PowerStop Z23 Performance Brake Pad & Rotor Kit Front & Rear K7609

Why it's worth it

This kit pairs Power Stop's carbon-fiber ceramic Z23 pads with drilled and slotted rotors for both the front and rear of one specific vehicle. If your rotors are due anyway, buying both together removes the guesswork of matching a pad compound to an unfamiliar rotor surface.

Buying pads and rotors together solves a problem most people don't know they have. How hard a pad bites depends partly on the surface it's mating to. Order pads from one company and rotors from another, and you're quietly hoping the pairing works out. This kit ships matched components for both axles, so you do the entire job once, in one order, and stop thinking about it.

The carbon-fiber ceramic compound handles heat better than plain ceramic. Power Stop mixes carbon fiber into the ceramic matrix, which moves heat out of the pad material faster and pushes back the point where fade sets in. On a long descent, or with the car loaded and a couple of bikes on the back, that's the difference between a firm pedal at the bottom of the hill and a soft one.

From our review of 5 brake pads, by Ben Carter, Tech Editor

What we like

• +Buying pads and rotors together solves a problem most people don't know they have
• +The carbon-fiber ceramic compound handles heat better than plain ceramic
• +The rotors are doing real work, not just looking the part
• +It's built around daily driving, and Power Stop says so plainly

What to know

• –This kit fits one vehicle, and only one
• –Drilled and slotted rotors make noise
• –The dust is darker than a pure ceramic's