Ferodo Ceramic disc pads

[Raybimmer]

The e34 540i has Ferodo ceramic disc pads in front . They seem to give off a lot of dust , I would like the throwing stars to look their original colour for a while without getting black .
I need to replace these pads as they are quite worn .
I am now hesitant to use these pads due to the dust , I prefer ATE .

Anybody had the same experience ?

 

[abmi0000]

I find that those which throw less dust, eat the discs quicker.

 

[calypso]

My Ferodos also dust like mad, worse then stock.
But they stop like anchors

 

[Legacy]

If you manage to find ATE pads please post here, the one 540i needs new disks and pads.

 

[Raybimmer]

Ferodo list number FDB 779 and ATE 532 for front brakes , will check tomorrow afternoon .

 

[Charlie Brown]

Yes Ray

Agreed, they are terrible from a dust viewpoint, ATE are the best IMO value for money, I get less dust, similar performance and decent longevity from both pads and disks.

As for the stock issue, no hassles in Dbn for the E46 variants to my knowledge.

 

[Philip Foglar]

Brake dust is something you cannot avoid unfortunately, and I am personally not too keen on the ceramic pads as mentioned above, they tend to eat disks and as such the disks run a lot hotter than the softer pads.

 

[netercol]

i was advised by a bmw workshop manager never to fit ferodo's to OEM bmw discs, because they are of a soft composition, and if you fit ferodo's chances are you will have to replace discs when you replace pads..

ATE make bmw oem pads and are apparently soft enough not to wear the discs prematurely..

 

[Peejay]

Brake dust is something you cannot avoid unfortunately, and I am personally not too keen on the ceramic pads as mentioned above, they tend to eat disks and as such the disks run a lot hotter than the softer pads.

Plus 1.

 

[Philip Foglar]

i was advised by a bmw workshop manager never to fit ferodo's to OEM bmw discs, because they are of a soft composition, and if you fit ferodo's chances are you will have to replace discs when you replace pads..

ATE make bmw oem pads and are apparently soft enough not to wear the discs prematurely..

My old Corolla's always eventually had shuddering brakes that used to annoy me - my very first being a Corolla 130 was particularly bad, and this was a new car at the time! Brakes were making a nasty scoring sound and stupidly (lack of experience) I let Toyota skim them. A few months later the brakes were shuddering so badly that the image in the rear view mirror would become blurred!! Okay, fair enough, very simple disk/drum brakes back then, and the disks weren't even ventilated! With my last Corolla which was a 160i I fitted Alfa disks with Ferodo Platinum pads - apart from the excessive brake dust this combination actually performed really well! Brakes had plenty of bite and seemed to be less prone to fade, and no shuddering - but then again, I was a lot more attentive to how I was treating the brakes and preventing hot spots when stopping etc.

With my Wife's car, the brakes all round were pretty severely worn already when I bought it, but still did life in them and had not triggered the wear sensors yet. Is it possible that they are the original disks that the car was sold with, at 160k km? Pads probably replaced a few times, but the disks were all pretty thin. But interestingly, despite this, the brakes felt fine, still sharp and no shuddering at all! They were still the OEM ATE disks and pads, so when I replaced them just recently I stayed with the same OEM parts - so far so good!

 

[mo_s]

+1...I got Alfa disks with ferodo platinum on my E36..never had a prob

 

[Philip Foglar]

I find that Alfa disks are pretty under-rated actually - was really impressed with them on my Corolla!

 

[Fordkoppie]

Ferodo platinum pads are sh!t. Clean wheels for longer, but that is a very effective way to destroy the discs. Been there, done that on the previous e34 M5.
Just stick to the ceramics and live with the dust. They are actually not that hard, opposed to popular belief.

 

[Philip Foglar]

Ferodo platinum pads are sh!t. Clean wheels for longer, but that is a very effective way to destroy the discs. Been there, done that on the previous e34 M5.
Just stick to the ceramics and live with the dust. They are actually not that hard, opposed to popular belief.

