This is another one of my long rambling replies. You have been warned. ;)
A friend of mine likes his Hawk HPS pads on his '00 Dakota. He has
slotted rotors on his truck as well. They dust a little but not too bad
and have a minor rare squeal when first driving in cold weather.
I've used the Hawk HP+ pads on other cars and they have massive stopping
power but squeal really bad and dust even worse and suck in wet, icy
weather. Oh, and they ate rotors alive. After these I installed
Satisfied GranSport 6 Pads with stock rotors and they were a good
compromise between noise, dust and stopping power, but they had to be
broken in solidly before I stopped rolling part way through stop signs. ;)
Nothing I've used beats the initial bite and high-temp performance of
the HP+ pads though, but it's not worth the compromise for a daily
driver. These squeal so much that you'd get a squeak from the brakes
when going around corners from the g-forces pushing the pads lightly
against the rotor... eegh.
I can tell you Raybestos organic pads you buy from your local parts
store are crap compared to any of the after market performance items
when it comes to braking power and life with any kind of heavy-duty
usage. Made that mistake once. Great for Grandma, bad for anyone else.
I was planning on trying some of the "EBC Greenstuff" pads and some ATE
slotted rotors from Rockauto on my truck (95 4x4) next.
It sounds like you have some pretty hard ceramic pads. Ceramic pads are
stock on a lot of 1996+ Chrysler vehicles. Before my 1998 Neon was
wrecked it had it's original drum brake shoes on it at 114,000 miles and
still weren't close to replacement. I changed the stock discs ones when
I bought it with 37k on it due to some monkey at the dealership warping
the rotors with an impact gun putting the lug nuts on. Those were about
1/3rd gone at the time. The ones you have sound like they're made out
of recycled bathroom tile though. ;)
People also forget to break in their pads. If you want to bed them in
properly and get proper brake pad to rotor material transfer for better
braking, you need to go out and get 'em good and hot. How to do this
varies from source to source. I usually go out late at night to a
straight back road, accelerate to 50-55mph, hammer the brakes hard
enough to toss loose objects off the seats down to 25-30mph, and repeat
until the brakes totally fade. Then drive carefully (do NOT park right
after this) until they cool. If they're still hot when you get home you
want to roll the truck a couple feet every few minutes until they're
cool so the pads don't hot-spot the rotors.
Let it sit overnight to cure, then repeat one more time the next
evening. I'd not suggest stopping to oggle the glowing rotors unless
you're ready to jump back in and drive real fast since some pads will
catch fire when you stop. :)
Doing this on a friend's parents Suburban saved them a serious accident
the next day when some teenage girl pulled out in front of them... the
difference in braking performance made the difference between missing
them by 3 feet and hitting them.
This won't make a difference in city traffic doing 30mph but panic
braking at higher speeds it makes a huge difference. Green fade really
sucks.
MattB
Barry Oliver wrote:
>
> Ok, guys, I have a stupid problem and I am not sure what to look at to
> fix it.
>
> The brakes on my truck have always been stop-on-a-dime good, even
> stock. when I wore out the first set at 70k or so, I gave ceramic
> pads a try. at first I loved them, all of the stopping power, and
> none of the dust. The downside seemed to be that they literally ATE
> the stock rotors. From 70 to about 110k, I went through 3 sets of
> rotors, yet the pads continued to look new. from 110k to 125k I
> didn't drive the truck much, so it sat most of the week and the rotors
> rusted... At 120K or so I swapped the ceramic pads and the stock
> rotors. The ceramics had not even worn off the bevel noticibly. Then
> about 130k or so I got some dimpled/slotted rotors and tossed them on.
>
> Arguably, I should have a pretty quick stopping truck now with new
> Ceramic pads and new high-zoot rotors, but I don't. Apparently I have
> a crappy combination, because I have driven truck with drums all
> around that stopped better. Even with the "light" 17" tires on, it
> seems to take an inordinate abount of pedal force to stop. Where i
> used to have to modulate my foot pressure to avoid activating the
> anti-lock, now I don't.
>
> Low speed stops aren't as bad as high speed or towing stops. putzing
> around town, things work almost [albeit less] as effectively as
> before, but even dragging a light trailer totally exacerbates the
> problem.
>
> My Mechanic buddy showed me how to test the brake booster, and I
> notice a difference with the BB disconnected, for the worse, so he
> doesent think the BB is Mahtzoed(tm).
>
> So. *I* think my problem is those ceramic pads and I am considering
> switching pads and dumping the Ceramics in favor of something else.
> To that end, any suggestions on what pads I should try? If not the
> Pads, what else can/should I look at?
>
>
>
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