Fluid is key, 2 year intervals is a long time if you drive hard or on the track!

Lots of different experiences with brakes in general does make it confusing. I almost didn't get RSL29's as a few people I spoke to at TD's at the time turned their nose up at them saying they're like braking with two bits of wood between the calipers, no feel. In my limited experience though I've had no issues, maybe not the best feel but have so much confidence in them for the big braking zones, I'm pretty happy! Anyway, I digress!

haha yeah I've been running RS29s on and off, I can't say they've been lacking in feel to be honest, I've been pretty impressed with them on road and on track full-stop. Just bought another pair of rears for next years' to that effect

ook what I have started!

Doubtful will be track use as I have a Clio 172 Cup for that. I've just come back from a spirited weekend in north Wales, and felt I wanted more confidence in the pads on the twisty mountain sections, so thought I would see what options were available. I know a tyre/brake pad post always gets lots of different opinions.

I'm no stranger to trying fast road pads, have have various pads on previous cars, Ds2500's, Pagid, etc. Years back I had Pagid on a Mk 2 Golf Gti, and my commute was the Snake Pass between Sheffield and Manchester. These worked really well, but didn't last long c 8k miles if my memory serves correctly. That doesn't bother me as I do low mileage and will change the pads my self.

The DS2500 I had were on a an E46 330. Worked well, although the read pads rattled slightly in the calliper, which was annoying, but didn't impact on performance. Whats the general consensus, to have matching pads front and rear, or is it not so important with the rears doing less braking?

The brake fluid was changed in the summer, and as part of the winter work I want to replace the rubber slider bushes to brass, and will do the hoses and fluid again to get the optimum out of the oe brake set up.

standard Z4 forum - I'm only surprised this hasn't degenerated into a Covid vaccine discussion yet

Based on the context something like Ferodo DS2500 is what I'd go for - Pagid RS29s or similar would be better at the 'hot' end of the scale but are more expensive and perhaps a bit overkill for your intended use in my opinion
One thing that might be worth doing if you have a bit of time before you need the pads is to keep an eye out for the pad pattern on ebay - I've managed to find a few sets of various Pagid Racing pads brand new in box for a chunk off the list price in the past... A quick check on the Pagid Racing website - the pad patterns for the Z4m appear to be 1295 for the front, and 2685 for the rear. The Pagid website is also very good for giving an overview of the various compounds they offer - so you kinda know what you're buying before you pull the trigger: https://www.pagidracing.com/en/products ... -pads.html


Hats off to you for looking to get the best of the OE setup before upgrading - there's plenty of performance left on the table with a few mods for sure - pads, fluid, the brass bushings you mentioned and then cooling mods. I think there was a guy selling a nice little kit for turning the font air-ducts in the Z4M bumper into Brake cooling ducts -might be of interest depending on how far you want to take it!

[wspohn]

My favourite pad materials right now are EBC Redstuff and Porterfield R4-S (these are for street use - tracking the car will call for a slightly different choice).

[wspohn]

If you were going to change pads on only one end of the car, it would be the fronts you'd want to swap out - the rears are adequate for normal use.

I like EBC Redstuff buthave Porterfield R4S on the front of the Z4MC, If you were going to do track days, the R4 -1 or E would be worth considering.