EBC Green Stopping power

[KenH]

I upgraded to EBC Greens over the Christmas holiday. I have since put on about 800 miles including a 600 mile trip from Portand to Seattle and back this week.

The lack of dust and squeaking has been great. Not complaints there. Ran 2 tanks of gas through it in city traffic and dust was not noticeable. Had to give it the white glove treatment to even tell there was ANY dust on them.

During my trip this week, I had occasion to have to do a panic stop on I-5. The lack of braking compared to the stock pads took me a little by surprise. Since I had a SUV locked up behind me with smoke billowing from his tires, I was probably lucky that I didn't stop any faster than I did or I would have been wearing him on my back bumper (OK, more like he would have been wearing me on his front bumper.)

After this, I did a couple of hard stops to try to quantify the braking performance. The pads definitely are more progressive. They don't suddenly bite like the stock pads tend to do and the braking is very linear compared to the amount of brake pedal I'm giving it. My complaint is that I feel like I REALLY have to be standing on my brakes before I feel like I am getting maximum braking. Does this sound normal or did I do something wrong during the install. I didn't replace the brake fluid and the peddles not spongey, so I don't think I have air in the lines or anything. I did burnish the rotors a little with some 120 grit wet/dry paper and water to help remove any stock brake pad buildup. I also followed EBC's recommendation to do normal city traffic driving for first couple hundred miles after install.

Might my wimpy poser legs be the problem???

--- Ken

 

[lleone]

That would be about how I would sum up the Greens. I can still lock them up though. Can you?

Lou

 

[BigCarrot]

That's exactly how mine felt. Everyone said I'd have better stopping, but it wasn't even close. I chose to keep them though, because the squeaky stock pads drove me nuts, and the dust was unbearable.

 

[scottgf]

WOW,
I have a full set of greens sitting on my shelf waiting to be installed when needed.
I dont like the posts I have just read, I had heard the greens were better than stock, stopping wise, plus the added benefit of less dust, less squeak.
The dust and squeak problems werent my main concern, just a nice added bonus.
Should I install these or stick with stock?
Cheers,

 

[Snake Bitten]

Ditto...They work as intended, just a little getting used to...I have to stand on them for hard braking, and I seriously prepped my rotors for the new pads....But for every day street use, I didn't notice any difference, except for how cool my HRE 545's look!!!

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Poor stopping power with greens but sometimes it's nice not to have to clean the wheels every day so I take the risk.

Scottgf, I need a set of pads, if you want to unload your greens send me an email and I'll buy them from you. I need them soon though, I gotta order some pads this week.

 

[GR8_ASP]

Similar feel here. I also notice that when cold they require even more pedal pressure, something I do not remember with the stock pads. a little disconcerting.

Anyone know how they feel with the SRT or ABS equipped Gen II?

 

[NJVIPER]

Same performance with the yello's and red's too?

Any other recommendations on alternate brake pads that do not limit performance and still eliminate that "drive you crazy" squealing?

 

[varanus]

One thing I noticed was the dust was horrible. i bought them to cut down on the brake dust as did another viper owner friend. On a car cruise we had pitch black wheels while all the other vipers were way cleaner. Anyone have any ideas why?

 

[SylvanSRT]

The only thing to watch is the wear time(use), the regular stock pads have very linear wear rate(even that is). The Carbon pads have an exponential wear rate. Both pads at 50% left will have a vastly different life span! But the lack of brake dust is worth it, just need to keep an eye on wear especailly during track use!

 

[lleone]

Whoa now! I think for daily driving and autocrossing, the EBC Greens are superior to harder pads. Yes they take more effort, but the payback is that they are easier to modulate. I defintely recommend them for everyday use. I wouldn't dream of running them on the track though.

Lou

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Same performance with the yello's and red's too?

The reds are useless. Horrible on the street and don't last on the track. Bad stopping power. Maybe ok for autocross as Lou mentioned, but the stopping power still isn't there. I haven't used the yellos.

 

[J DAWG]

Where's the best place to pick up a set amd how much?

 

[VIPR GTS]

Check Partsrack, I forget the price I paid last year. I ran mine at Mid Ohio Viper Days the first outing, they say you should not do that but, it happens. I had a lot of dust at the the track but since that time, none at all and my brakes seem excellent, not touchy or grabby, I do think they may need to warm up a little for best response. Of course that may just be me and not a fact. I like my greens and also put them on my Audi TT.

 

[SUN RA KAT]

I like my Greens, too. I've never experienced the stock Viper brakes on my 2002 with ABS since I had the Greens installed before I picked it up. I hit the brakes fairly hard last fall while they were still cool when one of Ohio's Finest was coming the opposite direction and I was somewhat close to double the speed limit and I slowed my Viper down to the speed limit without setting off my ABS while still slowing down fast enough that his radar could not lock on to me.

 

[jimandela]

I picked up my EBC from Greatbrakes.
The pedal is a little softer but they grabbed well at autoX ... it was first and only time at
an autoX. The instructor advised put my foot to the floor till the abs kicked in.
and when i did the tires would not lock up and i stopped very well. NO complaints.
But yes, the pedal feels alittle different from stock.
but I would say that the EBC greens are a great mod.
with the exception (track) as mentioned above.

