Great info Joe! Thanks for taking the time to tell us
about it!
I will keep a sharp eye on mine in the future after
any sort of emergency/hard braking. I'm concerned how
they will hold up to the abs pulsing during a hard
brake also. I imagine it is like a jackhammer hitting
the back of the pad in that situation.
Great real world info!! Has anyone seen any sites with
respect to comparisons of the ceramic to the
semimetallics and their heat performance?
Phil
--- Joe Levy <JRLevy@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> >
> > I'm a little shocked to hear about Andy's friend
> and
> > his experience with them. Sounds like they were
> going
> > thru some extreme duty though.
> >
> >
> I'm the guy, and Andy is my son as well as my
> friend. And here's the story:
> 2000 Durango 5.9 Engine, 3.92 Rear, Fastman TB, Tow
> Package, Tekonsha
> Prodigy brake controller. At 28,000 miles installed
> Powerslot Rotors and
> Raybestos QuietStop pads. Had fried the rotors while
> towing a 4000+ lb
> trailer and the previous brake controller failed.
> At 49000 miles, towing a Coleman Cottonwood (base wt
> 1650 lbs) and gear
> cross country (estimate 2200-2500 lbs total wt.), 7%
> Grade coming into
> Virginia City, Montana, and a 25 mph limit at the
> bottom of the grade.
> Had to brake hard. Could smell the pads (or was it
> overheated fluid)
> from 100 yds away even 1/2 an hour later, but no
> effect on braking other
> than a small squeal with no load that disappeared
> when I hit the brakes.
> As time went on, the noise got progressively
> louder and lasted longer.
> Les Schwab Tires in Portland, OR, pulled a wheel,
> but not calipers, and
> found everything OK. I pulled and re-lubed the
> caliper pins in South
> Lake Tahoe. They were bone dry. Didn't help. Squeal
> continued to get
> worse - could now hear it even after hitting the
> brakes - but braking
> held up OK, and we eventually made it home (at
> 57,000 miles). Pulled
> both fronts when we got home - one pad on each side
> had a full-length
> crack down it. Replaced the pads with Bendix
> TitaniuMetallic and noises
> ceased.
> I'm sure we overheated the pads. Ceramics are lousy
> heat transfer agents
> (used as heat buffers on the Space Shuttle), and
> when we stopped shortly
> after that "excursion", they just continued to soak
> in that heat because
> it wouldn't dissipate fast enough.
> Another positive came out of this episode as well -
> what I thought may
> have been another incidence of warped rotors (would
> have figured,
> looking at the heat history) turned out not to be.
> The rotors are fine
> and the slight pulsing I had been getting has
> disappeared as well. Now
> have about 61,000 on the Durango (it got retired
> from towing 2 weeks
> ago), and brakes are doing fine.
> But, I'm not alone. A number of the folks in the
> Durango Owners Club
> have ditched their ceramics in favor of
> semi-metallics. In defense, a
> number of folks are pleased with the ceramic pads as
> well. The current
> group favorite are Hawk Pads.
>
>
> Joe
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