Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Brake Pads?

Hi there,

I'm a newbie here so be gentle with me.

I have a 99 contour SVT. And I'm toying with a brake pad upgrade.

I think it would qualify as an early 99(E0?) from the looks of the build date. With the larger swept area brakes, which on the surface would seem to be a blessing, except that there are less pad options to choose from (no green stuff for one) and in most or all cases they cost more.

Poop!

How can I tell for sure which calipers I have?
Or perhaps you can tell me based on my info?....

Build?10/12/98
(BAT catalog says there have been cases of earlier build, cars with later style calipers)

has ford oval logo on the left side of the caliper (if you could hold it so the type could be read without turning your head that is.)
and 8244 stamped/forged onto the right side.

Also I've heard that carbon shoes (KVR in particular) don't bite right away in wet conditions. So they might not be a good Idea for me. With eastern PA winters and all, I've already had some scary brake lag on an icy day or two. of course that could happen to with any pad, I suppose.

This Is my daily driver 90 plus miles a day (mostly highway) but a lot of 70mph...80mph...and up in-between the "well known" speed traps. When I get to those, I bring her down to 60 pretty quickly, and fairly frequently.

What I'm trying to say is I think I'm a tad harder than the average Joe on brakes. And I'd like a rotor friendly improvement over the stock pads.

Oh yeah I don't auto cross or anything like that (Yet?)

Two things that might help in identifying the correct pad. 1st try to find an early 98 SVT to compare. An E0, you know, the one with the older style wheels. Look at the distance between the hub and the edge of the pad. On the early caliper / pad design, the pad comes to nearly the edge of the hub, covering most of the rotor. The late style (which uses the same caliper / pad as the non SVT), has a much more noticable gap between the hub and the edge of the pad.

The 2nd way is to remove a pad and compare it to the drawing in the BAT catalog. A little more work, but the most certain way to really tell.

Incidently, I think I saw EBC green stuff pads for the early style on the Tire Rack web site. Check it out.

Brake Pad quandary? need to figure this one out SOON! (Inspection time!)

OK,
I think I've narrowed it down to 3 choices.
Are any of these (especialy Carbon and/or Kevlar brands) a bad idea if I don't need to buy new rotors???
Ive heard that new rotors require new pads, but what about the other way around?

Mintex A/F?(About $39 Performance for the price leader???....A.K.A. Cheap!)

KVR? ($52-$56ish Priced in between Mintex and GreenStuff.....How do they compare....I like the idea of less brake dust. A LOT!)

GreenStuff?(TireRack = $79....but don't know How good they are? Are they worth the extra $$$ And again...I like the idea of less brake dust. A LOT!)

I got down on the ground with a brake pad shapes printout from the BAT catalog.
And judging from the shape of the portion of the pad closest to the hub, and the shape of the tabs. It appears that I have the later style (standard tour/cougar) calipers. Which pleases me, do to availability and prices of pads. Hurray!

I put new Greenstuff pads on all 4 corners about 2 weeks ago and I am very happy with them. They bite strong and work well cold and even better hot. The best part is that they have E0 and E1 fronts and the rears. Buy directly from EBC at www.ebc-brakes.com. I called the (702) 293-1496 number and had my pads in 3 days. The first time I got E0's by mistake (I have a 2/99 Contour that takes E1's) and they sent new E1's while I returned the E0's with no questions. Great outfit. The E1's have pad sensor wires for the Cougar that you need to clip off.

How about those with Brembo rotors? Am I going to have to worry about getting too aggressive a pad with Brembos?

What did they run you direct through EBC?

Same as The Tire Rack. $79 per pair. Shipping was UPS at cost.

No such thing as true brembo's they are KVR's or Autospecialty drilled and slotted.

I have the Autospecialty. Very nice.

-Andy

just some info for you guys...
MaxPower magazine did a test on break pads last month.
Mintex and Greenstuff were the best 2 out of the bunch
After many runs, the EBC pads stopped shorter(not by much) but the Mintex pads were more consistant. So for the money they said the Mintex were the better pad.
I think the test was done on a BMW 5 series or 3 series I forget.

Was that the Mintex A/F or 1144?