Performance Brake Pads for 10th and 11th Gen Civic Si (and more!), Introduction Pt. 1

Okay, here we go fam! If you’ve been following 27WON for any bit of time, you know that we go hard on performance parts to increase power. But, we also go hard when it comes to slowing down all that mass.

Our Big Brake Kits for 10th and 11th Gen Civics have been some of the most popular aftermarket solutions out there for a good chunk of time.

It’s no surprise, a full big brake kit just outperforms your standard factory braking components 10 out of 10 times.

But, what if you’re just not ready to commit to a full BBK, but still want an improvement in pedal feel, consistency, and longevity for some high performance street and auto-x driving? Then we’ve got an answer for you coming soon.

First, let's start with the basics of the OE braking system to see what we’re working with.

For this section, we’ll use the stock braking system for the 11th Gen (FE) Civic Si as an example. With OE you’ll see single piston front calipers. These are pretty standard on most vehicles in the price range of a Civic. They do a fine job for street duty. They’re also fairly easy to service when the time comes to pop in a new brake pad. Just simply remove the retaining clips, unbolt two caliper slide pin bolts, remove the caliper body and then retract the brake piston. Out come the old pads and in go the new pads.

Brake caliper 2022 Honda Civic SI

Besides the caliper, you have the aforementioned OE-spec'ed brake pads and the OE sized rotor. Rounding out the system is a set of rubber brake lines. You can read all about these components in our full break down blog from when we developed our original big brake kit.

It’s worth mentioning that brake pads are maintenance items. So if you are not already there, soon it will be time to buy new pads for your Civic. That’s a great time to update to a performance pad.

Now that you know a little about the OE braking system, let’s talk a little about what our goals are for our upgraded brake pads.

Since we love to push our cars hard on the street and also take them to events like auto-x, we need a pad that’s going to perform in both settings. We also want a pad that's going to be a great option for daily driving, being quiet and not be very dusty. Those are a lot of things to consider in one pad!

We want this pad to be your do-it-all pad that outperforms the OE spec’ed Honda pads.

The primary area we’ll look at is the material or pad compound that's going to give us the best of both worlds. Our options are to go with a ceramic compound, a semi-metallic compound, or something else. We’ve already conducted a bunch of testing and we’ll be posting our findings later.

Besides picking the right material, we want to stick with a pad that's the same size and shape so it drops right in the OE calipers. That’s non-negotiable. We always aim for 100% drop-in fitment and that’s what you’ll get here. Rounding our goals are to make sure we retain things like the pad life indicators so that you know right away when the time comes to replace these pads with a fresh set. 

As for what models are going to be compatible with these pads, our goal is to have availability for all 10th Gen and 11th Gen Si variants so you’re looking at any Si from 2016-2025+.

For the rear you're going to get some other fitment options as Honda shares the same basic caliper and pad size across more than just the Si. So for the rear, you’re going to be able to use these performance rear pads if you have a 2.0L Civic like a Sport or LX, any of the 1.5T non-Si trims, and also all of the Type R and Type S variants from 2017+. Score!

And so, we leave you till our next blog to post any of your questions below.

Mod-on!

-Vlad