Jim

 

[KenH]

Thanks for all the feedback. Sounds like everyone is getting similar results as far as braking goes. I really hadn't noticed any significant difference until I needed to hit the brakes hard, then I was caught a little by surprise. For a minute there, I thought I was back in my Tahoe! Partly my fault for not testing the limits on the brakes before I really needed them. I'll have to take it out and play with the hard stops a little more to get a better feel for it. I have to say that now that I've fixed the squealing and brake dust, I'd hate to go back to stock.

I've noticed that some people still complain about dust and some squealing after the EBC Greens. I wonder what the difference is as well. Mine really are basically dustless. I used to spray my rims off EVERY time I took the car out both to knock down the dust and to flush the dust out of the calipers which kept them from squealing for a couple of hours of driving. After the EBCs, I have driven the car about 800 miles, washed it once (because I got caught in the rain) and have had basically zero dust and no squealing at all.

Maybe there is a clue somewhere as to why the results are differing. I did try to prep my rotors somewhat when I replaced the pads. Any chance that those who are still having dust problems replaced the pads without prepping the rotors or are using aftermarket rotors?

--- Ken

 

[Paul S Lacey]

Just started running Reds on the front and green on the rear, just love them not noticed any difference in braking over stock but the wheels are much cleaner and on the track last week got hot but they held the pedal all day.

Still had some dust but no where like the stock pads.

 

[Heysie]

I don't know if the pads that were on my Viper were stock, but there was totally no pedal feel. Very hard pedal. If the brakes did lock, I could not feel the point of not locking the brakes (so it was locking and by decreasing the pedal pressure, there was to little stopping power). The pads also did look very glassy. Now I have EBC green and it feels much better.

 

[95Viper]

Sorry for dumb question...What is the right procedure to scuff? What grid sandpaper? Can it be done with rotor on the car?

 

[Nexus-6]

What about cleaning the rotors after scuffing? Soap and water or just a good blast of water fine? Anything beyond that needed? That is, if cleaning is even required?

Also, what paint is everyone using on their pads?

 

[Achilles99]

You can use A 3M medium coarse grit sanding block (available from local Lowes or Home Depot store or auto parts store). Scuff the rotors surfaces with the 3M block in a cross-hatch pattern on both surfaces. This can be done with the rotors on the car.

What is a "cross-hatch" pattern? Does that mean from the inside of the rotor to the outide, or more like a series of X's across the rotor service? I'm also curious to hear whether or not they need to be "cleaned" after the prep.

Ditto on the paint question... what kind to use? I'm not too keen on the green color

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Ok, this is getting dangerously close to turning into a "poser" thread. If I REALLY felt the need to paint my pads I would use VHT from any auto parts store. But Gerald Snake Bitten or Tony "king poser" Vipermad would be the guys to answer this one.

 

[Tomcat]

Do I need to scuff when changing from Greens to Yellows and then back?

Thanks, Tom

 

[SneakyPete]

EBC green's are a down grade in stopping performance and upgrade for brake dust and squeal. Its a trade off. Just wait till you have to slam your brakes on at 160 mph and actually try to slow down, it is a bad feeling with the greens. If you do alot of high speed driving and braking, get rid off them, otherwise eventually you will run into something due to lack of braking grip and heat degregation. Good for average street driving/putting around.

 

[Achilles99]

EBC green's are a down grade in stopping performance and upgrade for brake dust and squeal. Its a trade off. Just wait till you have to slam your brakes on at 160 mph and actually try to slow down, it is a bad feeling with the greens. If you do alot of high speed driving and braking, get rid off them, otherwise eventually you will run into something due to lack of braking grip and heat degregation. Good for average street driving/putting around.

Thanks for summing that up. I had no idea that the Greens were a step down in terms of braking power. I thought that they were dustless, and all other things were equal.

If it comes to me washing my wheels more often/having squeaky brakes, or not being able to brake... I'll take the squeaky brakes

 

[SneakyPete]

I still have them on my car, but it goes to Roe Racing next week for upgrades, So I will not keep them.

It really becomes more noticable when you start running more horsepower upgrades. Stock with exhaust was ok, but with SC/nitrous your acceleration is so much faster and if you had to stop fast with the greens, could be ugly. I think once your over 600 rwhp, you need to upgrade brakes(rotors, pistons, pads, and maybe to ABS) also to compensate, if?????? you drive agressively.

 

[lleone]

Well hopefully nobody is running above 100mph on public roads. That being said, the Greens are not a smart choice for road racing - period.

 

[SneakyPete]

Well hopefully nobody is running above 100mph on public roads. That being said, the Greens are not a smart choice for road racing - period.

The point I am trying to make is the faster you are going the worse the greens are. People are buying them for no squeal and brake dust and are thinking they are as good if not better than the stock ones.

I was unfortunate enough to have the person I was racing accidently come in my lane. It was at a closed airport runway the local racing club rents out for fun.

Even an emergency/fast stop at 80mph with greens is week, compared to other pads.!

 

[Steve-Indy]

Maybe WingKing can supply us with some relevant, statistically significant comparison data ???