What Are The Best Brake Pads? Cheap vs Expensive Tested!

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Published 2019-11-06
Why You Shouldn't Buy The Cheapest Brake Pads For Your Car
5 Different Brake Pads, ranging from $20 to OE, undergo four tests.
Sponsored By NRS Brakes - www.nrsbrakes.com/ee

What are the best brake pads? Are expensive brake pads better than cheaper brake pads? Are cheap brake pads dangerous? In this video, we'll compare brake pads ranging from $20 to $90, all for the front brake pads on the exact same vehicle. Performance testing will compare how the brake pads do when they experience high temperatures. Corrosion testing will determine how well the pads resist rust in harsh winter conditions. Shear testing will see how well the friction material is attached the the backing plate. Finally, noise testing will determine which brake pads are the quietest.

When you walk into a parts store, you'll often see different tiers of brake pad prices. This video's goal is to determine if you get what you're paying for with those different brake pads. Five different pads will be tested. $20, $40, $60, NRS, and original equipment pads for the same car will all undergo the same tests described above, using industry standardized tests. Watch the video to see how differently priced brake pads perform!

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All Comments (21)
  • *Important Note* Lots of questions about the materials for each pad! It's honestly a very difficult thing to determine, which is why I left it out. Regulations allow for such a wide variety of materials that unless you do some sort of chemical analysis, I'm not sure there's much meaning behind it. For what it's worth, the cheapest pads were "semi-metallic" (again, vague, but that's all they tell you), while the other four pads are "ceramic." There's a wide variety of what can be included in pads, regardless of the material stated. Also, material alone doesn't show a strong correlation with all tests (both ceramic/metallic can do poorly in sound, corrosion, shear, etc), so it's difficult to determine what's the cause for doing well/poorly based purely on material.
  • @MrJObajobas
    So brake pads are like wine. Pick the second from the cheapest and you never lose.
  • @BBROPHOTO
    Everyone knows red calipers and pads perform the best!
  • @djarcforceable
    Pretty surprised that the OE pads did so well. I mean, I didn't expect them to be junk... that would be a lawsuit just waiting to happen... but I certainly didn't expect them to be just about as good as it gets either.
  • On my old 2001 4Runner, my brake pads lasted an amazing 210,000 miles. This was in Virginia , where by state law all vehicles are required to be inspected annually. About 5-years in, the mileage had really started to accumulate so I began asking the inspection mechanic if the brake pads were still OK and for the next four years his reply was always “yup”. So finally came that fateful day when he finally said “they pass, but just barely, you really ought to have them replaced”. This is where I made my big mistake. I had the brakes replaced at a local shop near where I worked, but didn’t specify OEM or equivalent parts. Almost immediately, my chrome wheels began to turn black with brake dust. After only 20,000 miles they needed replacing. So the OEM pads lasted 10 times as long as the cheapo brand. Who knew? This will not happen again on my watch.
  • @Anankin12
    Basically the results say "buy original".
  • @si98justme1
    It would have also been a good idea to test rotor thickness with each pad to see whether the pads that lasted longer wore the more expensive rotor faster. The way I understand it, is that there's also a tradeoff there between rotor and pad life.
  • @lord-REDACTED-
    Man, I think nrs sold me. Gonna go get some mid level pads!
  • @phillip5505
    Huh, it's almost like engineers get paid to design oem parts for a specific car and purpose. Who would have thunk it
  • @billarroo1
    Great explanation, when I was a mechanic I specialized in brakes, i went to all the major brake manufacturers brake schools, and there IS A BIG difference in quality between cheapy pads and high quality pads, Organic pads are the cheapest junk, and ceramic was rated tops, when I was doing brakes taxi cabs and police cars, highway patrol, were using ceramic, least brake fade, low noise, long lasting, not to aggressive on the rotors, Thanks William Orange county, ca.
  • @seanriopel3132
    I appreciate the massive amount of work that went into running these tests. It seems like such an easy thing to look at the completed graphs but understanding how much work was involved in obtaining all of that data is a lot harder.
  • @Warloghe
    I thought this was Project Farms at first :D
  • @12799MaDeuce
    "NRS uses mechanical burs to lock the pad to the backing plate" Barely passes shear test after corrosion test
  • @AccountN0name
    As a brakes engineer, I'm impressed with the thoroughness and clarity of this video - technically sound, and explained well. Keep up the good content 👌 Edit: I'd like to see multiple pad samples tested, so error bounds can be applied to each result.
  • @hasmax786
    I wish I knew where the mid tier brake pads were manufactured
  • @gmofftarki
    Well, you've successfully convinced me to continue buying OEM brakes.
  • It would be interesting to see the performance of track day pads and racing pads. Another interesting test would be to use drilled and/or slotted rotors to see if they affect fade.