Powerstop Z16 ceramic brake pads

The second biggest complaint I have with my Mazda5 is the stock brake. First is the junk OEM shock they put in the rear. The OEM brake always hard to modulate. The initial bite are so weak but when you press further it just grab and slow down too much. The other problem is they tend to leave uneven pad deposit and cause judder. I sand it a few times and its gone just to come back in a couple months. The car finally hit 50K miles and I decided to look for replacement brake pads.

I came across this Z16 brake pads on RockAuto and for $57 shipped for front and rear and decided to give it a try. I was skeptical to try due to the price. Its seem too cheap to be a good brake, but glad I pick it.

Initial impression is I really like this pad. Installed it yesterday and even without bedding it in I could feel it got a lot better modulation and seem to have brake a lot better stopping power. Did about 75 miles yesterday and the car are a lot more enjoyable to drive.

I have Stoptech Street performance pad on my other car and this Z16 seems to be a lot better for daily driver. The Stoptech need proper bedding and sometime need to be re-bed again. It generate more brake dust than OEM pads also.

The Stoptech ceramic pads generate more dust than the oem semi-metallic ones? Also, did you get your rotors turned or slap some new ones on there?

The Stoptech I got are not ceramic. Its listed as Para Aramid material what ever it is.
Some source mention that the OEM are actually ceramic but for some reason I do not like the OME formulation at all.

My rotor are still in good shape so I just sand it down to remove old pad material deposit and slap the new pad on.

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like a good value pad for DD. Oddly, I don’t see this on Centric’s site but I wonder if this is just repackaged Posi-quite or Premium pads.

Only StopTech’s stree performance line is listed, which I believe is what you had before -eats rotors and noise maker but damn good at what it is suppose to do.
http://www.centricparts.com/products/street-perf-pads


I’m not too keen of their posi quiet line. They are ok for DD use but they fail on high temp fade. If you get a chance test out those Z16 pads. Take 3-4 consecutive panic stops, then continue driving. Let us know how well it brakes then.


IMO, should have also replaced those junky OE rotors when you had the chance

Powerstop are different that Centric. StopTech, PosiQuiet & C-Tex are owned by Centric. I believe Powerstop are not related to to Centric.

http://www.stoptech.com/about/about-us
http://www.powerstop.com/about-us

I tried do a few hard stop and the brake does not feel to fade so far.

My rotor are in perfect condition. I am not looking forward to try to remove those rotor after hearing all the problem people have trying to remove them.

Premacy5 said:

Powerstop are different that Centric. StopTech, PosiQuiet & C-Tex are owned by Centric. I believe Powerstop are not related to to Centric.

http://www.stoptech.com/about/about-us
http://www.powerstop.com/about-us

I tried do a few hard stop and the brake does not feel to fade so far.

My rotor are in perfect condition. I am not looking forward to try to remove those rotor after hearing all the problem people have trying to remove them.

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I'm not sure how hard/many stops you did but it is good to hear they do not fade badly.

You are correct. Powerstop is NOT related to Centric. I was confused with Powerslot, which is the "other" division that seems to be all but gone.

Silentnoise713 said:

...I was confused with Powerslot, which is the "other" division that seems to be all but gone.

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Why would you say that about PowerSlot? I thought they were still relevant. They always had a good rep. I just bought a set of four...

MR6 said:

Why would you say that about PowerSlot? I thought they were still relevant. They always had a good rep. I just bought a set of four...

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I don't mean to imply they are bad, just seem to be a lot less marketing than I recall in the 90s. If you check out centric's site, there no mention of Powerslot. I still recall Centric's site use to have the option of redirecting to the other two. Now it seems Centric and StopTech consolidate into one.


Ah, it seems StopTech and Power Slot were indeed consolidated. There is no more Power Slot.
http://www.stoptech.com/media-cente...o-stoptech-and-power-slot-sport-rotor-program

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Centric all at once for my S2000- boxes came with Stoptech, Powerslot, and Centric labels on various items. Same parent company.