chingwodapigu

Looking to do my brakes soon. I was planning on doing Rotex Gold based on the recommendation by DUTCH VanAtlanta. It doesn't look like they're around anymore however. On another thread, I was informed by smith2010Q7 that Disc Italia Titanium Kevlar, is the same as Rotex Kevlar. So I started looking and they have two lines, Hyper Ceramic and Titanium Kevlar. Based on posts from a bunch of other forums, it seems like mostly positive reviews for the brand.

I've currently got Hawk LTS installed and really hate the brake feel, performance and squeal they make. They do produce less dust which is the one positive. So even though I have plenty of pad left, I'm changing them out. I'll be doing OEM rotors at the same time.

So I was wondering if anyone has tried Disc Italia pads and what they think of them. I'd like less dust, but am unwilling to sacrifice the brake performance. I have Akebono ceramics on my e55, so I know that ceramic pads don't have the initial bite that semi-metallic pads like the oem have, so I was leaning towards the Disc Italia Titanium Kevlar or Porterfield R4-S.

Let me know what you think...Thanks!

pdisme

Sorry can't provide guidance but I'm curious what your thoughts were on the Hawk LTS's? I just installed those on my wife's Q7 with stoptech rotors. I don't drive her car regularly so I really don't know how the feel changed from stock. I took it out to burnish the pads after install, they definitely faded after six or seven pretty hard decelerations. I felt like the initial bite is not the best, but I'm also used to driving just sports cars, so I figured perhaps that's normal for a big heavy suv. She said the brakes felt a bit 'off', so I bled them couple nights ago, and now she says it feels like it did before, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or just close to how the OEM pads felt. If you tell me the LTS's actually do throw away some braking performance and initial bite, then perhaps I made a bad choice putting those on and I should swap them out.

chingwodapigu

Q7 brakes performed really well with OEM pads. LTS have been an utter disappointment, other than less dust. They feel like they don't bite at all and feel like brakes are soft. I've had the brake fluid flushed and bled to make sure that wasn't the issue, but alas, it's not. It's enough to make me want to go back to OEM despite the dust, but the Disc Italia Titanium Kevlar and Porterfield R4-S are supposed to have similar, if not better braking performance with less dust, so I figured I'd give them a try. Haven't seen anyone mention the Disc Italia before in this forum, so I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with them since they seem to be Rotex replacements.