@TheTed -
Where do you purchase them?
When I go to RockAuto, the only Akebono brake pads are not for the Dark Horse Mustang.

And in the interest of getting part numbers and all, is there anything on the box?

Junkyard Dog said:

@TheTed -
Where do you purchase them?
When I go to RockAuto, the only Akebono brake pads are not for the Dark Horse Mustang.

And in the interest of getting part numbers and all, is there anything on the box?

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These were purchased from my local Ford dealer directly, I just went to the parts counter, told them the car, and they ordered them in through the Ford parts network. Here are the labels on the boxes:



So if I had to guess, Akebono is the supplier that they're using, at least for the Motorcraft replacement pads. When I finally get to changing the originals I'll try to remember to see what they say on the back.

Thank you. I can now find them at Ford online and at RockAuto.com.

Be interesting to see if replacement pads are the same as the factory pads. Waiting for it to cool off a bit in AZ before swapping pads but it will be soon

Agreed. I'm hopeful that these pads will have the same performance as the OEMs. I have absolutely zero complaints about the brakes on this car, and hope it stays that way.

Another track day done from this past weekend - bringing up the pace slightly but still averaging around 2 min / lap. Brakes were fine- no issues after 4x 20-minute sessions. Took the wheels off yesterday and remeasured pads- still a little over 5mm on front pads vs about 6mm before the track day. Still have gloc R12 and R10 pads sitting on my shelf waiting to be installed but now I’m thinking I may have greatly overestimated how quickly I would go through the oem pads at my current level. Do I even need the upgraded pads at this point? Seems like the oem pads are plenty enough for me but maybe that will change when I put on bigger wheels and tires - 19x10/11 F/R with 285/305 re71rz tires.

Well, at 5 mm . . . how low were you thinking of letting them go and still running them on track?

Brembo says 3-4mm, so you are getting very, very close.

Pad thickness: If less than 3–4 mm, it’s time to replace.

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Junkyard Dog said:

Well, at 5 mm . . . how low were you thinking of letting them go and still running them on track?

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I have two more track days in the next 3 weeks - I was planning on keeping the oem pads on for the next track day, and then swapping them out for the Gloc pads for the following track day. Based on learnings from prior two track days only losing about 1mm of pad thickness I thought that it would be safe to run at least one more day on them before getting down to 4 or even 3mm remaining. you think that's too risky?

That will let you see right away whether there is any performance difference on the very same track from one day to the next and with all other factors being pretty much the same.

I found a pad spreader mentioned in the general mustang forums that could help with the pad replacement -

Lisle Quick Quad Pad Spreaders 29100​

However, I see that the product only mentions working with up to 4-piston brakes. Do you think this could still be used with the dark horse's 6 piston fronts as well? Never done a pad replacement myself so trying to make it as easy as possible.

EricH said:

I found a pad spreader mentioned in the general mustang forums that could help with the pad replacement -

Lisle Quick Quad Pad Spreaders 29100​

However, I see that the product only mentions working with up to 4-piston brakes. Do you think this could still be used with the dark horse's 6 piston fronts as well? Never done a pad replacement myself so trying to make it as easy as possible.

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So you already know how to do the rear brakes on the Mustang? (brake maintenance mode on the touch screen, etc.?)

Hopefully you have not lost one arm in an accident, or anything.

Junkyard Dog said:

So you already know how to do the rear brakes on the Mustang? (brake maintenance mode on the touch screen, etc.?)

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haven't done rear brakes yet, no, but just saw the piece about the pad spreader so figured that would work well with the 4 piston rears but not sure if it could handle the fronts as well.

However, yes I have put the car in brake maintenance mode before as I used that when I did brake fluid flush & replaced with Motul rbf600. One thing to note in that video is they misspeak at :43 second mark where he says "and while continuing to hold the brake pedal down....". Instead he should have correctly said "continue to hold the accelerator pedal down". I think it's a minor slip-up, but I used that video to help get into brake maintenance mode and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and then I found another guide online that had the correct written procedures and noticed that discrepancy. Then It worked fine.

Oh boy lol made my head hurt watching that video but glad to know what i’ll be up against shorty

EricH said:

I have two more track days in the next 3 weeks - I was planning on keeping the oem pads on for the next track day, and then swapping them out for the Gloc pads for the following track day. Based on learnings from prior two track days only losing about 1mm of pad thickness I thought that it would be safe to run at least one more day on them before getting down to 4 or even 3mm remaining. you think that's too risky?

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Food for thought. As your brake pad disappears, the material that effectively insulates the caliper from heat is disappearing. Most of us know how hot our calipers get. The reduction in material thickness also affect its structural rigidity and the ability of the pad itself to hold together. Quick search confirmed that the Dark Horse pads are mechanically locked to the backing plate. This means the pads have little spikes that stick into the pad material that resist shear force under load. It also means that thickness you see is more than what is available before hitting steel. It also means that you are closer to a pad that would "crumble", break into chunks because of the thin layer left over the spikes.
I see that "Brembo says 3-4mm" is time to replace them. What was the context for that statement, I assume that was for road use, not track.
Glad to see you are tracking your wear rates. You know what type of track you have next and how your wear would correspond. Just be aware it won't be linear as you get thinner.


That's the heat marks from one day on new pads. Pulled them to put the titanium backing plates in.
Mentioned at the time the temperature signature difference between inside / outside pad due to cooling airflow.

I’m finally at the point of replacing my front pads after about 12 hours of track use, almost entirely at Ozarks International Raceway. The brakes are still working fine.

Also, I’d noted who was listed on the back of the new pads as the manufacturer. I checked the OEM pads and, as you can see, no markings. They also may have burned off with use.

I had originally planned on aftermarket pads, but after seeing how well these work and how long they last, I’m planning on keeping with OEM. We’ll see if the replacement pads do as well as the originals did.

Rears are still fine for me, so I’ll wait on those.

My fronts at are 5mm and i won’t track it till they are replaced

I ended up installing the G-LOC R12 front pads this weekend (pre-bed). It was my first time doing a brake pad change myself, so there was definitely a learning curve, but everything went together well and the car feels good on the test drive. For now, I'm leaving the OEM rear pads on the car for this weekend's first track day.

After the event, I'll install the G-LOC rear pads so I can move to the full R12/R10 setup.

For reference my OEM front pads have 30k street miles, & 8 track days (couple of those track days were in rain or half days) Still have a little over 5MM on the OEM front pads but I figured it was worth swapping out based on some feedback in this forum.

EricH said:

For reference my OEM front pads have 30k street miles, & 8 track days (couple of those track days were in rain or half days) Still have a little over 5MM on the OEM front pads but I figured it was worth swapping out based on some feedback in this forum.

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That's pretty good!

Please let us know the difference with the R12 fronts installed.