Tech help on brake pad type, hard or soft?

My understanding is that the harder the pad the shorter the life of the disc or drum. Soft stops quicker but wear out quicker.

GN,

Organic pads - soft, easy on discs
sintered (mixture of organig and metal) firmer, not too bad on discs
metal - lasts forever but will eventually chew discs

then there are racing type pads which are horrible when cold but once they are heated up they seem to never fade.

Old brake fluid or brake fluid that has been boiled will also cause brake fade as is not working to it's full potential.
Also if your discs are work down to, or close to minimum thickness brake fade will happen earlier as the disc and pads heat up quicker.

Rob

Kiwi Kia is correct, soft pads wear out quicker they are also easier on disc's and drums, I prefer soft pads because i would rather replace pads than discs, also you do not need as much pedal pressure to stop, I had an 89 patrol years ago and at 80,000ks they were only half worn out but you needed both feet on the pedal to stop in a hurry, I put soft pads on the front (non genuine as that was all you could get in a soft type) and it was a new truck. It was the same with ford falcons that I had with drivers on them at every 20,000ks I put new pads on them and did not have to machine the discs. A bit more costly for pads but very easy to replace, less down time and no disc machining
Bob V

Hi
Maxistop long life al's non matalic are the way to go work very well hot or cold can be found australia wide

Thought I would be smart years ago and put HD pads in my VL Turbo Commodore because its breaking was average - I also replaced the discs (all 4) at the same time with Group A discs.

Got 48,000km out of the discs - but the pads looked like new :)

Now I tend to buy medium hardness pads and slower cars.

All the above is true. I had an XE with metal pads at each change. Went for ages before replacing. Had an NF Fairlane and the discs lasted 80,000. The difference is in the metal used in the rotor. Older cars and trucks have hard metal rotors and the newer ones run soft metal and soft pads for "better" performance. If you are doing your own maintenance, run soft. But if possible, check out the metal composition of your rotor. My HJ60 has medium pads; hard to stop in a real hurry but getting long life. Have to be a bit more conservative when driving .. not a bad thing.