My mechanic (who I trust) informed me that my rear brakes need to be replaced soon. Thankfully, switching jobs has allowed me to leave some time in replacing it in the near future. I have reviewed this forum and people's thoughts on the akebono's brakes.

Question is, if I need to replace my rear brakes (front are fine), is it worth upgrading the full car to akebono's or just go with the standard G37 sport brake kit? The mechanic said it would be about $450 all in (labor included). As I understand it, the Akebono's are about $1200 (ballpark) and there is a large community of people who would be willing to purchase them if I were to ever sell. So I wanted to get people's opinions on the matter.

Thoughts?

 

As a daily driver, the BBK won't turn your car into some high performance braking monster. If you drove a pair of G's with Sport and non-Sport brakes side by side, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. That's just my opinion, and you're sure to find people who say otherwise, even if those people are probably influenced by comparing old worn out pads to new ones.

However (!!!), the Akebono BBK looks damn impressive. Particularly when seen behind a beautiful aftermarket wheel. And there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Main benefit of BBK *should* be better heat dissipation. This comes into play when driving technical roads or on the track.

Realistically, I think it's more of a cosmetic option.

 

The Akebono pads aren't much larger than the pedestrian brakes. Do the upgrade for looks.

 

Get thee to rockauto.com, select your car, and get a set of reman Akebono calipers, rotors, and pads for ~$850. I just did, and it's worth every penny. If you can put up with bright red powdercoating, anyway.

 

Yep, that's a killer deal, here's the link to that thread~
https://www.myg37.com/forums/brakes-...-calipers.html

And FWIW there's no such thing as a standard sport brake kit that doesn't include Akebonos, might want to check w/ your mechanic on that (unless it's the 07-08 G5 Sedans that had the sport package, those had floating calipers). I assume he meant the standard brakes that are currently on your car, and since it technically is an X"S" even though it doesn't have the sport brakes there is room for confusion, lol.

 

i just put brembo break pad.. i have non sports .. it works perfect

 

^This right here.^

Unfortunately there are many on here that are waaaay more interested in how something looks...than how it actually functions.

 

completely understand and appreciate all the feedback, i probably should've clarified in the beginning.

Yes @blnewt he meant the standard brakes on my car (i didnt explain it correctly). Also, for me to drop an extra $600-800 i want it to be worth the functionality, not just aesthetics. So sounds like the standard brakes hold up well in comparison with the akebonos

 

While somewhat true, don't forget the Akebono BBK offers a lot of pad options. Upgrading the Akebono pads offers increased performance as well.

For a street driven car, it's probably a moot point, but the increased rotor size adds additional mass for pad contact and for heat dissipation, and the stiffer caliper flexes less, offering, in theory, better pedal feel.

Tires probably contribute more to braking distances than caliper design.

 

Yeah, the bigger brakes make themselves known in repeated stops, such as the track. While both of my track events were in cool weather, I never felt any fading with the Akebono stock pads. They just wore very quickly.

It'll be interesting to see if the Hawk 5.0 pads I just installed will improve stopping distance and pad life.

 

I'd be surprised if stopping distance and initial bite were not improved with the Hawk pads.

Interesting article on the Akebono brakes with stock, NISMO, and NISMO + ATE fluid. Just different pads shaved 10 feet from the stopping distance of a 370Z with the BBK.

https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...-lightning-lap

I'm running the NISMO pads, RB600 and the Z1 Master Cylinder brace. There is some additional dusting, but no noise or complaints. And the "street price" on the pads is closer to $200 than the $580 referenced in the article

 

I am running an RB600 equivalent.

 

Hey all...On my My 2nd G. 1st one was a V35 2004 G35 Sedan 6MT. This one is an '11 G37S 6MT Sedan. On my old one the rotors were basically single use. Is that the case with the sport brakes? Also, do most do OEM pads or something different?

 

I swapped to the NISMO/R-Spec pads around 200 miles, and got a little over 30k out of them before they got down to the wear indicators and I replaced them with another set of NISMO pads. Haven't done anything with the rotors.