Help buying brake pads, original or not? What else?

I'll need to change my pads soon, so I was thinking of purchasing them from suncoast ms, but I got some questions that I hope you people can help me with... Are the pads sold by suncoast motorsport Porsche OEM or are they aftermarket that resemble the OEM? If they are, why are they relatively cheap? I'm not sure how much the dealer charges for pads but I think its more than what suncoast is asking for. Do I need to buy anything else beside the pads? Sensors, clips or something like that?? Thanks a lot in advance ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

As far as the sensors go, if you're not getting a dash warning light, the sensor is still good and can be reused in the new OEM pad. If you check your pads regularly, a lot of folks will just zip tie the sensors out of the way just to make future swaps or going to non-OEM pads easier. Not sure on your first question however...

Porsche does not make brake pads. They buy them from Texstar, Pagid, and Mintek. Pads made from these manufacturers with the hole for the wear sensor are identical to the ones with Porsche brand on the box. Some people say Axxis is the aftermarket brand for Texstar, I do not know. Things you might need to change your pads, some people say you need the new noise backing shims, I did not bother. If the sensors have ever lighted the dash light, you need new sensors. This is an excellent time to flush your brake system, if you have not done so already. Some people claim Porsche brake fluid is ATE Gold, when your flushing, it is easier to change to the alternate color, Blue. If not you will need some barke fluid to bleed your brakes and refill the reservoir. If you have not done so go to the article section to see an instructional article on changing your pads. Good Luck

First off, Thanks for the help guys, still need the answer to question 1; Now jaica, u brought another issue into my consideration, why do I need to flush the system? (isnt flushing the same as bleeding?) ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

Nitro: By flushing the brake fluid he means replacing all the old fluid in the system with new fluid. Bleeding the fluid is a simpler process designed to remove any air that's found its way into the system, so you end up with the same fluid in the system as before bleeding.

What Suncoast is charging (I looked it up on their site - $125 front/$90 rear) is about what I payed from a large parts distributor here (through a friend's shop) in LV called World Pac... they were the exact same OEM Textar pads, same part numbers... the box just didn't say "Porsche" on it. The local dealer wanted twice that for the same parts with the name on the box. You should send them an e-mail if you're concerned, but Suncoast seems to sell a lot of OEM parts for substantial discounts. If you're going to replace with OEM, as noted, there's several OEM manufacturers, but most people feel the Textar pads are better. Also, take a look in your maintenance book, and you'll see they recommend you flush/bleed the brakes system every two years regardless of mileage. brad

Hey Nitro, The pads we sell are the OEM Porsche factory parts from Porsche. We are cheaper because we choose to be, it honestly is that simple. The parts on our website are priced at wholesale instead of dealer retail. They are indeed made by other pad manufacturers (Brembo, Textar, Pagid, Mintek, etc all make brake parts for Porsche). You can go with the factory pads, or the "aftermarket" pads which very well may be the exact same thing (we deal with World Pac a lot, they are great for sourcing oem-equivalent aftermarket pieces). I'd be happy to answer any more questions that you may have! -Steve

Thanks for your reply steve, now I'm still confused , do you mean to say that you sell OEM or do you sell pads that are compatible with OEM and sometimes Porsche outsources them? For the second thing, for a pad change, are the pads all I need, or do I need anything else? (on an older car I used to have, I needed to get some flat metal braces for the pads) And brad, thanks for your reply, the car still hasnt spent 2 years (its an 07), do I still need to flush the brakes? Is it better to do it anyway? ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

Now I know what I needed to know, thanks a lot When I order, do I specify what brand? (is it even possible?) Think I read somewhere that people thought Texstar pads were better. ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

Go for the OEM pads front and rear from suncoast. You shouldn't need anything else unless you have a lot of miles. It is easy to replace the pads -- look for the DIY articles on this site. If you are going to take the car on track, get yourself some Pagid Oranges from Craig at rennstore.com These are much more durable than OEM but you may find them too noisy for normal street use.

I'll be doing (hopefully) my first ever track day next month, but I guess I'll stick with OEM for now, I'm not expireinced enough to surpass its capabilities! ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!