Porterfield Rotors & Brake Pads

[RL Lemke]

Now that I have crossed 65,000 miles on my original brake pads, I'm getting ready to replace them. Don't need to yet, but want to all the same. It feels like the right time.

Porterfield is a brake company who I have bought a lot of products from for all of my 4 wheel vehicles. I started buying from them because a friend recommended them as a supplier to many who compete in SCCA events.

Here is what Porterfield says will work much better than OEM in my 4th gen 4Runner:

Pads: "R4-S High Performance Street and Autocross
For high performance and heavy-duty street conditions. Perfect for prolonged everyday street use while also being capable of tolerating the most severe street use without any fade. Rotor friendly of course. The R4-S friction level will give you an impressive increase in stopping ability with very minimum pedal effort. R4-S compound has the absolute lowest noise and dust levels, far below OEM equipment or any other high performance brake material. Good for autocrossing, some drivers schools, solo events, and rally

 

[mole177]

I have visited them over in Long Beach area.

Nice PR, I had their Rs4 pads. Lasted a long time.

However they didn't have that great of a bite compared to EBC green.

but then again, this was not on a 4runner.

 

[RickyCRX]

I've used Porterfield R4-S pads for years and they have served me well... However, there is a reason why some people call them "Dusterfields..." You WILL have a reddish-brown dust on your wheels very shortly after you wash them with porterfields...

I recommend them, but you just have to be ready to tolerate the brake dust.

Ricky

 

[RL Lemke]

Thank-you for the input. Maybe I should get the cyrogenic rotors and the ceramic pads. Porterfield says that the ceramic pads don't stop as well, but have less dust.

 

[RickyCRX]

The R4-S pads can even be a little scary for the very first stop in the morning, as they don't work as well until they get a small amount of heat built up in them. I'd just stick with stock rotors and the R4-S pads.... If you need any more braking power than stock, you're probably driving this vehicle much harder than you should be.

If you're towing and need more braking power, you should have a trailer with brakes and an electric brake controller installed.

Ricky

 

[Koz]

Stay with OEM, works great, pads last a long time.

Koz

 

[RickyCRX]

Stay with OEM, works great, pads last a long time.

Koz

I have 66k on my factory pads and the last time I rotated tires (about 5k ago), the pads still had a LOT of life left on them. I should be able to easily get 100k out of them.

Ricky

 

[Casper]

I would say to try the Hawk Ceramic pads...

much cheaper than Porterfields and are an upgraded Mu pad all while having the same dusting qualities of the OEM.

 

[mole177]

I would say to try the Hawk Ceramic pads...

much cheaper than Porterfields and are an upgraded Mu pad all while having the same dusting qualities of the OEM.

Mu as in Project Mu ? ?

 

[RickyCRX]

Mu as in Project Mu ? ?

Mu is a Greek symbol (looks like a lower-case M with a tail on the end of it) and is what is used to represent the coefficient of friction.

Ricky

 

[Casper]

actually is is the greek letter than stands for coefficient of friction both static and in this case, kinetic.. it actually looks like a lower case u with a tail on the front... μ


Mole...the higher that ratio or Mu number, the better friction the pad can provide and the better braking performance that can be provided.

 

[sharp4runr]

I'll post a link when I get home of a place that sells EBC brand pads and crossdrilled/slotted rotors. Not sure if you want to go that route, but possibley somoene else reading this thread in the future may find it interesting...

 

[Casper]

EBC....yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkk.

Worst pads I have ever used. Green stuff while being a very rotor friendly pad does not do well with heavy vehicles. I speak from experience of having Greenstuffs on my m5 and then because they are not designed to work well with heavier (over 4000lb) vehicles, they caused pad deposit, hot spots and then rotor warp even though they were rotor friendly.

They are great on lighter weight euro and japaneese cars but for heavier german cars and trucks in general, no way. This is exactly why EBC came out with their SUV/Truck line of pads.

Stay away!

Hawk Ceramic or Axxis Deluxe Plus or Ultimates (if you decide to go to a more metal based pad)...please, trust me.

As for the direct replacement Cross Drilled Rotors, a waste of time. You loose rotor area by doing so and while you may gain a bit of initial bite in the long run, you are not going to over heat the stock system unless you treat the truck like crap while trailering or take it to a track (as i have with mine---im a track junky).

The money is better spent on higher U pads and some better fluid in the system.

 

[toybox]

I just got my OEM brake pads for my Sport from partznet for $35!!


Man I love partznet!