Organic Vs. Ceramic Brake Pads

A brake is the most crucial component of a vehicle’s safety mechanism. And the brake pads ensure enough friction against the discs to stop the car. In the market, organic and ceramic brake pads are the most famous ones. So, this article on organic vs. ceramic brake pads will aid you in choosing the most suitable one.

Organic brake pads are cost-effective and less noisy. But they are not suitable for all types of vehicles, especially the high-performance ones. The ceramic pads are a bit costlier but produce almost zero noise and have high efficiency in any vehicle.

Let’s discuss further and break into the key differences between organic and ceramic brake pads.

What Are the Components of a Brake Pad?

The brake system that includes discs uses brake pads to convert kinetic energy to thermal energy through friction. Some other components like underlayer, adhesive, backing plate, and shim also play a vital part along with the friction block to produce the necessary amount of friction.

Friction Block: Mainly, it’s the materials that are used to create friction with the disc. The friction blocks can be made of ceramic, organic, or metallic compounds.

Underlayer: The underlayer is a thermal isolation system that protects the backing plate, brake fluid, and piston. It also helps to reduce vibration and noise from the friction and maintain safety.

Adhesive: An adhesive is mainly used to attach the backplate and underlayer. It ensures pretty high shear strength so that the underlayer and backplate can perform in a rhythm.

Backing Plate: When the piston is pressed, the force wants to spot it in a single place. But the backing plate distributes the force over the contact surface. It can even dissipate all kinds of tangential forces that can be generated from braking.

Shim: The only function of a shim is to transmit the vibration all over the brake system. That’s why the shim is placed on the outermost layer of the brake pad. 

Organic Vs. Ceramic Brake Pads: What’s the Difference?

Both brake pads are pretty famous for their unique features. But you can’t use both at a time, so you have to choose between them. First, you should learn the major differences between ceramic and organic material brake pads.

Materials of a brake pads

Organic pads are made from carbon, rubber, fiberglass, and other similar materials. Then they are sealed together by resins. As the pads use organic materials, you won’t see much heat-producing from them.

But the ceramic brake pads are made from ceramic and copper fiber mixture, making the pads more comfortable to use. These pads create a little noise and dust. Due to these ceramic materials, these pads can withstand high temperatures as well.

Suitability of a brake pads

Both organic and ceramic pads have different kinds of suitability. For example, the organic materials brake pads are not suitable to use in heavy-duty vehicles because they can’t provide such immediate and strong brakes.

That’s why ceramic pads are used in heavy-duty vehicles. These pads can stay fit in high temperatures and pressure. You will need less force for brake compared to organic pads. But the ceramic pads are not suitable for daily usage as the organic ones.

Durability of a brake pads

Without any doubt, the ceramic brake pads are more durable than organic ones because of their build materials. Organic materials like rubber or fiber don’t have strong combinations like ceramic.

That’s why they can’t provide strong brakes immediately. But these organic pads are suitable for day-to-day usage.

On the other hand, the ceramic pads provide more durability because of the combination with copper fiber. Even the rotors are soft so that you won’t have to apply extra force. And the rotors also don’t attach to the wheels.

That’s why the ceramic pads have a longer lifetime than the organic material pads.

Performance/ Stoppage Power

If you are counting on performance, you need to think in two different ways: daily usage and extreme conditions.

The organic brake pads can give you satisfactory results in your daily usage. But they are not handy when the environment is under wet conditions.

On the contrary, the ceramic pads are suitable for any condition, but they are overrated for day-to-day use. They also provide an extreme force on the brake, which is comparatively better than organic pads. And you will have to give less pressure to the brake because of rotor compatibility.

But if you are using some organic pads, you need to provide a bit of extra effort in brakes.

Comfort ot use

When it comes to comfortable usage, the organic brake pads are the ones you should pick. They will provide you friction in brakes just the way you want. But this feature is limited to daily usage.

The ceramic pads are not suitable for beginner use, and you need time to get familiar with its powerful brake features.

Maintenance

It’s a bit bothersome to maintain the organic brake pads. These pads decay much faster than ceramic pads because of fiber and rubbery materials. They also produce a little dust from the frictions.

But you won’t have to bother about ceramic pads because they last longer than organic pads because of ceramic materials and don’t produce as much dust as the organic ones.

Heat Resistance

Nowadays, several cars and lightweight truck engines use ceramic brake pads. Well, the reason is that they operate at a very high-temperature range. So, if you use organic pads with a short temperature range, they won’t sustain longer and decay quickly.

But the ceramic brake pads have a wide temperature range that can sustain several critical operations and have the heat dissipation ability to repel the heat-producing from friction.

Affordability

It’s a clear choice when you are hunting budget-friendly brake pads because organic brake pads are of low cost compared to ceramic ones.

Conversely, the ceramic brake pads are the most big-budget option for you. That’s because the ceramic material and copper fiber are a bit costly compared to rubber or ordinary fiber.

Noise-Level

The noise level is low in ceramic pads. And the credit goes to the soft rotor feature, which is compatible with the disc and absorbs most of the vibration and noises.

But the organic pads create a bit of noise because the rotor can get loose or attached to the disc. There are no such issues with ceramic brake pads.

Wear & Tear Residue

As the ceramic pads have higher heat resistance than the organic brake pads, the heat residue affects the pad’s components. So, you may have to repair the damaged parts more frequently.

But the organic pads absorb the heat from the friction. Therefore, no such issues about wear and tear residue will bother you or force you to repair the parts.

Conclusion

We would say the overall discussion of organic vs. ceramic brake pads is clear enough to distinguish between them. If you always drive in extreme conditions and can spend some extra money on brake pads, you can use the ceramic brake pads without any worry.

But organic pad is a budget-friendly option that is compatible in every way to use in your medium-range vehicles. Choose the one which seems more reliable to you. Drive safe and take care of your car so it may serve you for long!