Background: When I mentioned to my Audi salesman that I wanted to change the pads on my new A4, he was not encouraging. He has an Audi and has owned and raced Porsches for many years. His thinking is that all that black dust is a sign that the pads are wearing, not the rotors, and, for that reason, be safe and stick with them.<p>I e-mailed Mintex about these concerns and received a reply from Mintex/USA. Here is a summary of the response:<p>"BBA Friction, our group of companies, are approved by many OE manufacturers, including VW/Audi. We own factories in many countries, including Germany (Textar). In the main, German made pads involve a technique called scorching", which aids bedding-in on a new set of pads. The down side to this is dirty wheels, potential noise problems, and slightly reduced service life."<p>"Mintex red boxed pads take a couple of hundred miles to fully bed in, but give excellent performance across the temperature band, as our materials are vehicle specific, not "one material fits all" like most of our aftermarket competitors."<p>"In response to your Audi salesman's statement concerning dusting, all pads dust, ours is just a lighter dust, due to the lack of "scorching"."<p>He goes on to say that the pads have positive brake feel and performance with a rotor-friendly and good service life.<p>Some of this information was new to me and I am more comfortable about going with the Mintex pads.<p>I am not, in any way, connected to Mintex or any company selling their products.<p><br>John<br>99.5 1.8tqms<p>

The Mintex Pads do give off brake dust, just not nearly as much as stock pads. Do not think that you will all of a sudden not have any brake dust at all if you get Mintex pads. You will however not have to wash your wheel every other day to keep thwm looking clean!<p>---Trey<p>Silver 98.5 1.8TM (for sale)<br>Silver 99 1.8TQM (Mintex, R28s, Blaupunkt Sydney, awaiting Garrett soon) <p>

I switched over to the Redbox ~1K miles ago (8500mi now)...and they are great! There is dust... but like Mintex stated, very, very light. As for the rotors.... my slotted rotors are looking GREAT... no score(sp?) marks (rotor wear) at all.. nice and shiney surface! <p>Cris<br>

Cris,<p>I'm thinking about brake work as my next upgrade project and am considering Mintex pads with slotted Ate Power Discs.<p>Is that what you have? If not, what rotors? Did you do all four or just the front? What size?<br>Cost? Impressions? Has wet braking improved with the slotted rotors? Any details would be appreciated!<p>Thanks!<br>Dave