Well its time for new brakes, my current rotors are warped and my pads are starting to wear down.

I have some basic questions:

1. What brand of brakes would you recommend? (For a good price)

2. Where could I purchase these brakes from? (retailer, website...)

3. What brake fluid would you recommend?

4. Slotted, or cross drilled rotors?

5. And finally which brand of pads?

Thank you advanced to everyone who responds. I really need to get new brakes ASAP and don't want to take it down to a shop to pay an arm and a leg for labor.

 

Ford, Brembo.
Ford, Brembo.
DOT.
No. (unless you plan on going road racing or autocross).
Ford, Brembo.

 

1. Carquest semi-metallics known by their color "blue"

2. Carquest

3. Ford DOT 3, but you may not need it once new pads are on, says DOT # on master cylinder cap I believe but make double sure it's 3 and not 5.

4. Regular premium, better of the choices when you're @ Carquest, like F151 said, F-150 not Mustang

5. Carquest pads are made by Raybestos

Do a little reading in this section and you'll see, search some of these keywords and judge yourself. If not the exact, I urge you to buy the better rotors and somebody's semi-metallic pads, Ceramics are nothing but dusty expensive noise makers in my experiences.

 

On the brakes themself, I would go with the ceramix pads from NAPA. No more brake dust on the rims plus they last alot longer too.I put them on all my truck & cars. They are around $95.00 per set on the fronts.
Lariat#1

 

Thanks for the input guys. I've been reading around and found users like R1 brakes.

I searched their website and found this:

http://store.r1concepts.com/Items/bo...3?sck=28643239

I'm about to buy it and want to know if its worth the money or not.

THANKS!

Also my 2001 f150 has the 5/135mm bolt pattern right?

 

No, maybe for auto cross people or if you have aftermarket wheels to show them off. If you are ordinary Joe, keep it simple, buy good stuff but necessary stuff, not these. My brother got slotted cross drilled for his Escort ZX2, why? He has aftermarket rims, and all said and done, front and backs was half as much as regular brakes which he needed anyways. So in his case it was worth it, just took a while to ship, that's all. In you're case, it's an extra like 300 bucks for ??? I always tell everyone who swears by hipo brakes, I say pay more attention and drive defensively and you'll need the brakes less often. You won't put yourself in bad spots needing slamming on the binders. Trust me, I'm not poking fun at the idea or at those who have ones or similar, just I raised the question but couldn't justify doing anything more than a local call to Carquest. Hell, they even deliver to my door, how do you beat that, within an hour of calling?

 

^^^^^this makes sense.

 

Well I am getting my truck lifted, I do tow a boat, and I do offroad.

 

If you do all that ^^^^^^ Don't get slotted rotors, specially if you off road. They won't last long and you'll go deaf when you get rocks trapped in there. I've heard that noise many times. You'll be constantly jacking them up and cleaning them out - you really wanna do that?

I would just get a heavy duty set of Brembo Rotors and Carquest Blues for pads if you want a comfortable but strong stopping power and you WON'T see any dust from those.

I don't care what anyone says - Ceramic's are hard, will heat, fade and shake the front end when braking in most cases. You'll be re-doing the front end much quicker with a harsh set up.

Been there done that with brakes..That's all you need - ^^ BLUE20004X4 knows ^^

Good Luck

 

Thanks for the backup fellas, but no kidding, my so-called regular setup gives me adequent braking for anything I'll ever need and beyond. Towing for example? I just towed my 64 Galaxie, a big car, maybe 3500 pounds as is plus a heavy flatbed 18' trailer and had zero brake problems. It almost seemed not there. I would have thaught to be standing on them in some cases- nope! You know, people cutting you off, drunk bicyclists and she still braked fine. If anything as far as brake upgrades, spend the moola and get an increased size like 14" with 4 piston calipers or something by Brembo or Baer or ??? That kit runs about 1500-2000 bucks for just the front f I remember right.