Can anyone recommend a set of good quality front and rear pads? There are at least seven brands out there.
Thanks,
Luke
Easy to open a can of worms with this topic, that of whether to use OEM or other brake pads tend to polarise people, you either swear by OEM or swear at them. I'm in the latter category.
For the sake of originality, depending on where you get your info from, the OEM pads for a W116 are either Textar or ATE.
They are not particularly expensive and last well in normal conditions, but to my mind the amount of brake dust they produce is quite frankly ridiculous, and will not use them anymore.
Those who know me know I lean toward QFM's range of ferro-organic compound pads but basically if you stay away from absolutely dirt-cheap pads you sould be pretty much right.
Ok so I've given you my reasons NOT to use OEM pads, I'll let the others tell you why they prefer XYZ brand and what makes their choise so much more logical than everyone elses..
I.
Ian is correct about what is OEM. MB is currently supplying Textar. They do make a lot of dust, but I like them a lot. They are softish, so they don't last too long, but give nice progressive brake feel. Hard pads require more pedal effort. Textars from MB are epxensive, so I generally use ATE, which have very much the same characteristics as the Textar - ie they are soft meaning lots of dust, but nice pedal feel.
I can understand Ian's feelings on these soft pads - I don't race, but I imagine Textar and ATE would be unsuitable for track use.
Ferodo is the other big name brand available here in South Africa, but I find them hard, and I just don't like the pedal feel.
Common sense tells one that you are probably best staying away from the cheapy no-name brand stuff. You can pick any of the recognised brand names - they will differ in terms of amout of dust, pedal feel, and mileage.