civicex2002

I am thinking of upgrading my front pads to porterfield R4-S. If you have them how do you like them. Do they have to get really warm first before they bite or are they good from a cold start? Noisy?? Also how do you think they would match to the OEM rotors?? Thanks!

Zzyzx

I Love my porterfields!

it only takes one or two good stops to get them up to temp, other wise it just takes a bit more pressure on the pedal. No biggie.

Noise... well they are pratically race pads, and so far mine have made little noises now and again, mostly Slow speed squeaks.

They probably would do fine with the stock rotors I don't see any reason why not.

usafstud

iTrader: (2)

my friend sells porterfield at his work. he told me to stay away from them for ROAD RACING.

They tend to break apart after a day use or even during the day at the track from what he told me.

usafstud

iTrader: (2)

i'm getting the Axxis Ulitmate.

just got my SS brake lines and Motul 600 fluids installed

Zzyzx

Ya konw, I dont konw if thats true or not, and I'm not calling your friend a liar but , Porterfield primarily sells Race pads, specifically for Road racing, so if they fall apart so easliy I don't see how they could have stayed in business.

On a related note, I was told by the sales person at Porterfield that , although the R4S compound is restant to fade up to 1100 Deg, once they hit about 800 deg the wear characteristics change, and the pads will wear quicker. So it could be that your friend was using the R4-S (and overheating the pads) when he should have been using the R4 compound (wich is good to 1600 DEG).


also, porterfilds have a ceramic lining between the Pad Compound and the backing plate to help insulate the caliper and fluid, so your friend may have been using a fairly worn pad and eaten through to the Ceramic linging, wich could account for the Breaking appart (The pad would have been more then dead by then, so If it was that, then I cant blame Porterfield as it would have been user Error).

usafstud

iTrader: (2)

Sorry for the confusion. The R4-S is desired for LIGHT track use. However, under any significant track usage they just go to pieces - even Porterfield will tell you they're for light track use. And I was referring to Road Racing, not AutoXing.

My friend that deals with Porterfield builds racing Mitsubishi cars. Not show cars. But race cars. I don't want to say what store, don't want to
get him in trouble. Most of the race mitsubishi you see in magazines are built at his work.

I'm sure I won't have the crumbling problems that other cars have on the track since I only have 127 hp compared to 400+ hp eclipses on the track. I probably just won't get it hot enough to have the crumbling problems when they get hot.

Zzyzx

Thats pretty much what the People at Porterfield told me, that if I ran track days, the R4-S may not be the right pad.

volkdlr

The porterfield R4 pad were used on this car http://www.roadraceengineering.com/r...kcar-index.htm
Porterfield suggested the R4 compound for the vehicle. The car only has about 300hp to the wheel and weights around 2300lbs. It's low on horsepower compared to the fast road racing cars and the car isn't exactly heavy so it shouldn't be hard on brakes. On Big Willow the R4 pads on that car will start to fall apart after ONE hard session. We told Portedfield and they said it might have been a defective pad so we tried it again with a different set of pads, same thing happened so we tried again- guess what, same result. So we tried the R4E compound and it actually lasted a complete day at the track, at the end of the day the pads are really beat up but it made it thru the day unlike the R4 compound.
We didnt even both with the R4S compound as they are mainly designed for the streets. For half the price of the R4S you can buy the Axxis Ultimate or Metal Master and they are almost as good as the R4S compound. Remember just because you paid more it doen't mean it's better. your mileage may vary since everyone's driving style is different.

Zzyzx

I have no doubt that you destroyed a couple of sets of Porterfields with that car, Its just that ever since usafstud mentioned that the porterfields crumble under strees, I've been searching the web for other instances that support that, I havent found any. So I cant make a decision on the quality of a pad based on one cars ablility to destroy them.

So If you could find some other instances where porterfields have crumbled that would be greatly apreceated.

And I Didnt get my porterfields because they were expensive, I got them because of High reccomendation of Several Long time autocrossers.

lberry

Porterfields are great pads. I have had mine for over a year and have run them in 8 autocross events. (about 20,000 miles) and they still have more than half life left. I have never heard anything negative about them.
I also had recommendations from other autocrossers that these were awsome pads. I will defiantly buy a another set when these are burned up!

usafstud

iTrader: (2)

Here is one link I saw when i was doing research on pads. It seems like they are fine for AutoX and not for heavy Road race

http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-messa...ge%5fid=210726

sjoback

iTrader: (1)

Well, I can say my friend did have his R4-S pads take a crap on his S2000. I can't remember if it was from track time, or from mountain driving. But, they did break up, and this does happen with the R4-S, especially if you beat on them too hard.

He was a bit hard on them though, got them smoking a few times. I don't think that's good

If you want real specific information, I can ask him, or you can ask him yourself.

http://www.reverendsgarage.net