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Question:

do ceramic brake pads work as well cold ,as they do hot,?

if we mainly do short ,less that 5 miles , drives are ceramic pads worth the ex money ,

Answer:

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ceramic brakes are really only useful on a track for daily driving stick to the old school metal brake pads. Interesting country boy- did you know that unless ceramic brakes stay between 180* and 215* they loose somewhere in the ballpark of 35% of there stopping power. Did you know that to keep your brakes there that you have to do a 60-0 stop every minute. Did you know that the average american only drives 5 miles to work and that the time frame for ceramic brakes to warm up to 180* takes seven minutes. No if you drive five miles even in traffic how long does that take. about seven minutes. Now, NHTSA did a test using two identical chevy malibu's. One with full ceramic brakes and one with metal composite brakes. for the first ten passes from 70-0 the metal brakes stopped within a car length of the ceramic brakes. It wasn't till the brakes were hot that the ceramic brakes began to stop quicker. they then did a test of fluxing braking from 60-30 on an oval track and for the first 13 minutes the metal brakes reduced speed from 60 mph at the red markers to 30 mph in a shorter distance. When the ceramic brakes finally did catch up they did not stop faster just equally because this test did not build enough friction/heat. Most OEM brake pads are metal composite. I know this because I work for a parts supplier.
Without question, without doubt, many ceramic brake pads do not perform as well in very cold weather. This can be terrifying when driving on a highway in the winter because when you step on the brake everything feels normal in terms of the pedal pressure, but there's almost no bite in the brakes. After a second or two the friction heats the pads and the bite cones back and ceramic pads have fantastic bite (stopping power) but that extra second or two could be very very dangerous in an emergency or if the brakes heat unevenly (for example, if the left side happens to heat a split second faster than the left). I have ceramic brake pads and in very cold weather I have to keep this in mind. I have definitely had some scary moments. Next time I will get pads better suited for winter. Oh and someone else said that most manufacturers are using ceramic pads these days. Don't listen to that person, they're quite wrong.
I don't have any idea where the person above is getting his information but virtually every new car today comes with ceramic material brake pads. Metallic and semi-metallic pads leave a dirty red / brown film of dust and dirt on aluminum wheels and tires. Not to mention the way they chew the dog meat off the friction surfaces of brake rotors. Metallic pads are noisy also. Go to every new car dealership parts counter in town and ask what the OEM brake pad material is on their new cars. Ceramic brake pads work well at any temperature or weather conditions. I just had a thought. Why not call any major street brake pad company and ask them the percentage ratio of their sales between ceramic and metallic pads. For that matter, go to any major brake pad site and count the material break-down of pads they make.

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