Stoptech 308 relabeled

[still2slik]

according to : https://www.buybrakes.com/stoptech-3...re-2-wheel-set

the stop tech 308 are just the 104's and 105's restickered/relabeled. Wasnt able to find anything else about this online. Can someone confirm this please? i think i remember reading this mentioned in one of the comments in a post here but i am not able to find it. If this is true, what would you recommend as an alternative for DD?

[cmiovino]

I'm a long time StopTech customer. I actually have their 309's on my SO's Sentra and my daily driver WRX now. I've used their pads for over 10 years on various cars now.

In general, StopTech's gone downhill. I've also heard they started relabeling 308's from different lower-end products. In fact, I ordered a set of 309's for my BRZ Brembos and received a white box with some generic looking pads with no slit in the middle stamped as 309's back this spring. I gave up on them after that. I feel like they're just making the cheapest pads and relabeling them as 308's, 309's etc and selling them at higher prices. Unless you're getting some old stock somewhere, it's not worth it anymore. I'm pretty sure I was sent some "100" pad compound. This guy who commented on a video I made had the same experience:

Be careful with Centric / StopTech Spring 2023. They seem to have had management or organizational changes in the last year or two. My recent experience with 309 pads for a Miata (and from TireRack) is as follows. Showed up in a generic white box. No hardware is included. No slot across the compound, unlike the 309s I just removed. No leading / trailing edge chamfer. Different backing plate shape. Different appearance to the compound. Discussing with another brake seller, it was claimed that Centric 105 or 104 or 103 pads might be substituted for 309s and 308s. My samples resemble 103s per photos on RockAuto. A 12 dollar low-feature pad without high claims. Perhaps at some point things will clarify or resolve, but I can no longer suggest ANY Centric or StopTech brake pad for now. Not sure about their other braking products such as rotors, I have not heard about issues there. Anyone? TR suggests that all Centrics now come in plain white boxes, that seems unlikely but who knows. TR also cannot supply the brake pad hardware and when I tried two local sources those did not work so I could always just reuse the old genuine StopTech hardware with another pad. This may be supply chain related, IDK but there may also be shaky things going on or profiteering, Be careful out there!

Video:

I went with Ferodo DS2500's and haven't looked back. But keep in mind they are much more than StopTechs. $430 for the set vs I think just over $200 for Stoptechs all around. The Ferodos modulate much better and seem to dust a bit less. Threshold braking is about the same.

[autoracer86]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

I went with Ferodo DS2500's and haven't looked back. But keep in mind they are much more than StopTechs. $430 for the set vs I think just over $200 for Stoptechs all around. The Ferodos modulate much better and seem to dust a bit less. Threshold braking is about the same.

How do you find them noise wise on the street ? Looking to step up to a BBK and use the DS2500 as my street pad then swap to another Ferodo pad for track usage

Thanks

[cmiovino]

Originally Posted by autoracer86

How do you find them noise wise on the street ? Looking to step up to a BBK and use the DS2500 as my street pad then swap to another Ferodo pad for track usage

Thanks

They were pretty terrible initially. From about 15mph to zero on any grade hill, there was a high pitched squealing. I used CRC brake grease, lathered them up, and even used Girodisc shims ($50 extra) with PP Brembos. This was them initially:

Our local autocross guys suggested using CRC's red goop to quiet them down. I had some of the spray stuff around, so I used that and the sound magically went away 99% of the time. It's rare, but once a month or so I'll get a slight squeak at 2mph. It's totally livable now.

I'd recommend them, just use that CRC red goop. They're more or less completely silent now.

[autoracer86]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

They were pretty terrible initially. From about 15mph to zero on any grade hill, there was a high pitched squealing. I used CRC brake grease, lathered them up, and even used Girodisc shims ($50 extra) with PP Brembos. This was them initially:

Our local autocross guys suggested using CRC's red goop to quiet them down. I had some of the spray stuff around, so I used that and the sound magically went away 99% of the time. It's rare, but once a month or so I'll get a slight squeak at 2mph. It's totally livable now.

I'd recommend them, just use that CRC red goop. They're more or less completely silent now.

that video was funny haha. Yeah I have dallied race pads before and not looking to go back to that life lol. I had a feeling the DS2500 would be a bit noisy

Thanks for the advice on the grease

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by autoracer86

that video was funny haha. Yeah I have dallied race pads before and not looking to go back to that life lol. I had a feeling the DS2500 would be a bit noisy

Thanks for the advice on the grease

Lol but it’s fun.

