A few months ago I bought a complete set of Brake Performance, Slotted and Dimpled rotors with semi-metallic pads. I was gonna put the stuff on myself, but decided not to. My luck, my back will go out and then I'll be done for a while. So, Last Friday I dropped the ole girl off at a garage I've used a few times in the past for my Mercury Grand Marquis. Oil changes and stuff. Guy seemed competent. But along with the manufacturer instructions, I also wrote out my own, trying to make sure that the rotors and pads went where they were suppose to go. The front pads are Inner/Outer specific, and he claimed he already knew this. I also was gonna have him swap out the winter tires and put my chrome rims back on where I wanted them. Well, that was all he got right. When I got there later in the day, the front rotors were on the wrong sides. So I had him pull the truck back in to correct it. Dummy me, When I left I didn't check the pads. It wasn't until later when I was doing the seating of the pads, that something didn't feel right. Even before the fading that happens during the procedure, the pedal felt "Mushy". So when I get home I take a look and sure enough, the front passenger side pads were reversed. So the truck sat over the weekend till I got it back to him to correct that! So then I went out and redid the seating procedure. This set up is Awesome! What a huge difference over the stock stuff. Now I'm a happy camper....




Driver Rear





Passenger Rear





Passenger Front





Driver Front

 

Nice looking rotors!

I've got 56,xxx on my '07, it's starting give a little vibration under braking conditions, been thinking of a package like yours ....

 

These things grip hard. At 55mph or so I hit the brakes to slow and the peddle is nice and tight. If I'm not on them hard, after a few moments, I actually have to ease off the pedal a bit. They really woooooo the ole girl down. Brake dust on the rear is non existent. I'm still getting a slight bit on the front, but it's getting better.

 

Scarlett,

What does a set like this cost and how much did they charge to install them? Any other pitfalls to watch out for other than what you mentioned?

 

Nice looking performance upgrade

 

I got these at www.brakeperformance.com. I got the Premium Dimpled & Slotted Brake Kit with the Black Zinc coating, and the semi-metallic pads. You can get the coating in Black or Silver. The kit for the 2011 was about $426.00, and comes with the hardware. The Garage I used charged me around $150.00. It's easy enough to do it yourself. Just basic tools and knowledge, and a little common sense. I have back issues. So sitting in a squatted position doing it myself would of been horrible. And like I said, even thou the mechanic at the Garage told me he knew about the front pad orientation, he still got them reversed on one side. And that was after he had the front rotors reversed. Regardless of how they are installed, remember to do the seating process. The process stated for these is - First heat the pads by doing 4-5 semi-hard stops from 45mph down to 5mph (don't come to a complete stop). Then 8-10 Hard stops (but not to the point of ABS) from about 55mph down to 15mph. Again, Don't come to a complete stop. The brakes will start to fade and smoke, but that's normal. Then travel at a steady speed for 5-15 mins. to allow the brakes to drop to normal temp. Problem I had was traffic. Even on an open highway with no lights, I still had some. So I had the flashers on and waved people by. If you decide to purchase any brake kit, and have someone else install it, always double check their work. So far these have been great...

 

This is EXACTLY the kind of info I've been looking for Scarlet! I know it's been quite a while since I've been on the site, but i was overseas for about a year and a half and just didn't have the ability. If I remember correctly, you have a 6.2 under the hood as well right? Does anyone else have any experiences with other aftermarket brake manufacturers out there? As always, any and all info is much appreciated!

 

Quick update: As I mentioned in another thread, back in early Feb., I had an incident with a Deer running into the side of my truck. Took it to the body shop for repair. Got her back 5 weeks later. The repair had a lot of flaws, so it had to go back. But I had to wait a month before I could have them fix it, plus I needed the truck any way for a while. During that time is when I did the brakes. April 20th. I drop her off at the body shop. I get her back after another 5 weeks and it still isn't right. So it STILL has to go back, but I'll leave it here for now. Any way, I got her back May 24th.. This past weekend I took a trip out to my place in West Virginia to retrieve my Polaris Ranger. The major reason for the brake upgrade was for towing my Buggy to and from WV. So I was anxious to try them out. And Man oh Man, what a huge improvement. They performed great. I have the 6.2 with Max Tow and the 3.73LS rear, which means I have the factory Brake Controller. It's usually set on 7.0. The weight I tow (Trailer, Ranger + some gear) is about 3,500-3,600lbs or so). The trailer and Buggy have been sitting in WV since last Nov.. My property is located on a mountain top. So,.... First I had to crawl up my driveway at 9-13% for about 300 yards or so. Turn left at the top, go about another 300 yds. on a fairly level road, make a sharp 90 degree turn to the left, continue down my property lane 9-12% on dirt/gravel for about a 1/4 mile to the bottom of the hill. Turn right, then continue on a level dirt lane for about another 1/2 mile till I get to the asphalt public road. From there it is another four/five miles on my way down and out of the mountain, on a narrow lane barely big enough for two vehicles, before I get to a regular two lane road. Once there, I started the trip back. I did a few moderate stops from about 20 mph, and tried the Brake Controller to see if the trailer brakes would lock up when I slide the controller all the way. It didn't, but it was still a nice hard tug on the truck, which is what it did before any way. No surprises there. But I did notice that the truck brakes needed to build a little heat for a moment before they really started to grab. So I tried several light-medium stops from 30mph and 40mph. Did fine except it felt a little jerky. So I dropped the setting to 6.5 on the controller. Then went up to 50mph and did two medium pressure stops and it felt great. So I had to try at least one pretty hard stop. So I dropped to about 45mph, touched the peddle for a moment, then gave it a moderate to hard shove on the peddle. Wow.......Perferct.