Brake Pad/Disc replace suggestions

[Gonzo 1066]

My 04 3500 has just turned 100,000 miles, all of that towing a bit over 20,000# combined wt. The brakes still have lots of pad on them but the rotors should be ground. What is the right thing to do, we will keep towing in the western mountains and the brakes have worked awesome so far. Should I go to a aftermarket like EBC? The disc and pad kits they have look as though they should be better than stock stuff. Or should I just grind the old rotors and put on MOPAR pads? Anyone have experience with EBC?

 

[goodguys75]

if the rotars are good... leave them alone and i used hawk

 

[Jeff Knight]

I got replacement slotted rotors from brake performance. I liked them enough that I put a set on my wifes expedition... Jeff Brake Performance

 

[JLandry]

Ditto on buying from Brake Berformane... great company to deal with and competitive prices.



I went with their dimpled and slotted rotors and free "stock" brake pads. They seem every bit as good as OEM. Their upgraded pads may even be better, but I haven't tried them.



John L.

 

[jelag]

No matter what the hipe is around performance rotors. They are designed to dissipate more heat in extreme braking conditions where the rotor can turn red hot and stay red hot... In all road conditions the brakes as delivered do a great job and allow our trucks to stop in the federally mandated stopping distance...

I moved into retirement a few months ago... but for years, on all my trucks (business) we'd just install pads and flush and bleed the system... even thought we stocked rotors and had 3 laths in the shop to turn them... if the case arose where we had issues with how the brake pedal felt when you pressed it... and the rotors were warped, we'd turn them...

But we always, always inspected the calipers, and if we found damage to the boots we'd rebuild them... We'd always mike the dimension of the rotor, always used a high quality set of pads and always flushed and bled the brake system every year...

With the use of an exhaust brake we'd often see 150-160K miles between pad changes... and if we used a good torque wrench when we reinstalled the wheels during tire changes we never had a problem with needing to true the rotors... .

We did have a driver, who ruined a set of rotors on one of our Fords, got them so hot they cracked and had to be replaced, and the same driver cracked the rotor on a trailer that had disc brakes... with the second problem I fired him...

OTOH - if your one of those drivers who often exceeds the safety margin of the truck and trailer going down the hills than by all means install what you think is the very best... but even pulling a 22K lb trailer we had no problems if we used common sense. .

We often sold trucks at 500K miles with the same rotors that were on the truck when it was delivered to us...

These are great trucks and with simple basic maintenance they will work right and run, and run and run...

 

[Jeff Knight]

https://www.turbodieselregister.com...23290-american-made-rotors-3.html#post2163640 Here are pictures of my original rotors. I don't think these are exceptable for safe usage... Jeff

 

[Shadrach]

Make sure and check the rear slider pins and boots. When I bought my 03 ( as a non running truck -365k km-226k miles) the rear inner pads were right down to the metal and the outers were almost there. The rotors were scrap. The lower pin boots were torn open and the pins seized which doesn't allow the caliper to slide. Even with a stock quiet exhaust you would think that the PO would have heard the noise?? Shadrach

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[gathomas]

Shadrach - do you think that it would be OK to use a light coating of Anti seize on those pins ?? Just asking... My truck my have this problem... thanks

 

[Barry]

203,000 miles and counting... ... ... ... ... . with the original brakes. But I guess it is time for me to pull all the wheels and inspect everything. When I changed wheels and tires at 148,000, there still was at least 60% pad left.



I need to flush the brake fluid and replace. What are some recommendations?

 

[jelag]

gathomas- we will coat the moving parts with never seize when we do the brakes on our trucks and YES if the pins and bushing and boots are warn they need service... often its the high chemical content of the winter road treatment... Shadrach is in Edmonton and I can't think of another city that uses as much as they do... . I wonder at times how those vehicles make it 5-7 years with that rough chemical working on the metal... .

Barry - next time your in Timmonsville say Hi to Gary for me... I had an email from him today... we always use about a qt. of brake fluid once a year, here where we have a lot of chemicals on the road... when we buy a new truck the first process is to lube up the moving parts and try to prevent the chemical attack... on some parts we use a SPRAY ON brand chemical called, PDRP, it sprays on wet and drys like its got a wax coating... very protective to no moving parts. . on those that move we use never seize to protect them... we even open the bleeders and coat the threads, NOT THE SEAT and put them back together... .

Anyway we bleed the brakes annually with a qt of fluid and when we get around to changing pads we never allow the brake fluid to go back into the master... On the clutch system, we service it differently and some might object to our theory... but we pull the slave, and compress it... a second person uses a turkey baster to draw out of the clutch master as much fluid as possible... 5-6 cycles like this usually gets I'm guessing 90% of the bad fluid... . I do the same on the Motorcycle that I own... .

The last time I had the bike into a dealer for tires he wanted to compress the piston and install new brake pads... I asked about flushing and bleeding the brakes and his comment was ""we never do it""... . I politely told him that the service manual paid him for that operation when doing brakes with a tire change... . he said it wasn't necessary... I again politely asked for the bike back with my old tires... and I'd go someplace else... than I watched his tech run the back wheel on with impact wrench... . Yea its got 4 lug nuts... This is a very sad story... ... I ended up in the owners office, upset to say the least...

Hope this helps... .

One last thing... . when I was in an Automotive and Diesel program some 40 years ago... one of the key things the instructors taught me was to always remember that if you can save a nickel a vehicle and get it out past warranty than you'd done your share in manufacturing... and if you think of the millions of vehicles a year, and time, and labor to coat moving parts, there's a quarter on each vehicle... . the second most important thing he taught us was to treat our customers vehicles the way we treated our own when it came to repairs. . and maintenance... You'll see my approach in what I write is very conservative... I just don't throw parts at vehicles and replace stuff that is serviceable.

 

[Barry]

Thanx, I am due back in Timmonsville shortly for a clutch change. Have a little over 20K on this prototype twin disc and we pretty much know what we need to. It is stronger than a garlic milkshake. Now we start on the refinements.



I will tell Gary Hello!

 

[Shadrach]

When I first put the truck on the road I didn't have the new pins and boots so I replace the rotors and pads and polished the old pins as best I could and lubed them up until the new parts came in. When I took them apart again a week later they looked almost as bad, mainly because of the damaged boots. I still have to replace the e brake shoes in the spring. Shadrach

 

[LDigman]

There's a big mistake,Anti sieze is not a lubricant. It is not intended for lubricating moving parts. I've seen plenty of caliper pins,throwout bearings,etc. not working properly due to the use of anti-sieze as a grease. It cakes up,solidifies. High temp wheel bearing grease is the best thing to easily get.