[Mk23]

I had heard that mix and matching brake pads that have different compounds (from front to rear) can change the way the behavior of the car under braking is, I.e. Understeer and oversteer. Anyone know if this is true?

[PINeely]

It is true but the compounds need to be pretty different or you won't notice much. Having redstuff pads on the front and yellowstuff pads on the back for example. If the compound is similar then there is nothing to worry about, for example two different "street" pads would be fine.

[mlifxs]

I have ceramic up front and oem in back. Might have done differently if I'd read this thread first.

I've tested the car in panic stop situations and it seems safe. However, the bmw bite is gone, and I'll probably go back to something closer to oem.

[AllBlackBimmer]

You should not mix brakes pads...

but if they are of the same compound and have similiar friction/braking force it should be fine...

Having lower friction pads in the front compared to the rear could result in some odd or unsafe braking....

remember, 70% of braking power comes from the FRONT.

i would NOT ever mix compounds of pads - i.e. semi metallic and cemeric pads... the different compounds heat up differently and obviously have different fricition levels more often than not.

long story short, unless you have a REALLY good reason, there is NO reason to ever mix pads.

I just replaced my rear brakes and was going to go with stoptech pads in the rear while keeping OE in the front, i ended up going for OE pads in the rear instead of stoptech for a few reasons, but mixing pads was one of the,.

[e90pilot]

Actually, it's quite common to mix front and rear. For example, Hawk's DTC line has the DTC70 for the front and has an option for DTC60 in the rear if you're getting too much oversteer under braking. I've only for tacking applications though. I've never heard of anyone doing it for the street.

[kaede]

Originally Posted by e90pilot

Actually, it's quite common to mix front and rear. For example, Hawk's DTC line has the DTC70 for the front and has an option for DTC60 in the rear if you're getting too much oversteer under braking. I've only for tacking applications though. I've never heard of anyone doing it for the street.

+1, for track application it is not at all uncommon. Especially when the fronts usually gets eat up sooner and enthusiasts wants to upgrade/try different front pads keeping the old rears. However, when matched unevenly, it does induce over/understeer in racing and agressive braking situations/cornering.

So for the road, it is probably best to get same pads. Stronger fronts is ok, but never weak front and strong rear, that just doesn't make sense lol

[mrbillytalent]

I've had mismatched pads on both my BMW's (while waiting for one set to wear) and never had any issues. Mind you they were Stoptechs and OEM pads, so nothing too severely different.

[Mk23]

The reason I had asked this was I was trying to decide whether to just buy front ceramic pads (replacing OE) or do both front and rear. Kind of wanted to test out the pads by doing just the fronts. But It may be better to just do front and back after all. And FYI, I can't really run OEM apparently as they squeal like crazy under 25mph (fronts and back) once heated up. It was fixed (on the rears only) when the dealership switched the rear pads to an organic compound (2010 model 335i vs my 09 335i). So for some reason my rotors just don't like the OE compound...otherwise I'd keep em for that awesome bite...

Thanks for the help guys.