EBC Yellowstuff- my 3 years experience

[ripp]

Hi guys

I want to share my experience with these pads, maybe it will help someone in taking the right decision regarding pad choice

First of all, they were fitted in september 2016 along with new discs, ATE plastilube used on pad contact points with the caliper and piston to avoid any seizing, the calipers were also refurbished with new guide pins and so on and the brakes were bleeded and Motul RBF660 DOT 5.1 fluid used.

The car is a Clio 182, and since then it did 18 000 km.
I live in a European country with temperate climate (not on the seaside so no extreme moisture conditions involved).
I went to two different trackdays, one late september 2016 and did a 20 minute session with couple of cooldown laps and the next one in octomber 2018 - also one 20 minute session with a couple of cooldown laps. Both sessions on the same track on nice sunny days with 20-25 degrees outside, on a 4km medium speed track.
The rest of the time the car was used as a street car with normal driving, almost daily (maximum 5 days between drives-these were exceptions) both around town or short to medium distances (50-200km per trip)

I was very satisfied with how the pads performed so far, good bite from cold and without any fading in the track sessions that I detailed above.
Unfortunatelly a couple of days ago when I left the parking lot I heard a clunking noise from the front axle, came to an imediate stop and found that one of the pads had been stripped of the braking material - part of it remained attached to the front disc.(it's the outer front left pad)
You can see in the pics all of the front pads removed and measured, they are still usable - thickness wise, so they aren't worn out to their limit yet, at least according to the car's owner's manual (also PDF attached with those specs)
Have to say that this event got me worried, as I intend to buy EBC pads in the future, but am a bit concerned about this problem.

I sent an email to EBC and their answer was:

"From the pictures you have set us it looks like were the disc has rusted to the pad, this isn’t a common thing to happen to this extreme.
It mainly happens on cars that sit for a while."

I also talked to the guy that sells them here and his answer was smth like "of course this happened, you went on the track, this combined with the fact that they are almost 3 years old and rusty, no wonder the material came off"
I want to know what you guys think, because in my book, after nearly 3 years and without excessive wear and abuse, this should NEVER EVER happen to a pad. I had DS2500 before and they stood up perfectly (never tracked them though but gave them some abuse on mountain roads couple of times) and when they came off the car didn't looked like taken from the Titanic wreck..

Enjoy the pics!

 

[JB21]

3 years wow, just buy new pads and stop whinging about it. They've more than done there job. Yellows are like cheese and wear very quickly IME, I used a full set in 1 track day in my old Mazda 6 MPS and half a set recently in my MR2 at a Bylton shakedown...shite pads!

 

[MarkCup]

My experience is the same as @JB21 , they wear really quickly, I took a set down to the backing plates during one Goodwood day, 125 miles in total was all I had from them.

But, accepting that faster rate of wear, I think they're great pads. I had a consistent pedal feel, the material doesn't feel compressible at all, and I had zero fade and bugger all brake dust on the wheels throughout the entire day. The fact they cost not a great deal makes it all worthwhile. If they were pricey, hmmm, that wouldn't be quite so good.

Knowing how quickly they wear, and as said above, it doesn't surprise me that they've done what they've done to you.

 

[ripp]

Well I bought new pads obviously, but will never ever touch EBC unless I will know that I'll burn them pretty quickly because it seems that they don't do well against time.
What about someone that has a weekend car and does 1000 miles per year?? Is that person supposed to change the pads every 2 years to avoid failure even if they're barely worn out? The DS2500 even had the backplate paint intact after more than 3 years on my car, not a single hint of brake material crack and got them even thinner than these.

 

[ripp]

My experience is the same as @JB21 , they wear really quickly, I took a set down to the backing plates during one Goodwood day, 125 miles in total was all I had from them.

But, accepting that faster rate of wear, I think they're great pads. I had a consistent pedal feel, the material doesn't feel compressible at all, and I had zero fade and bugger all brake dust on the wheels throughout the entire day. The fact they cost not a great deal makes it all worthwhile. If they were pricey, hmmm, that wouldn't be quite so good.

Knowing how quickly they wear, and as said above, it doesn't surprise me that they've done what they've done to you.

Had nothing to complain about their performance either, they did the job great but EBC should warn the customers that in time these pads could fail, something like "keep the pads untill min pad thickness reached or for maximum of 2 years (or so) "
That way we could avoid possibly catastrophic incidents and enjoy our beloved trackdays in peace

 

[JB21]

If left to the elements brake pads deteriorate, especially track pads. You think of the cold, hot, wet, dry cycles they go through along with them sticking to discs with surface rust and being ripped away when moving away.

I found Ferodo the worst for deteriation.

 

[ripp]

Had absolutely not a single issue with the Ferodo which were on the car for even longer, in exactly the same conditions (I have the car since 2006 and went through about 4 sets of pads so far, none showed any sign of failure)

 

[Kev@KAM]

The basic fact of the matter is different compounds react to the weather and lack of care of a road car differently. I think you did well to get three years and 18000miles out of them. I've seen many people needing OEM brakes in a similar time.
You try the same with Ferodo DS1.11 and you will maybe get a different result.

Track and race pads are not like OEM road pads and should not be treated as such. Really an owner should be maintaining a higher level of care, inspection and maintenance to their car than waiting for something to fail before replacing. This is not a failure of the product.

If the Ferodo DS2500 work for you then stick with them. Although you are not endorsing the EBC I really dont think your example actually knocks them down.