Mercedes Brake Pad Set - Akebono 0044200220

Hello to all, I put a set of these ceramic pads on all 4 wheels of my 2000 C230 Kompressor sedan because I was tired of cleaning black brake dust of the alloy rims. Well, I'm happy to report that in this regard, these pads shine (literally, pun intended). What little brake dust there is doesn't detract from the appearance of the rims whatsoever. I used to have to clean my rims weekly - not anymore. Don't really have to clean them at all - the cleaning that they get when running through the car was is more than enough - and in between those washes the wheels still look good, if not great. No black dust...so long and good riddance. Stopping power - on par with non-ceramic pads. Haven't noticed much of a difference at all. Now - the question of quality control.... About 6 months after installing these pads I started to hear a loud "click" coming from the front left wheel (only) whenever I would brake after changing direction. For example, when I'd reverse into my parking spot I'd here a single, loud click when I would brake. If I continued repeated braking while still moving in reverse gear I wouldn't hear any more clicks other than that first one. Then when I'd put the car in drive in the morning to go to work, sure enough, upon my first braking episode in forward motion I'd hear the loud click - just once. Then, in a deserted parking lot I tested my theory....put the car in reverse and when I'd brake - only one click - repeated braking in reverse yielded no more clicks. Then putting the car in drive I'd again here one loud click upon executing my first braking episode - after that repeated braking in forward direction yielded absolutely zero clicks. Back and forth (forward and reverse) and always the same result - one click in each direction upon my first braking in each respective direction. Noise was driving me crazy (no driving necessary, at this point in my life it's a short walk to crazy) so I took it to my mechanic and, sure enough, he said that the backing plate on one of my right front pads had almost an 1.8" gap between the brake pad's backing plate and the car's metal frame that the pads sit in - hence the back and forth movement of the pad within the frame and hence the click. So, out of 8 pads installed in my car - 2 for each wheel - one wound up not fitting quite right within the frame assembly. What's puzzling about this is that this phenomena didn't manifest itself till well after 6 to 8 months AFTER the brake pads were installed leading me to believe that perhaps some hard braking caused the metal substrate on the offending pad to somehow wear down to allow for this movement later on. Other than that hypothesis I couldn't really explain why this problem took a while to manifest itself. Anyway, all's well that ends well - as usual, FCP Euro honored their "lifetime warranty" policy - I purchased another set of front plates and had them installed and now I'm once again 'click-less". Ah...silence is golden. I am about to return the 'defective' pads to FCP for a full refund of the purchase price. Yes, I had to pay return shipping but I ask you, how many companies would take back a set of brake pads after 6 to months of use? Perhaps there are other companies that will do this but nevertheless I prefer to deal with FCP because I always know that there will be ZERO HASSLE when returning an item. So, long story short - the Akebono pads are very good pads - I'd have called them 'great' (and given them a 5 star rating instead of 4) if it hadn't been for the aforementioned clicking issue.

After the pads are bedded, these pads are excellent. Low, low dust. Remember to glob on a reasonably generous amount of anti-squeal so you don't get the squeaks! :)