EBC Yellowstuff *WARNING*

[Alex Knight]

Hi all.

I wanted to share with you my recent experience of Yellowstuff pads and EBC Brakes Direct.

I don't normally name and shame companies, but I have had such a shockingly poor experience that I wanted others to have the benefit of my experience.

As most of you know, I use my car for trackdays, and I like to press on and use the car properly.

The below pictures show the state of my rear pads after ONE trackday and some gentle road miles.

I'm sure you'll agree that this is totally unacceptable.

Yellowstuff pads are literally advertised as a trackday pad.

I contacted EBC brakes and showed them these pictures. To cut a long story short, they were completely uninterested in what I can only describe as a product which has simply disintegrated.

All they could do was to offer me a 25% discount on another set of pads (which they could not supply anyway).

I work in an industry where customer satisfaction is absolutely paramount, and they quality of this product, and the way in which I have been subsequently dealt with is little short of appalling.

I'll let you decide if you want to continue to use this product, but I for one will certainly not ever again.

[Roj]

That's dire. Looks like a manufacturing defect, possibly from a bad batch. I've no idea how pads are QC'd but you'd think they would test randomly selected items from each produced batch to ensure they were up to spec.

I have to admit to being surprised at the love EBC pads receive in the MR2 community. They're generally perceived to be cheap, sub-standard quality amongst other marque owner's clubs, track enthusiasts and racers. I put some of that down to snobbery elsewhere but seeing this is making me think twice.

I recall a thread elsewhere, possibly MR2 Championship related, where the theme was Carbotech, Endless, Pagid etc, performed better and lasted 3-4 times as long as EBCs, so worked out a similar cost over a season, but with fewer changes.

[shnazzle]

Hit the nail on the head. To me they're cheap superior road pads.
Too many horror stories for on track but on a road car that sees a few B-roads from time to time, for the price, they hit the spot.

The pics above confirm everything everyone has been saying for years about them for serious use. Hence Carbotech etc got so popular.

[Iain]

They look like they got very very hot and melted, and especially on the rears that is strange to see.

Ive got some yellowstuff just on the front of mine and they have done 2 track days and so far and all seems fine, the amount of brake dust that comes off them is a slight concern though. I have nothing else to base them on mind, first set ive ever used on a track.

I cant stand companies who behave how you've describe your experience with them, customer service is such an easy thing to do and bad news always travels fast so it does them no favours.

[Roj]

Not that this helps your current position OP, but it might help future decisions...

A mate ran a set of Pagid RSL29s on his F80 M3 and absolutely cooked them. He emailed the distributor, who said to send them back for analysis. Pagid HQ in Germany discovered the pads had been operated outwith spec and essentially told him he'd been a bit of a naughty boy using those pads under those conditions, and gave him a free set of RSL1s! That's customer service!

[potge]

Something looks really really odd.
Brake pads and potential faulty batch aside, is there a chance your calipers are sticking or that you had any kind of contamination? Are you discs blue-ish?
Next time on track might be a interesting to use a sticky temperature indicator so you have a baseline, as it seems that you genuinely reached a very high temperature.

[Alex Knight]

The brakes have been inspected and are fine. Zero caliper issues and discs have not overheated.

I am a proper beast on the brakes mind. Very, very hard on the middle pedal.

[p5ycho]

These were not up to the task...
Looks like you need some serious racing pads for your driving style.

[Iain]

@Alex Knight May i ask out of interest what pads you have on the front? Im still amazed how hot these have got on the rear.

[Alex Knight]

@Alex Knight May i ask out of interest what pads you have on the front? Im still amazed how hot these have got on the rear.

Interestingly, EBC Bluestuff.

[Alex Knight]

These were not up to the task...
Looks like you need some serious racing pads for your driving style.

I think that's basically the problem.

[thetyrant]

You are simply working them beyond design limits very common, they are road pads which some people get away with on track depending on driving style, many others have same experience you had.

Most serious track guys use ebc once then move onto a more suitable pad like carbotech xp8 or xp10 which is what I have, cost about twice as much but last many times longer with much more brake power and consistency, some don't like the sharp feeling but as long as you run good tyres easily controlled 😀