Good morning,

I was wondering if someone could tell me what kind of brake pads to put on my '99 Camry CE, 4 cyl. Napa says to put non-ferrous ceramic ones but I have heard not to put ceramic brake pads on. I can't find it anywhere in my owners manual. Please help, any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks!!

Just buy Toyota pads. Not very expensive and work correctly. Many aftermarket pads make noise.

It's good to use OEM pads, you'll get original stopping performance that came with your Toyota, although if you want to go for something a little more than that, use non-ferrous ceramics. I have used ceramic pads for quite some time now, and in my opinion, once you get used to the stopping power you get from them, you won't want to go back to OEM...it's all just a monitary matter. If you don't want to spend much, buy stockers, although if you want to spend a little bit more, buy aftermarket. Mainly depends on how much you want to spend, and how you drive your car.

How does the rotor wear and pad life on the non-ferrous ceramics vs the OEM pads? What is the difference in price? Just curious...

BTW, here is a good discussion on brake pads:

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ic/ic20316.htm

Thanks for the link, I'll check that one out. As far as the pads go, they have about twice the life of the OEM pads, although I haven't noticed hardly any wear on the rotors after changing the ceramic pads twice already, when compared to OEMs I've noticed a pretty good bit of wear on the rotor.

Sorry, forgot to add price on last post...

The cost for the same ceramic pads I have "FrictionMaster" which are $40.00 USD, which I purchased at Advance.

Can those Ceramic pads be used on anti-lock brakes? Will be doing brake job on my 2000 Camry in near future.

I run ceramic pads. They work fantastic. I don't have ABS but pads have nothing to do with ABS working or not. Sensors detect a wheel not turning, nothing to do with what caused the wheel to stop turning.
JJ

calvic is right, the ceramic pads can work rather effectively with ABS systems. The pads have nothing to do with whether your car is ABS equipped or not. Although if you were to change the struts, then it would make a difference in which kind you bought. Ceramics are really great for every day driving, and they are great at the track. I know from personal experience.

Thanks for the info... I just may try the Ceramics. :smile:

No problem, we're here to help. I just don't want to hear anyone going around and judging ceramic pads without actually trying them out for themselves. Don't believe me, try them yourself, you'll see the difference. If you do go and buy them though, it's also recommended that you bleed the brake system after installing the ceramics to "enhance the performance". It helps. Done it myself when I purchased my first set, and they're still touchy.