Porsche 928 GT Brake pad upgrade to EBC Green Stuff

Tuesday morning saw a blustery day in Hampshire. I had awoken early with the anticipation of a great day of 928 activity ahead. We had finally reached brake pad upgrade day. It was time.

I had decided on EBC Green stuff brake pads for my 1989 Porsche 928 GT a while ago because Alan had fitted them to his Porsche 1991 911 (964) Carrera 4 based on their claim to be excellent for fast road and light race with a good bite even when cold. Perhaps just as importantly I have put 1988 SE forged light alloys on my GT and these pads are made of a kevlar based compound which promises am almost complete lack of brake dust. My alloys don't get on with brake dust at all and I didn't want to have to clean them after every trip. 

Of course we faithfully documented our activity and present it for your enjoyment. Alan did most of the work as you can see. But I am a dab hand with a Dremel.. No connection with EBC or any supplier obviously. 

Parts and costs:-

EBC Green Rear Pads (Part 2767) around £50  

EBC Brake Pads Q&A (Acrobat PDF) EBC Brake Pads Packaging (Acrobat PDF)

Rear and front Brake Pad warning contact, Rear and Front Brake Pad damping plates 

Brake Pad sliencers, and wear indicator technical information (Acrobat PDF)

Removal

Installation

Most of our stuff. The bottom right pads are the fronts, the top ones are the rears. We've also got 4 different types of damping plates  and 2 different types of warning contact. 

Important: The wheel stud that has been previously marked as being next to the valve (opposite the the valve on 17in cups) is where the lockable wheel nut should be fitted to this colour coded stud. (Section 44-9, 928 Service manual)

You can see we were having fun. We even cleaned up the expanding spring and the cable holder that holds it all together.

Before completing the job....You might notice we broke one of the wear sensors. Araldite to the rescue. How you are supposed to fit them after the fact  I dont know. We found that the pads were a little too thick (all that green paint) resulting in this first casualty so we used a dremel to just make the tolerance for the wear sensors just right on all the other pads.

These are the rears. By now we were in the swing of it...Note the paint spot again, and you can clearly see the wider rear track spacers. The top one is completed and tidied. The bottom one is about to have its cable holder fitted.

It took us (mostly Alan) all day of course.. I dont think we'd get jobs at an official Porsche Centre.....

When refitting the wheels you are also supposed to rotate the valve such that it is in the upper position (lower position for 17in cups) before tightening the wheel. This prevents the optimum balancing effect from being lost.... (Section 44-9, 928 Service manual)

We took the car for a spin. No obvious difference to report. If anything they do feel a little more progressive and no less sharp.

The verdict

After a couple of months of use I can report that they feel as good as OEM brake pads, and if anything are better. the harder you brake the better they are. They also dont seem to be wearing the disk at the quick rate the OEM pads do. On my car and on Alans 964 there is no evidence of a lip appearing.. Finally a simple brush and pressure wash is all thats needed. No black dust. No pitting. That was why I took the Mag wheels off the SE in the first place. Its great to have them back on.

Almost 2 years later there is still no appreciable disk wear. Pads havent worn through to the sensors. Wheels are clean but some nasty black stuff just cant be removed. I would recommend EBC pads highly. (and Alan to fit them too!) 14 Feb 2004