I am about to go ahead a replace the brake pads on my front brakes this weekend... I noticed on here where several of yall have got stuck with poor quality brake pads. Wanted to know if there is any particular brands anyone would recommend that they have been happy with. (Or everybit as helpful any brands I should stay away from!) TIA guys....

 

The OEM pads,which are "not" made by MotorCraft (I'm not sure who makes them.Ask your dealer), have tended to last most people around 60,000+ miles. They're not cheap but if you'd racther not change your pads every year they are a good idea.

 

I'd have to agree with you on that one, sounds like you know your stuff.

 

I installed the Performance Pads from JC Whitney. They are From Titanium and have worked great for me. At 55K, I replaced the rotors with slotted and drilled rotors from JC Whitney also. I cut my braking by about 15 feet from 60MPH. Sounds like a small amount but they just feel better. It cost me $200 delivered and that was with rear shoes also. 2 rotors, 4 pads, 4 shoes....

Mark

 

Went to get them yesterday, and they had three types for my truck. The cheapest were around $30 and were made by a company called Albany. The second were made by Pinnacle and were called Performance Friction Carbon Metallic and were about $60. They also had some for around $90 that were called 'Z-Rated.' I went with the Performance Friction Carbon Metallic, will see how they work out...

thanks guys.....

 

I installed the Performance Friction Carbon Metallic about 3 month ago seem to be working fine.

 

my oem front pads lasted about 15,000 miles,the rears lasted about 35,000,and now my right rear rotor is ruined,i'm definitely lookin for a good aftermarket set,you got 2 rotors,4 pads and 4 shoes ostbloom? sounds pretty good how long have you had em on? and if you've had em long enough to tell how is the reliability?

 

Back in May I replaced my originals (55Kmi) with Bendix Fleet series, new bearings, and turned the rotors.

What I learned:
DONT - Use Mobil 1 synthetic grease as it breaks down in ~2k miles, then the bearings over heat.
DONT - Use the Bendix pads as they looked like the pads were delaminating from the backing plate.

After ~2K mi I had a vibration in the chassis that flt dangerous on hard braking. I checked the Rotors: runout ranged from .005" to .015".

Solution:
Bought new FORD pads (not motorcraft) $120!
Bought new aftermarket rotors $80 ea.
Bought new Bearings
Used Valvoline "Synpower" grease.

Status:
I have ~5Kmi on brakes: No pulling, no vibration, and VERY efficient stopping, even with a trailer (boat & flatbed, 2500lb-7kip)

Tony

 

just FYI, there are grades of brake material, (excluding carbon, bla bla bla) and the oem pads from ford are made of grade 8, they cost around 85 $ or so for the front pads.....but they are better then Albany, or what was to other real crappy ones......well all of the ones that orilley or AutoZone sells...





5.4

 

I ended up going with "Performance Friction Carbon Metallic' by Pinnacle for about $60 for the front set. Have had them on there for a couple months now - although they have gotten better after the first month or so, these pads are putting off a LOT more brake dust on my wheels then the OEM pads that came with it. If I had it to do over again, I'd definately but OEM pads.

 

Every time I go out and buy sometihing and think "gee, ok that sounds pretty good and I haven't heard anything bad about it" Usually within 3 days someone says do do this or don't use that. Just like now I have a set of the Bendix Titanium pads, which is one of the better ones we offer at work besides like Bendix fleet/hd or beck/arnley stuff, the rest is cheap stuff made by Ferdoo. This time the heck with what I may have heard from one person. I will try these pads and if they go out I will get another set under warranty or will bite the bullet and buy soemthing else. So if anyone else's uses Bendix pads let me know what yo uthink? Thanks, (sorry just on edge tonight)

 

NO response, huh

 

I have the Bendix pads all of the way around. Within 10,000 miles I burnt the front pads up, however when i pulled them off, I realized why. The lower sliding bolt had seized up on both sides and wouldn't let the caliper center correctly. Thus the pad was completely gone on the inside bottom edge but still had a lot left over on the top edge. So I freed up the slider bolts, regreesed them, took the pads back to autozone where they replaced them free of charge-no questions asked, and now I am back on the road. So I will see how long they last this time.

One tip of advice, always re-greese the slider bolts on every brake replacement. After what happened here, I will be regreesing them everytime I have the front wheels off.

kev

 

Well CJ and I have been chasing brake squeel in his 97 4x4 for a few thousand miles now.

We started by installing Autozone Albany brand lifetime warranty pads. Those were fine for a week, then squeel intermittently. Well find out the backing squeel pads are glued on there and when the brakes get hot the slide down and contact the hat of the rotor making noise.

Warranty for another set. This time no backing plates. Only cancer causing anti-squeel gunk. Nope, only happened when applying the brakes. So pad compound is crap.

So this weekend, we warranty swapped and paid the difference to the performance friction carbon metalic units. So far so good.

So you may want to try another brand of pad.

 

At 53,000 miles, I still had at least a 1/4 inch left on my original pads, but replaced them with the JC Whittney titanium ones. They are great and quiet. Highly reccomend them.