Dave M

It's been almost a week and a half since I installed them on my 3.0 qms, and I'm liking them a lot! Dust front/rear seems to be about the same as the OEM front pads, so that's quite an improvement for the rears and I'm very happy with this. And the stopping power is much improved.

I did notice some faint squealing under light braking a couple days after I installed the pads, but they have been silent ever since that day (over a week.) I guess it may have been related to the pads bedding in fully (I did not change the rotors.) I also did not apply anti-squeal to the backs of the pads, so that could also be a factor (there was a little of that sticky factory stuff left on the calipers/pistons from the OEM pads.) The edges of the front pads are not chamfered like the stock pads (the chamfering is supposed to help with noise/squealing), but they are slotted unlike the OEM front pads which are not (slotted pads help in similar ways as slotted rotors.) The front pads do have the wear sensors (the rears do not need them.)

With light/medium pressure on the pedal it's easy to modulate routine stopping effort, and in this they resemble the stock pads. But if you need to stop faster, the more you press on the pedal the faster and harder these things stop! The stock pads seemed to quickly hit a point where no matter the pedal pressure they would not stop any faster. I have not noticed any decreased bite when the pads are cold, and I have not noticed any fading when hot. I only had them in the rain once, but rain-fade was non-existant (stock pads were sometimes scary in this regard.)

I have not noticed anything that would prevent me from buying these pads again, but this is also my first forray outside of OEM pads so I can't offer comparisons with other performance pads. In all, I would give these pads a solid recommendation as pad worth considering for an OEM pad upgrade.

mcpath

nice I love my hawks but they squeak a lot.

akula-ssh

Nice review of the Hawk pads

1/4 scale

Great comments! I've got them in my B5 S4 set up and they inspire a lot of confidence

CO AVANT

I have B5S4 setup as well, do they squeal at all on you?

1/4 scale

I might get a slight squeal at very low speed or when they are cold once a week or so, not very noticeable though.

Are you having problems?