3rd gen brake upgrade

[Gregturley]

Its time to start looking for pads and rotors, front and rear, for my brake upgrade. I usually use ceramic pads from NAPA, lots of Adaptive One stuff and their premium rotors but I've been looking more for this project. Has anyone used Power Stop Evolution pads and rotors on their truck? If so which ones and would you use them again? Any other recommendations for good stopping power, brake fade, noise? 

[hdpwipmonkey]

I have the Z36 on mine.  Good stopping power.  I about put myself through the windshield the first time i took it out after putting them on.  Night and day from the ones that were on there when I bought the truck.  I don't tow anything heavy so I can't say how well they work for that.  I had them on for about a year but so far I really like them.  

[Gregturley]

@hdpwipmonkey did you use factory rotors or the drilled and slotted?

[Dieselfuture]

I used bosch rotors and medium duty pads, not ceramic. It's definitely an improvement from original set up. 

 

[hdpwipmonkey]

15 minutes ago, Gregturley said:

@hdpwipmonkey did you use factory rotors or the drilled and slotted?

Drilled and slotted.  They came as a package from Rock Auto.

[War Eagle]

I use the power stop slotted and drilled rotors on my Ram 3500.  However I run the EBC LTS pads (green Box).  I also run 19.5s in the spring to Fall time frame when I'm towing or hauling so I put a pretty good load on my brakes.

 

My towing is a 14K trailer or hauling a 4k slide in camper.  I have used the brake and rotor combo since 2014 and have over 60k miles on it.  No noise, great stopping power and I haven't seen any non-normal wear on rotors or pads.  Still the original EBC pads I installed and they have tons of wear left on them.  I also have a pac-brake so that helps to minimize brake wear too.  

 

 

[Gregturley]

Had some time off work and did a couple side jobs. Used some of the money for the 3rd gen brake swap. Ordered the caliper mounting brackets from Carid.com a couple months ago for about $100 for all 4. I got the Powerstop Z36 brake kit from Morris4x4center.com for $491.44 after a $30 coupon. Coupon covered taxes. Best prices i could find.  So about $600 total for pads, rotors, and brackets. Ordered the brakes from Morris4x4 noon on Sunday and had them here at 1:20pm today, Wednesday. Every fit great, took about 1 1/2 hours to do all 4 on a jack. Did the seat in drive. Hope they help stop this pig better. Go back to work tomorrow so guess I'll find out soon enough. 

[hdpwipmonkey]

As long as you bled the system well and did the burn-in like Powerstop instructions say you'll be good. 

 

[Gregturley]

@hdpwipmonkey did the drive to seat in the pads like instructions said. Thats really no different than what i always do for brakes. Did not bleed system because i didn't open any lines. All my calipers are good so i kept them.

[hdpwipmonkey]

1 minute ago, Gregturley said:

@hdpwipmonkey did the drive to seat in the pads like instructions said. Thats really no different than what i always do for brakes. Did not bleed system because i didn't open any lines. All my calipers are good so i kept them.

Oh, OK.  I did new calipers with mine when I did the pads and rotors.  I was having a bad pull while braking so I did everything (except hoses).

In my younger days when I did brakes, I would change them and go.  I didn't know that you needed to burn them in till I read the instructions on a set of PS brakes that I got for my Cherokee a while back.  Oops.  

[Gregturley]

@hdpwipmonkey been a mechanic for 30 years. Learned real quick seating in brakes before giving the car back to the customer can cut down on complaints of noise and pulsation. 

[Gregturley]

After a couple weeks of driving with the new brakes i can say it is a great improvement over stock brakes.  I've just been running empty, no towing, but where i would notice brake fade with the stock brakes i see none with the 3rd gen stuff. They got a good workout this past week in a heavy rain on interstate.