But that's the thing, the platinums were pretty soft unlike the ceramics, so I found them to be pretty gentle on the disks - but the brake dust! You would wash the wheels and dry them off looking spotless - take the car around the block so that any standing water can escape, and immediately you can see a new layer of dusk forming! But then again, we are talking about a Corolla, not an M5!! :rollsmile:

 

[Fordkoppie]

Ferodo platinum pads are sh!t. Clean wheels for longer, but that is a very effective way to destroy the discs. Been there, done that on the previous e34 M5.
Just stick to the ceramics and live with the dust. They are actually not that hard, opposed to popular belief.

But that's the thing, the platinums were pretty soft unlike the ceramics, so I found them to be pretty gentle on the disks - but the brake dust! You would wash the wheels and dry them off looking spotless - take the car around the block so that any standing water can escape, and immediately you can see a new layer of dusk forming! But then again, we are talking about a Corolla, not an M5!! :rollsmile:

I sometimes wonder how their quality control is, because my experience (both on the e30 and the e34 + the sapphire) are exactly the opposite of yours. Maybe packaged in the wrong boxes????

 

[Philip Foglar]

Ferodo platinum pads are sh!t. Clean wheels for longer, but that is a very effective way to destroy the discs. Been there, done that on the previous e34 M5.
Just stick to the ceramics and live with the dust. They are actually not that hard, opposed to popular belief.

But that's the thing, the platinums were pretty soft unlike the ceramics, so I found them to be pretty gentle on the disks - but the brake dust! You would wash the wheels and dry them off looking spotless - take the car around the block so that any standing water can escape, and immediately you can see a new layer of dusk forming! But then again, we are talking about a Corolla, not an M5!! :rollsmile:

I sometimes wonder how their quality control is, because my experience (both on the e30 and the e34 + the sapphire) are exactly the opposite of yours. Maybe packaged in the wrong boxes????

That wouldn't surprise me actually! The only annoyance I had with those brakes was brake squeal - but I think that's more to do with the fact that we didn't apply any coper grease when fitting...

 

[SP33DYV]

i was advised by a bmw workshop manager never to fit ferodo's to OEM bmw discs, because they are of a soft composition, and if you fit ferodo's chances are you will have to replace discs when you replace pads..

ATE make bmw oem pads and are apparently soft enough not to wear the discs prematurely..

My old Corolla's always eventually had shuddering brakes that used to annoy me - my very first being a Corolla 130 was particularly bad, and this was a new car at the time! Brakes were making a nasty scoring sound and stupidly (lack of experience) I let Toyota skim them. A few months later the brakes were shuddering so badly that the image in the rear view mirror would become blurred!! Okay, fair enough, very simple disk/drum brakes back then, and the disks weren't even ventilated! With my last Corolla which was a 160i I fitted Alfa disks with Ferodo Platinum pads - apart from the excessive brake dust this combination actually performed really well! Brakes had plenty of bite and seemed to be less prone to fade, and no shuddering - but then again, I was a lot more attentive to how I was treating the brakes and preventing hot spots when stopping etc.

With my Wife's car, the brakes all round were pretty severely worn already when I bought it, but still did life in them and had not triggered the wear sensors yet. Is it possible that they are the original disks that the car was sold with, at 160k km? Pads probably replaced a few times, but the disks were all pretty thin. But interestingly, despite this, the brakes felt fine, still sharp and no shuddering at all! They were still the OEM ATE disks and pads, so when I replaced them just recently I stayed with the same OEM parts - so far so good!

From my experience with the 325i, you replace the discs every third time you replace the pads - all OEM - from BMW (Ate). This is true for front and back as by the 3rd set of pads, the discs are at it's minimum thickness.

 

[Raybimmer]

After running around this afternoon and finding " no stock " , one Midas had Ferodo Premium ( ? ) . I went to Goldwagen and they had Topran for R345 so I grabbed a set for testing .As the 540i is not a daily drive I may do 200-300 km per month on weekends , so the pad life is not an issue . My discs are virtually new , 21 mm x 300 mm , no ridges on the disc surfaces .
Will fit them and then go do some brake bedding on the highway !!