I recommend ADVICS brake pads. If you look at the caliper and your old factory pads, they have ADVICS stamped on them. I just replaced my front pads with ADVICS and they work great. These are the front pads you need as long as you DON'T have the 3rd row seat:
It depends how you're using the car. Ebc yellow is not necessarily recommended on street car. I used this on my weekend track car before, you have to get the brake heated up really well to be effective or else they will make a wholelot of noise.
i use it as street car but im feed up with the poor perfermance softness and rust of the oem brakes im down to 40% left it's the only bad side of my rav 2012 I4 sport
Even though I have V6, I agree with the OP that the RAV4 OEM pads don't have the good strong bite I was used to have in my previous cars with cheap semimetalic pads.
I considered the $50 Advics pads but i went ahead and ordered $60 Akebono ACT1211 pads. I read some reviews on them and they were more aggressive than the OEM. I didn't get them yet.
just sharing, got new rotors and pads for front brakes. my old ones that are on still in the front are OK still @93,000kms, 4 cyl. i might replace them in the fall.
and buying a set of pads for the rear, since this is my 2nd front rotor set.
advics or oem, they are fantastic.
might consider bleeding or flushing your brake fluid (DOT3), recommended 60 to 65K kms or 4 years. or lesser (it is always up to you). plus, check hydraulic lines/hoses for wear and fluid leaks.
remember, if you dont have the sport edition of rav4, you may want to stick with advics or oem replacements. guaranteed right performance that you can get. but for 4 bangers, no need for high performance brake hardware, again, it is always up to you.
We have EBC Yellow Stuff pads with StopTech Sport Slotted Rotors on our 2007 4WD V6. This setup lasted for almost three years (34 months, 27,000 miles) of very hard braking while being driven mostly on back roads with lots of hills and sharp curves. The rotors are warped now, so I need to replace them. I did not like the slight noise/vibration from the slotted rotors while braking, so I am going to try these Centric Plain 120 series this time. However, if the Centric's have noticeably less performance or longevity, we will go back to the StopTech when our 2012 needs brakes.
We like the EBC pads very much, so we are definitely getting them again.
Cold braking (first time using/pressing the brakes) is noticeably not as strong as when the pads are warm. One hard stop from 50mph is enough to heat the pads up. Cold braking does seem as strong as stock braking in our 2012, just not as strong as the full or optimum stopping power achievable with these pads when they are heated up.
Pros
Excellent stopping power
Excellent consistency in brake pedal feel and stopping distance under heavy braking
Less dust than stock pads
Cons
They do have some noise/squealing at times
Pedal effort is more (heavier) than stock
Turns out the StopTech rotors were not warped. They just had a hard spot, so the surging went away after it wore down a little. I had already purchased the Centric Plain 120 series and I still wanted to get rid of the slight noise/vibration from the slotted rotors while braking, so I changed them out in December. Now the braking is smooth again, but this set of EBC Yellowstuff pads really squeal a lot with these new non-slotted rotors before the pads are heated up. If you are considering the EBC Yellowstuff, I'd recommend slotted rotors to keep the squeal down.
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