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I got a 99 Honda Civic with TONS of miles on it.. like 330k

I use it to run deliveries every single night of the year, around 90 miles a night. I purchased semi-metallic brake pads from Advance Auto Parts and installed them July 1st... 6 weeks later they were worn down all the way to the metal pads and starting to grind.

So I bought some more new semi-metallics today since I've not tried Ceramic... but basically I wanted to know how much longer ceramic brake pads might last, the auto parts store has a "lifetime warranty" on them so I guess I would spend $40 once and keep my receipt and I can always come back and exchange them when they wear down completely.

They aren't too hard that they might damage my rotors are they? I make about 6000 stops a month

Some other information: The car had the first 200k put on in the first 2 years.. they were real fast easy highway miles.. so I expect the car to last me some time still but I don't want to upgrade everything on it, I'm making plans on getting another car.

Thanks

 
Rep Power: 811

ceramics dont stop as hard but have less dust, pretty much the only reason to switch. overall i would stay with semi metallic but good quality pads not auto parts store junk. what type of braking do you do, lots of slower stops in a row like 25-0? all things being equal, ceramic tends to last longer but with worse performance (depending on the pad brand ofcourse). for the best oem style replacement, napa adaptive-one is the only one i would consider other than oem honda. i personally would never use ceramic even if it lasted longer.

http://www.autoanything.com/articles...termarket.aspx

 
Rep Power: 313

I'd go with ceramics... If you don't over time if you don't clean your rims regularly the front ones will start looking darker than the rear. But if you do clean them regularly then go for semis. I don't think you will really notice a difference in stopping power between the two honestly because your bottleneck for braking is most likely your tires.

 
Rep Power: 188

So OEM brake pads for the front disc brakes for the 6th gen civics (45022-SR8-405) are semi-metallic not ceramic? Is that considered old school? More or less rotor wear than aftermarket quality (but not racing type) ceramic (Autozone Duralast Gold/Gold Cmax, Oreilly's Brake Best select, Akebono, Wagner thermoquiet)?
I will eventually need new brake pads but I wonder if OEM is the way to go or aftermarket. Basically are OEM pads actually high quality that last a long time and offer good braking performance? Not for track but for DD and occasional spirited driving, dodging the po po, etc.

Right now I have "45022-sh1-505" pads which a shop put on my car about 60K miles ago and they still have some thickness left. I know, designed for 1988-1993 Civics. Odd, maybe a typo on the invoice. So I guess I should expect that that is a typo and if I buy new OEMs with the part#@top of post and install it properly myself that I'd get similar life and performance as I currently do?
OEM is about $50 shipped on Ebay so the lifetime warranty of Autozone aftermarkets starts to not nag at me anymore especially if new OEMs will last 75K+ with mostly gentle braking.
Value per money?
Rotor longevity?
brake fade comparison?
If OEM is semimetallic, then are semimetallic pads obsolete vs ceramic or are there distinct advantages? Like what Gearbox said, Ceramics aren't for performance but last longer? But also ceramic brake pads aren't all ceramic, they have some other stuff in them.

2 useful info links;
http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=65194
http://www.autoanything.com/brakes/t...-metallic.aspx
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So basically what I am asking is if OEM is still up to date in terms of tech and so in all around characteristics is it good and at least as good as midrange aftermarkets whatever they are? Concerned because it's an older car it's an updated part# (old=45022-SR8-A01) but don't know how old this new part# is and if tech has changed

 
Rep Power: 188

Hmm, upon further research, it looks like semimetallics are good for heavy duty applications with high heat so it has high brake fade resistance. Autozone has a lifetime warranty on all their Duralast stuff and Orielly's has a lifetime warranty on their Bosch Quietcast rotors. So even if I get some rough semimetallic Duralast Gold Severe Duty brake pads, I can get lifetime rotors.

Looks like all of the high end Duralasts are Ceramic except for the severe duty pads which are semi-metallic. Designed for towing, aggressive driving. I'll probably get the severe duty when the time comes. $50 for life and I'd assume it's at least as good as OEM as far as gripping power and brake fade is concerned (what really matters)


Edit, by punching in those 3 genuine part #s on autopartoo.com, all 3 share the same dimensions and at least 2 appear to be made by Akebono but not sure. I think i'll just get another "45022-sh1-505" when a good deal pops up in my email via ebay saved search.