cschroed

Ordered Hawk HB531Z.570 and HB532Z.570 performance ceramic pads as part of a Z06 brake and suspension upgrade on my car. The mechanic at the Chevy dealership recommended these over GM OE parts.
I'm not impressed. One of the pads has foreign objects embedded in the black coating underneath the rear metal cover. The cover sticks up noticeably. The remaining pads vary in thickness from 0.605" to 0.630"
That's 0.025" How the heck is that going to work when you have three pads in a row on each side in the front. At best two are going to grab the rotor until they wear down some and all three even out.
No country of origin on the box and nothing on their website. Is this just some hyped up deal where they sell good parts to racers and the consumer gets some cr*p made in China that no one bothers to look at before they stuff it in a box? Obviously no one looked at these.
And they were bought from HawkPadsDirect.com. We'll see what kind of customer service they give on returns.
Anyone have any suggestions for a better quality pad?

RicK T

Haven't seen reports like that before but have seen complaints about Hawk pads here.

Anyway, obviously there are lots of options out there. Carbotech pads get consistently good reviews. They're pricey but apparently worth it. Might give Adam a call.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-t...autosport.html

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

Yes, I will be happy to help you. The Carbotech 1521 pad will be great on the street for you and Carbotech makes them in a 1 piece design so, you don't have to mess with those little pucks and Carbotech is 100% made in the USA. Give me a call at 216-780-8825.


Carbotech™ Bobcat 1521™ The Carbotech Bobcat 1521™ is our high performance street compound that is our most successful compound. The Bobcat compound is known for its awesome release and modulation, along with unmatched rotor friendliness. Like our AX™ & XP™ line of compounds, Bobcat 1521™ is a Ceramic based friction material offering minimal rotor damage and non-corrosive dust. Bobcat 1521™ offers outstanding performance, even when cold, low dusting and low noise with an excellent initial bite. This compound’s virtually perfect linear torque production provides incredible braking force without ABS intervention. Bobcat 1521™ operating range starts out at ambient and goes up to 900°F. Bobcat 1521™ is suitable for ALL street cars, perfect for your tow vehicle, police cruiser. The Bobcat 1521™ compound has been found to last two-three times longer than OE pads you can purchase at a dealership or national retailer. That’s one of the beauties of Carbotech Ceramic brake compounds. Bobcat 1521™ is NOT recommended for any track use.

meanjoe

Would love to hear from somebody at Hawk about this. I've got a set on my car and not too sure I'm happy with them either.

Bad Dad

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Can you pm me a link please

cschroed

What problems are you having with Hawk pads?

AORoads

Maybe the way to hear from someone at Hawk is to write them. Many companies/etailers don't monitor every car forum. You may also want to look into Porterfield brake pads.

cschroed

I did talk to a guy in tech support at Hawk on Friday. He wasn't very interested. He had no desire to see the pictures of the defective pads or to have me return them direct to Hawk. My company is in the Harley parts business. If someone called us about a defect in a safety critical part, such as an ECM, we would want to get it back and take a careful look. Now, I did mention the 2012 date code. Maybe they had an issue back then that has since been resolved and this is old news. But then they should have recalled all the affected lots. You don't let bad brake pads stay out in the field.

The guy at Hawk stated that the parts are manufactured in Cleveland. They are not imported.

He also explained that the 0.025" variation in thickness was not critical since there is a separate piston for each pad. It still seems like a large variation.

I could easily fix the bad pad by grinding out the foreign objects with a Dremel motor tool. It might be less hassle than to keep calling HawkPadDirect. We will see on Monday.

spy2520

He's right about the pistons. And can you just hold the cover down and tap that nub til it mushrooms out to hold the cover on?

cschroed

I wouldn't want to try pounding on a ceramic brake pad, but grinding it out would be an option. It's something hard, not a bubble in the black paint. However, a customer should not have to rework a product. Some parts, like body parts you might expect to do some "fitting" - but brake pads?

Adam@Amp'dAutosport.com

cschroed

The guy from HawkPadsDirect finally called back today and they are sending a replacement set. So my Dremel tool can stay in the toolbox for now. Hopefully this is just a fluke but it does indicate a lack of quality control.
And if there are any more problems encountered, I'll definitely try the Carbonite pads.