Hey Everyone,

I replaced my rotors and pads like 3 years ago and I only put about 5K miles on them. Yes the truck sits quite a bit. I was not happy with the way the truck stops so I looked at the rotors and they didn't look to good around the edges. Then I was hauling stone and I felt the mettal on mettal grind. It was to cold to do rotors so I just swapped out the pads and lubed the caliper slides. Also snugged up the back brakes and the truck stops a bit better but when I slam on the brakes I dont get any skid and the pedal goes way down.

So now I'm getting ready to do a complete brake job minus the rears and wanted to run some stuff by you all.

Anyone have any suggestions for rotors that can sit for a long time without rusting up?

Is it wrong to use ceramic pads on a truck with 8800 GVW?

Anyone use Russell Stainless braid lines?

What does it feel like when you slam on the brakes in your trucks?

Oh and, What are your thoughts on the inner rotor shields that are factory? Are they necassary?

I have one on one side but not on the other.

Thank you every one,

Fernando

 

I would make sure the rear brakes are working so as the front doesn't take the full load. You either have soft pads which don't wear the rotors down as fast and change them more often or hard brake pads which do wear the rotors. To improve braking on your 99 I would replace the pads w/some from NAPA or hawk brand, install the 1-ton rear wheel cyclinder and adjust or replace the rear brakes. This should improve things.

 

I ordered some Raybestos R300 slotted rotors and some pads to match. I also ordered the stainless lines. I'll buy the rest local and hope for the best. I'm hoping I can lock em up after.

 

I stopped using ceramics years ago, they destroyed my rotors, have had good luck with bendix mkd's. there is a brake proportioning valve on the rear axle that is load controled, is it still attached ? mine has come off the ball and socket a couple of times. akaik there no rotor out there thats not going to rust.

 

here is a post I did awhile back, I learned that rotor life is not important, stopping is! my experience after this post I made has been that cermaic pads DO NOT wear rotors any more than any other pad, and when you add it all up the pads last longer cost less(than multiple cheap pad replacement) and they stop, since this post I have gone to the 3rd gen rotors and its no contest on stopping power, I might add that PROPER brake adjustment is key on the drum/disc setup

***cut and pasted this from one of my posts, link at bottom takes you to the thread****

Here my two cents,
First a little background, then you can decide if what I'm telling you is valid. I bought my truck 2yrs ago, its used for a delivery service(courior) it sees 8-10hrs a day in city stop and go traffic, hauling loads up to 2500#, I have logged approx 130,000kms of city driving (75,000miles approx)I'm I retired Military Mechanic, so i do all my own repairs. I also have the GM 1 ton rear wheel cyls, and adjust the rears every month, each month sees approx 5000-8000kms.
I believe the longest any brakes have lasted me was 23,000kms or just over 4 months.

OEM pads, were approx 60$ lasted about 2 months, they were quiet, but after a couple hard stops brake fade was evident, to be fair I used these before I had done the rear GM cyl mod.

No Name local parts store pads, lasted a month, lots of brake dust, word not stop worth crap. and were cheap (about 35$)

Wagner thermo Quiets (100$ approx) they were quiet, not too dusty, suffered brake fade, lasted about 3 months,

Raybestos Sure Stops, up till this point were the best of the lot, they flat out stopped, good bite when standing on the pedal, did not seem to brake fade when doing a extended hi-speed stop, lasted 3-4 months.

Bendix (commercial application) they came with a warranty that was good for one replacement set of brakes if you wore them out, but alas they dont honor this in Canada.
These are the holy grail of stopping power, the bite when you hit the pedal is absolutely amazing, they are fairly low dust, and long lasting, a little longer than 4 months and 23,000kms. the ONLY down side is the noise, they squeel alot when under light braking, when approaching a stop, if you push slightly harder the noise stops. These pads were approx 125$

Hawk pads, I have them on there now and they have only about a months use on them, they bite OK, are low dust. and are quiet, were 140$ . they are susposed to be a thicker pad material to help extend brake life. for what I paid and their performance I won't be using them again, I expected better,

NONE of the above pads are hard on the rotors, I replaced the rotors a while back as they were showing some wear, but it was faster to replace them instead of waiting for them to be re-surfaced. I kept them so I could turn them and re-use them the next time I was needing to replace them, just to speed up the down time.

I have read good things about EBC, but cant get them locally, so I stuck with what I could get. right now as soon as I've burned off the Hawks I'm switching the rotors and pads to the bigger 3rd gen brakes, I've already bought the caliper brackets and have 2 sets of factory chrome 3rd gen wheels (17inch) the difference between the 2nd and 3rd gens is huge.

here is how I rated the brakes, factoring in stopping power and longevity, and price, Plse note for each brand I bought the most expensive pad they carried in their line.
Bexdix: By far the best pad! just noisy, excellent stopping power, no fade under repeated hard applications
Raybestos: next best, good stopping power, and quiet
Hawk : Might last longer I dont know yet, but does not stop as good as the above 2 brands, they are close, but I would not buy them again even if they last longer.
Wagner: Quiet, better than OEM for bite, brake fade evident
OEM : cheap pad good if you dont use your truck under hard conditions
Local House brands: a waste of money, if the pads are cheap, thats exactly what they are

Take my opinion for what its worth, every one has brands they like, and use them under different conditions, remember my info is based on my use



https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...s-t237903.html

 

I have a zippy tie on my ball and socket to keep it together. Before that it was always popped out. That may be true but in the long run but if you look at high end car rotors they still look good years down the road. My rotors were rusty after the first time they saw water. So I'm hoping to get rotors that dont rust so fast.

 

Thank you, looks like I ordered the second best pads and if I cant lock them up after this I'll get the GM 1ton wheel cyls.

 

Fernando, Do you not have anti-lock brakes? They will not lock up and if they sense impending lock up it goes into anti lock mode which will make the pedal drop.

Rick

 

rickf, I only have anti-locks in the back so I would imagine that I should be able to lock the fronts in a panic stop.

 

I've noticed that the front brakes are really touchy - if you have a light foot on the brake, it will be all front brake. Maybe it's the proportioning valve - but if you have a light foot on the brake, you will go through front brakes more often than rear brakes

 

the abs system is weak at best, and even with my rears adjusted properly and with a lengthened prop rod and GM wheel cylinders I can make the abs kick only under the most sever of panic stops on certain road conditions.

typically if your fronts do lock up, its not because the abs is limiting the rear its because the rear brakes are not working well enough to lock up, and becase they cant lock up, the abs cannot unlock them, so to sum it all up the abs never works.

best test is take truck on a gravel/dirt road and slam the brakes on and see if it can drag the rears, if you see no marks in the dirt, your rears will need attention and likely some mods to make them effective

 

if its doing as you describe, its because the rears are not working, fix the rear brake issue and the fronts will last way longer, and the fronts will not lock up on you.

typically its becase the rears are not adjusted properly.

another good test is to have the rear wheels on ice, step on brake normally,(truck in gear) if the wheels keep turning, the rears are out of adjustment

 

Thanks for the info everyone. I replaced the Rotors and Pads with Raybestos Advanced Tech. Replaced the hoses with Russel Braided SS. I also replaced the Master and the calipers. And after wasting alot of Synthetic fluid to bleed all the air out the brakes they feel really good again.

 

I see you say synthetic brake fluid, are you using DOT 5 in your truck? That is mainly a military thing and I was always under the impression it was not a good choice for civilian vehicles that tend to see higher brake temps.

Rick