Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Brake pads... what type do you install?

locally the cost of resurfacing them, is pretty much the same cost as just buying a new set of rotors...

and yeah, I'll agree, upgraded rotors and ceramic pads, stop really really nicely....

I was a rural mail carrier for 31 years, and nobody wears brakes out like a mail carrier. I tried them all..............from the lowest priced ones to the highest price ones. If there was any measurable difference, I couldn't tell it. I kept extra pads and rotors on hand so I could change them out without having to go into town and buy some. I was lucky in that I live on the route that I carried, and I've had to stop at my house and change pads out before I could complete the route.


I admit that I was hard on brakes, in that I would usually keep moving and not stop until the last moment, not slowing down and easing into the stop like some carriers did. I wanted to run that route as quick as I could, and get home and do my work around the farm. My style of driving probably had something to do with it not making any difference as to the quality of the brake pads I used. I knew some carriers who swore that the highest priced pads were worth the money, and they should have known.

Auto makers have gone to lightweight rotating assemblies over the years. Less mass equals more MPG. Even if it's just a small amount, it helps meet EPA guidelines. With the lighter rotors, they take and release heat less efficiently.(speaking more of OEM here) When I feel them starting top "pulse", I just replace them. Ceramic pads and new rotors when needed. Haven't had a rotor or drum turned in 15 years. I do find a difference in quality. Napa gold for me.


Clyde

Power stop drilled and spotted rotors and their ceramic pads on both of my trucks. Much better that OEM.

I've never tried those, but I'd guess they disperse heat quicker.

Not much need for them now, though, on my new 4Runner.

Maybe if I ever buy one of those '68-69 Camaros that now go for a Sheik's ransom like I had back in the day.

I bought some cheap pads from Autozone way back when and I didn't get more than a month from them. Autozone gave me another set and I replaced them. Same thing. I didn't go back for a third bite at the apple. Around that same time a buddy of mine installed an Autozone water pump. He went through three of them in short order. It was a few decades before I bought anything other than RTV or the like from Autozone again.

Sort of off the subject now, but Autozone used the same business model as Etrade (or rather the opposite since Autozone did it before them). Grow at all cost with the lowest prices, quality be damned. It worked for both of them which reaffirms the lowest price is irresistible bait for the masses. Autozone reached critical mass a long time ago and now they don't have an all, or mostly crap inventory of parts like they used to. There is less difference in the major parts store chains and the parts they carry than back in the day. That's globalization and consolidation for you.