I noted the above comment about the ceramics being easy on the rotors. I think they must be as I have about 30,000 miles, (50,000 km) on the Akebono pads and rotors and there is no apparent measurable wear yet.

Well maybe 1mm but that would be all - it is hard to measure that little.

As to stopping ability, I am a light driver and downshift for most stops so fortunately, stopping quickly has not yet been truly tested. I recall the Ceramics felt softer than with the Ferodo's and took a bit of getting used to - definitely a different feel, (not as grabby), but my front end is still factory.

I contrast that with the previous pads, OEM Ferodo's where they lasted 45,000 miles, (75,000 km) and lots of black dust. The rear pads seem to wear the most as the front pads seem to be bigger or something; the rotors certainly are thicker; fronts 30mm new, rears 20mm new but the service wear limit being 3mm for both.

 

I'd also be curious how ceramics affect HDC both in stopping performance or how much "work" the system would have to do in order to compensate. I mean in real off-road situations.

 

I honestly don't think they would affect HDC or "panic" stopping performance at all. The real difference between ceramic and metallic (or semi-metallic) is the durability and heat dissipation properties of the pads. Since the metallic pads are made from various types of metal sintered together and your rotors are made from metal, it stands to reason that they are probably of a similar hardness. This will result in more wear on the rotors, but will also reduce brake fade because we all know that metal and absorb heat in great quantities and continue to perform well... point in case, just take the rotors as an example.

The ceramics, on the other hand, are a softer material and will thus cause less wear to the rotors, but are also more prone to fading with significant heat build up.

Do I have any actual evidence to suggest that there would be no difference in HDC funtionality? Nope. However, in my head, it would stand to reason that if the ceramics are actually the softer pad, they might actually (albiet ever so slightly) outperform the metallic pads in emergency or panic braking. I actually have the semi-metallics on my front wheels right now (which give a lovely squeal when backing up) and the ceramics on my rear. I took the LR3 to an offroad park the other weekend and went up and came back down a hill that I could not have walked up under my own power. I used HDC on the way down and was amazed at how well it performed. Noisy, but pretty amazing.

 

Picked up the LR3 from the shop today. Ceramic pads and regular rotors. Still in the break in period, but I can already tell it is a big improvement.

 

I don't know. There has been lots of chatter over the years about the ceramics. I have always run the OE pads and am happy with them. I have 115K miles on the clock and haven't changed the brake pads any more frequently than reasonably expected....about 50k miles on average, front and rear.

 

Nov15,
How has the Brake Motive setup been working? I need to replace the front pads and rotors on our 07' LR3 and was thinking of getting these except with semi metallic pads instead of ceramic.