id have to agree you dont "HAVE" to resurface rotors. ive swapped pads on my car 4 or 5 times and countless times on my other cars, friends cars, family members cars and never had noise or brake related issues. as long as u dont have huge grooves or stress cracks youll be fine. maybe take some sand paper or a sanding cookie on an air tool and hit the rotors.

if u have the money and feel you should resurface them then do it. everyone has their own opinion.

Stock pads or Hawks seem like a reasonable idea. I used a set of Hawk HPS for a long time and they were decent for street driving, and the Hawk Ceramic street pads sound decent and were recommended above as well. I'm planning to try out the Carbotech Bobcat street pads that were also mentioned above starting in early Nov (after my next track appointment), but no personal review on them yet.

As for the rest, as mentioned above I'd flush the fluid with fresh stuff. Just don't accidentally buy a silicone-based fluid (DOT 5.0). Stick with DOT4-compat stuff, and if you want to splurge, get higher boiling point stuff. SS brake lines are nice and relatively cheap too.

LOL I've got mainly highway and hwy rush-hour, only 2500 on the odometer so far. Couple of times on the backroads. Wonder how long mine will last... My little Tacoma lasted almost 100k. 20k sounds awfully low. Maybe I'll be getting my carbotech pads sooner than I thought.:yum:

I have never driven with the Bobcats, but I have heard bad things about them. Do your research with people who have actually used it on this car

I've installed them on several customer's corvettes and no one has been unhappy with them.

I have rough 12K miles on the stock oem pads (one in the middle), they barely have more wear than my XP8 with one track day on it. I am guessing 35K miles?

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/92/dsc4925u.jpg
Shot at 2011-10-17

yah, my Z only sees surface streets 99% of the time and i drive pretty spiritedly. :p if you do hwy miles i am sure you will do very well.

i have to agree with cossie on this one. no way should you be turning your rotors every time you change pads. i've never heard of ANYONE doing that.

think, if your rotor has not gotten warped from heat, and is in perfectly good shape, then turning it would be redundant...

I'll report back eventually. When my stockers are dead (soon), Bobcats will replace them for daily driving and autocross use.

onj the sport pkg brakes, what is the best tool tp push the piston back. do they make a reverse c clamp where it pushes out? i am sick of using pliers and scrtaching my caliper

not the exact one i have but i dont remember where i got mine.


EDIT never mind not the right part :) ill try and find it... again

wow $$

here it is. this does both sides at the same time.

Amazon.com: Disc Brake Pad Piston Compressor Caliper Wind Back Tool: Home Improvement

I like the bobcats. I've been running them for ~1500 miles now. No noise (except for when the rotors are rusty) and so far appears to be no noticable dust. They are expensive... but I'm definitely happy with them.

Can't just use a rag on the outer jaw? I just use the pads generally but a rag on the jaw of a pair of pliers is what I use if I can't get enough leverage on the pad.