Need front rotor feedback

[6speed]

217K on my 04 and still the origional pads and rotors. However 80% is highway and I use the Pacbrake religously. Just had the wheels off and checked the pads and I am still amazed at what I have left on the pads.

 

[gtobey]

That is amazing mileage on your brakes. I know the advantages of Jake brakes, in fact I used to sell them and install them on Macks and NTC-855 Cummins engines. I will have to invest in a pac brake for my 06. I am very pleased with the wonderful performance of the cryogenic treated and slotted rotors that I put on the front of my truck. Pulling a loaded18 foot car hauler or a 6 x 12 fully loaded box trailer down 7% grades does not cause any nervousness. They don't fade, and provide a much firmer pedal feel than the OEM brakes ever did.

 

[Gonzo 1066]

I installed drilled slotted rotors on my 04.5 dually when I did the brakes at 120,000 towing miles for the first time. I now have about 20,000 mountain towing miles on the EBC rotors and pads and am VERY happy with the upgrade. I suppose most of the improved stopping performance could be just in the HP pads, but I am convinced that the combo of agressive pads-drilled slotted rotors has helped in at least one panic stop during a downpouring rain.

 

[jgillott]

We have the EBC rotors and pads on our '04.5 and are also very please with the performance. I'd have to look at the mileage for sure, but I'm guessing somewhere near 100K on them at this point.

 

[gtobey]

Quick report as to how the brakes are doing after installing the new rotors and pads. It took about 1K miles to get them seated into the rotors, and now the pedal is up high, is very tight, and will slow the truck down really fast with just light toe effort on the brake pedal. I couldn't be more pleased! I now have 94.5K on the truck, meaning the new brakes have been on there for 11.5K miles. The pads don't look like they are wearing at all, and the rotor surfaces are still smooth and shiny on both the front and the rear. Pulling an 18' PJ car hauler tilt trailer down an interstate 7% grade for 5 miles, I experienced no fade or loss of pedal, and was very thankful to have changed them over....I still want to get an exhaust brake....

 

[Tuesdak]

Your panic stop must have resulted in sitting in one spot with the brakes applied after the panic stop was over. You need to roll some after a panic stop every few seconds to even out the rotor cooling. Shift it into reverse and give yourself a few feet if you have to. Otherwise you heat treat the red hot rotor and pad in one spot as the rotor cools everywhere else but under the red hot pads. This results in a hard spot on the rotor that will not wear as fast as the rest of the rotor giving you brake pulse sometimes bad enough to feel in the pedal. You can measure the runout of the rotor and see it. Heating and cooling will eventually distort castings like your rotors including exhaust manifolds. You can measure this as well.

Measure the new rotors for runout before they go out the door as our Communist friends who make most parts don't have quality translated properly. Somehow 'quality' translated to 'krap' in China. The measurement will allow you to exchange parts with excessive runout before completing the job and doing it over in the very near future.

You can see the pad outline in the (now ruined) rotor after doing a panic stop and sitting on the brakes. Turning the rotors with the cutting tool just has the tool bounce off the hard spots resulting in a unhappy customer back in your shop with pulsing brakes in ~3000 miles. Unless you can grind the rotors turning is a waste of time resulting in getting to do the job over correctly with new rotors in the near future.

The slotted rotors absolutely cool faster. This can bite you in the butt if you expect hot rotor short stopping distance on the freeway off ramp and wind up with the longer cold rotor distance. Short in city freeway drives with slotted rotors would bring this faster cooling to my attention. Drilled rotors also help some, but, they crack. I have had the best luck with slotted. Neither slotted/drilled rotor design is easy to get turned by any shop as most fear tool damage and won't touch them. The slotted rotors can make a whirr noise under heavy braking.

On a undersized POS 1990's GM 1/2 ton brake system we would get 12K out of a set of front pads. Slotted rotors got us 17K out of a set of pads. Your MPG may vary.