I had an nice chat today with the Akebono rep in Michigan.

For you guys with 06-08 STR's. I don't think there are many on here.

Akebono does NOT make pads for our cars.
He said production numbers for the final three years were below 300 and the company could not justify the re-tooling required to produce the parts.
I have ordered some Centric brand and hope they are correct.
They are made to OEM specs and will cause dust and probably wear fast like factory pads. At least with my black rims the dust doesn't show like it did on the stock color.
The one good thing is they cost only $75.00 total for front and back.

 

Thanks for getting us the scoop. I was planning on Akebono's for my car when I needed replacement pads and now I'll just have keep tabs on what others go with, and their results.

It amazing to me to learn there were only 300 STR's produced for worldwide distribution in the final 3 years. Is that correct? I guess the plus side is that we own a very exclusive vehicle.

 

Yes that is the world number that he quoted.
I have heard that total production for all STR's is less than 2000.
The UK site has some info on it.

Be aware that almost all parts places will show Akebono pads for 06-08 cars. They have not updated their catalogues.
If you get a picture of the pads and they show holes for pins they are incorrect. The Brembos use pins ours don't. Ours have hooked edges that sit in the caliper carrier.

 

I find that very hard to believe. If they built less than 300 in 2006 I'd bet there never would have been any 07 or 08 cars. Not worth the trouble for them. I've driven a couple 07 cars just locally here in the NYC area.

This might need some more checking. If you do some digging you'll see that the 06-08 R calipers are used on other cars also. So there may be hope yet.

 

Makes sense the numbers are that low.. they knew they were killing the S Type by 05 with the new XF so it makes sense to make less and less S type R's

 

About a month ago, I spoke with a pleasant female at Akebono.
I'd rather take a beating than install those miserable factory pads
that deposit enough dust to change the color of your wheels in a
few hundred miles. I have an 06, past the 52000 SN with the
Teeves brakes. "Sorry," said she, we make pads for the rears,
but not the fronts. The car is normally aspirated, and, I assume
the production numbers exceed that of the R.

I have spent more than a few hours trying to find ceramic pads
on the net. Lots of bogus info out there. It appears that the
folks in Aussie land make 'red stuff' ceramics for the car; we shall
see.

 

We have a '07 STR. I looked all over for replacement pads and eventually ordered the factory pads again from JPLV.

Besides the terrible dusting, these pads are really hard on rotors. Both the front and rear rotors are worn beyond spec after just 2 sets of pads.

Based on the number of STRs sold, I can see why part suppliers are reluctant to tool up for the late STRs. Oh well, it's still a great car.

Time to clean the rims... I can hear the dust collecting while the car sits in the garage...

 

This website shoes different pads for 2005 (Brembo) versus 2006 (Teves) so they're not just the same pads listed for both years in error.

http://www.centricparts.com/

Might be work a look?

 

Yes.. in post 1 I mentioned that I had centric on order. Very good price compared to Jag factory pads.

 

As I was searching over the last month or so to figure out which MY I wanted to buy I do remember seeing one parts vendor showing replacement calipers for the 2006-2008 cars. When I took that part number and used their "utilised by which other vehicles" lookup it showed later Jags like the XF. Also I think some Volvos etc.

If this wasn't yet another catalog error then perhaps there will eventually be more pads out there because there are a lot more than 300 cars as a potential sales market. This sort of catalog omission happens a lot with limited production cars because no one in the aftermarket bothers to figure this out. As was preiously mention, who cares about 300 cars?

Bob S.

 

Akebono cared about 300 cars.
It was the rep, that said this is why they don't make pads.
They work with VIN #s and I don't think he had reason to lie.
I think the production numbers follow the pattern of low production for all STR's.
I know the Brembo calipers are installed on many other brands so those pads would interchange with many cars and warrant tooling and production of brake parts.

 

Not lie just maybe wrong? Anyway, I'm just suggesting that someone should check out further use of the same calipers on other cars.

Bob S.