*me inches forward in traffic.

*all the other drivers looking around to see where the train is coming from.

[Muskoka800]

I use the 309 (Sport) pads with my BBK.
DD and Track Day, they are a great compromise. Quiet, fairly low dust and very rotor friendly. Granted I am no Danny Ricardo but I seldom overheat them at TMP and they last through more than a season with 5-6 track days.
Sounds like supply may be in question. Fortunately I have a new set on the shelf for when the time comes to change.
In fact, my Buddy just ordered a new set for his Miata. I’ll ask about there similarity and packaging.

[Will_]

For some background info, this is a message I got from Zeckhausen racing when I ordered some dust boots last year. Explains a bit what is going on...

"Here's why this is happening. Last year, StopTech's parent company, Centric Parts, was acquired by First Brands Group (Raybesots, Autolite, FRAM, ANCO, etc.). Actually, it went one layer higher, as Centric's parent company, APC Automotive Group, was the acquisition target. This didn't change anything from StopTech and their parts mostly continued to flow our way. Centric Parts was another matter, as First Brands Group immediately cancelled all outstanding orders from Centric's contracted factories and shifted them to their own factories, despite not having tooling in place yet. That resulted in many Centric products going on backorder, which continues to this day. Some StopTech products that depended on Centric parts (e.g., racing rotor blanks) are also now in short supply.

At the beginning of May, the acquisition hammer finally dropped on StopTech and Centric, with the relocation of millions of dollars of inventory from their City of Industry warehouse to a First Brands warehouse in Patterson, California. Simultaneously, StopTech changed their backend software to the Oracle-based system used by all the First Brands companies. The conversion was an unmitigated disaster and what was supposed to be a 1-week shutdown turned into a 6 week period of zero products going out the door. During that time, we lost visibility into past orders, open orders, inventory, pricing, and even the ability to place new orders. When I say "we" I also mean the staff at StopTech in Compton. It's been miserable for everyone., especially the few hundred folks, some with decades of experience, laid off from the City of Industry warehouse.

We quickly ran out of critical parts at the peak of the racing season, including StopTech pads, rotors, caliper rebuild kits, pistons, abutment plates, etc. That forced us to move new orders over to drop-ship from the black hole that StopTech had become.

StopTech is finally clawing their way out of this mess, which is why we opened up the availability of many products for ordering, albeit with a generous padding applied to the estimated delivery date. There's still some uncertainty and a declaration this week from First Brands executives that all StopTech parts must be transported via truck to Patterson for shipping, rather than shipping directly from Compton, means we probably didn't pad the EDD enough.

I would say you might want to check around for other vendors with stock, but we were the ONLY ones on the planet who carried these parts in sufficient quantity. Most vendors only sell big brake kits and some stock rotors and pads. But we had everything that could break, fall off, get lost, or wear out, on the shelf here and ready to go. Now we're being inundated with calls and emails from other vendors, looking for StopTech parts.

I'm looking forward to getting back to the good old days, but it will probably not happen any time soon."

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Lol but it’s fun.

*me inches forward in traffic.

*all the other drivers looking around to see where the train is coming from.

Ran HP+ recently at shannonville and drove around on them not fully bedded for a few days prior and has the same feeling.
The occasional extra loud squeal/hum made me laugh whenever I hit that brake pressure/frequency.


I ran 309s prior to the HPS 5.0 On the car now. Was relatively happy with 309s due to cost. They wore nicely but noticed they caused brakes to stick in the winter.
Now prices are up and it appears quality is down, glad I decided to try something else.

[Spuds]

Lol now I'm hoping the Centric rotors I just got aren't terrible in some way.

[Muskoka800]

Originally Posted by RToyo86

I ran 309s prior to the HPS 5.0 On the car now. Was relatively happy with 309s due to cost. They wore nicely but noticed they caused brakes to stick in the winter.
Now prices are up and it appears quality is down, glad I decided to try something else.

My FRS is garaged for the winter (Nov-Apr) so your cold weather issue is news to me.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by Will_

For some background info, this is a message I got from Zeckhausen racing when I ordered some dust boots last year. Explains a bit what is going on...

Thank you. Zeckhausen is a gem.