One good reference that I always refer people to is the write-up done by Mike Kojima of Sport Compact Car, for SE-R.net.

If you just ignore the Sentra/SE-R references, you'll find there is a lot of detailed intelligent meat in the text. These basics apply to all cars.

http://www.se-r.net/car_info/brake_performance.html
and
http://www.sentra.net/tech/garage/brakes.php

Don't be too alarmed by his comment regarding race grade carbon pads. The specific one he's referencing are Hawk Blues, all others are fine.

I personally strongly recommend a carbon type of pad. Many manufacturers make their own version of the carbon pad. Porterfield, Performance Friction, Hawk, and Pagid all have their own variation of the carbon brake pads. Also, all 4 of those manufactures supply about 90%+ of all the racers in SCCA, Speedvision, ALMS, etc.. All of them too (except I'm not as familier with Pagid) supply street grades of their pads too.


Another good reference, if your looking for personal opinions on different kinds of pads, rotors, brake technologies, you can read up on this link:
http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Performance/brakes.htm
Move of this page references NSX's, but the personal points of view by more than one individual can give a bigger picture to different brakes. Most of the text here is in reference to NSX's at the race track.

If your looking for something for the street but better performance and $100 for front pads is too much for you, besides recommending TRD pads, I can't help you much.

 

I don't necessarily need "better" performance. I'd be happy with something on par with the factory pads. Like I said, I'm really only getting new pads because I don't want to risk warping the new rotors when I put them on.

I was just wondering what other people were running if they had changed theirs yet. Thanks for the help.

 

You may not really need to get different pads if, as you say, performance is not an issue. One thing to keep in mind is that there are trade-offs between any type of pad. Racing and high performance pads are great when pushing really hard and under high heat conditions. However, in most cases they don't perform as well when the brakes are cold as that is not what they are designed for. So, if you are on the highway and have not used the brakes for a while (cold) you will have sub-par stopping power if you have to slam on the brakes in an emergency. As LeeD said, it is heat that will warp the rotors. Under normal driving conditions (even if you step it up every once in a while) the stock pads would be fine. If you are gonna take the ride to the track that is a different story.

 

ok, no problem.