Brake Pads

doughboy5499 · Post by **doughboy5499** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:52 pm

I am going to need to replace break pads on the crew. Whats everyones recommendation on type or brand I should use. Thanks in advance!

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:58 pm

Go with the best ceramic that you can afford. That is what came oem and I have noticed little if any "brake dust" on our wheels.

killian96ss · Post by **killian96ss** » Thu May 03, 2007 6:01 pm

Ceramics are the best for long life and low dust, but there are other brake pads that offer better stopping power.

It all depends on what's more important to you.

Steve

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Thu May 03, 2007 6:50 pm

killian96ss wrote:Ceramics are the best for long life and low dust, but there are other brake pads that offer better stopping power.

It all depends on what's more important to you.

Steve

Steve is, of course, correct but, I was thinking in terms of the vehicle that I traded for my CC. It was a '97 ZR2 xcab and you had to plan stops a mile ahead of time

The worse braking vehicle I have ever driven.

Post by **HenryJ** » Fri May 04, 2007 4:47 am

Highest to lowest

Pad wear- Cheap pads, mid grade, ceramic, lifetime

Rotor wear- Lifetime, ceramic, mid grade, cheap pads

Lifespan- Lifetime, ceramic, mid grade, cheap pads

Braking power- cheap pads, ceramic, mid grade, lifetime

Cheap pads will not last long. They will either wear out, or get hard.

Lifetime pads will last forever, but eat up rotors and are so hard that braking performance can be poor.

Ceramic is a pretty good performer all around. In some cases they will out perform the cheap pads in braking, less dust, long life, easy on rotors, win, win, win.

killian96ss · Post by **killian96ss** » Fri May 04, 2007 8:43 am

If you want much better stopping power than most of the auto parts store ceramic pads can provide then I would suggest EBC, Hawk, or Performance Friction brake pads.

EBC and Hawk make excellent brake pads in a variety of performance levels including ceramic.

My favorite brake pads are Performance Friction.

Compared to ceramic pads, they have much better stopping power, are still good on rotors, and don't generate a lot of brake (more than ceramics though).

The life span for PF pads is about half that of ceramic pads so there is a trade off for the performance gained.

In the past 15 years I have tried just about every pad out there and would agree that you should never buy cheap pads because they will not only wear out fast and eat up rotors, but I have had several pads separate from the backing plate and cause damage to rotors and drums, not to mention sudden loss of the brakes and individual wheel lock up.

Steve

JaVeRo · Post by **JaVeRo** » Fri May 04, 2007 7:45 pm

I put the wagner ceramic pads on my wifes S10 mail truck. It's on the second set at 125k miles and still have not turned the rotors. 400+ boxes on a 115 mile rural mail route 5 days a week.

James

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Fri May 04, 2007 10:42 pm

I have semi-metallics on my car and they suck. They are squealing and the dust is horrible.

Not to mention when they are cold they don't grip nearly as well and I one the truck comes to a stop they "groan." If that makes sense.

I'm going to replace them with Napa Ceramics, or these

Sonoma GT · Post by **Sonoma GT** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:39 am

I put Raybestos Quiet Stop Ceramic Brake Pads on last year and I like them. No noise and very litte dust.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun May 06, 2007 6:49 pm

Sonoma GT wrote:I put Raybestos Quiet Stop Ceramic Brake Pads on last year and I like them. No noise and very litte dust.

Yeah, I think the NAPA ceramic ones are rebadged Raybesto's.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:26 am

killian96ss wrote:
My favorite brake pads are Performance Friction.

I second that, I have them on all 3 of my disk brake vehicles. They wear nice and even. What brake dust they do produce is purplish so it looks kind of cool. They didn't fail at the track when I blued my rotors and had wheel bearing grease running out of the front hubs on my 97 s-10. The lifetime replacement is nice as well. I think I'm on set #7 or 8 on the 97. I just show up in the spring with the old set, regardless of how far gone they are, and Autozone hands me a new set. I'm good to go for the next auto cross season.

My only complaint is they don't stop as well when it gets very cold. When the temp drops below zero and you've been driving for a while without braking.. they take a noticeable increase in pedal pressure to stop.

WVHogRider · Post by **WVHogRider** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:45 am

I've been using Duralast Gold's from Autozone. They seem to be rather good.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:04 am

I've used the performance friction pads before, but I really don't remember how much brake dust there was. Is there alot?

I've heard that after a few months they tend to glaze over and don't stop as well.

daevans315 · Post by **daevans315** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:17 am

Tony wrote:I've used the performance friction pads before, but I really don't remember how much brake dust there was. Is there alot?

I've heard that after a few months they tend to glaze over and don't stop as well.

Glazed pads = Way to hard on brakes OR way to light on brakes.

killian96ss · Post by **killian96ss** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:12 am

Tony wrote:I've used the performance friction pads before, but I really don't remember how much brake dust there was. Is there alot?

I've heard that after a few months they tend to glaze over and don't stop as well.

I've never had this problem with Performance Friction brake pads and I've put mine through some extreme track sessions stopping my 4000 pound SS.

You will get more brake dust with these pads than ceramics, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 more overall, and like I mentioned earlier the life expectancy is about 1/2 that of ceramic pads.

The OEM ceramic pads on my CC even after 90k miles of use still had about 5k-10k miles left on them when I wrecked it last year.

The OEM ceramics last a long time, but do give up stopping power as a trade off.

I usually get about 50k miles out of a set of Performance Friction pads, and the quickest I went through a set was 25k miles, but that was due to extreme track use.

Steve

Wrangler · Post by **Wrangler** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:31 pm

WVHogRider wrote:I've been using Duralast Gold's from Autozone. They seem to be rather good.

I just put these on mine tonight. Looks like the pads were replaced right before they traded it in. Stopped great but noisy and very dirty. I'd rather spend $40 to quiet my truck and have wheels that arent dirty after a day. Anyone interested in the newused pads?? lol