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Long Term Brake Pad and Rotor Test - info

9K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  SE2000 
#1 · (Edited)
I thought I would post this to help other users. 2007 Tundra. 162,000 KM. I live in a mountainous area with 4 months of winter. I tow a 5000lb boat about 1 hour a weekend in the summer. In general the truck lives a pretty easy life.

80,000 km: Stock rotors and pads were fried. Front were very warped and had been for quite a while, rear had huge corrosion on the surfaces and were worn with a big lip. Pads had about 10% left. Put on powerlsot rotors front (non-cyro), Napa premium rotor rear and hawk LTS pads.

138,000 km: Powerslot rotor warped and the surface is very grooved. As per powerslot reccomendations put on semi-metalic pads to scrub the rotors flat again. Hawk pads had 50% left. Note: the semi-metalic pads did help to scrub the rotors a bit but was only a stopgap measure.

162,000 km: Powerlsot rotors are still very warped and need replacing. Rear Napa rotors are mildly grooved but in excellent shape, flat with no corrosion. Hawk rear pads were at 1% (whew). Replaced the rear pads with Raybestos Ceramic/semi-metalic Hybrid pads.

My conclusions. The Powerslot rotors only lasted about the same as the stock ones. I was a bit disappointed. The Napa premium rear rotors are excellent. The Hawk LTS pads were good but did not give as much stopping power as the stock pads. In the spring I will likely put Napa Premium rotors and raybestos pads on the front. I am not convinced the premium rotors added to the braking power or longevity to justify the extra cost.

182,500 km: Put Raybestos rotors on the front with their Ceramic hybrid pads. Powerslot rotors are warped but not actually worn much. I will likely get them turned and put them back on in the future when I need front rotors again. With the Raybestos rotors and pads the braking is a bit better than stock and better than the Hawk pads. Maybe only 5% better than the Hawk but noticeable.

221,800 km: The Raybestos rotors and pads have been excellent. Braking power is excellent and very low dust. I inspected a couple of days ago (new rims) and found them to be about 85% F&R left with even wear. Rotors are smooth and flat. That surprised me as I was expecting 50% wear. Now here is the thing: I had these brakes on FIRE last summer. Long downhill with a 7500lb trailer with failed electric brakes. When I got to the bottom all 4 brakes were on fire, smoke pouring out and sounded like bacon sizzling in a pan. Went for a drive to cool them down and they were fine afterwards. That was about 10 months ago. Tough brakes and my new favorite for pads, cheap, stop well, tough, and seem to wear better than expected. Only brake upgrade required now is some braided lines. The brakes get soft after awhile and I am convinced it is the additional flex/bulge in the rubber lines as they get worn. I would recommend the Raybesto rotors and pads as the best combination so far, also the cheapest.


Hope this helps someone. Cam.
 
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#2 ·
My pads were low and the rotors rusted due to age. So I got NAPA premium rotor that looks anodized and EBC Yellow pads. They have been on for several months now and the truck stops better than new. A bit of dust when the pads were new but it seems to have passed. I only had to do the front. I have pulled many a heavy load with mine so I count on the brakes a lot.
 
#9 ·
Update. The original NAPA rotors did a fair job with rust. There are newer ones that have been on a year and look like new. And perform great.
The EBC yellow were the biggest change. For about a year before I changed them they went from great to barely working. I almost plowed into someone who stopped quickly in front of me. I was thinking I had a bad master cylinder or ABS unit.
I decided to check the brakes and the the EBC pads were half worn but more importantly, the material was rock hard and cracked. The friction material fell off of the backing plate.
I have done hundreds of brake jobs and had only seen separation on paper thin material.
I tried to find a contact for EBC and had no luck.
 
#5 ·
I've got a set of LTS front pads on OEM rotors, I notice they're a little cold blooded, but nothing to really worry about. But they dust LIKE CRAZY. I can wash my truck, drive around town and the wheels are caked in dust. They do seem to hold up to heat better than OEM pads when towing. Looking into other options now.
 
#6 ·
After replacing the OEM rotors and pads on my 08' Tundra in 11' I have used nothing but NAPA Ultra Premium Rotors and Pads. The Premium Rotors allow 002" max new runout and will warp sooner than later. The Ultra Rotors spec is 001" max runout as new. While the Ultra Rotors do eventually warp, it takes around 40K longer to do so. The Tundra now has 279K miles on it and I installed the second set of NAPA Ultra Premiums last Summer at 260K.

BTW it is important to understand that evenly tightening the wheel lugs is also important to rotor longevity.
 
#7 ·
It has been a while since I updated. I put on the stainless steel brake lines. They helped the pedal feel but not as much as I had hoped. When my Raybestos rotors got too bad I got my powerslot rotors turned and put them on but whether is was a poor job or not they would vibrate once hot. I replaced them with the Raybesto zinc rotors but kept the 90% raybestos pad that were already there.
244,000. I replaced the Napa rotors on the rear with Raybestos Zinc coated ones. Pads were at 80%. The Napa I took off were worn and gave me some wobble when they got hot trailer pulling. Those Napa are excellent rotors that lasted 164,000 km, and the surface was not worn past spec. The zinc rotors are nice as they do not rust and you dont have to paint them. Also dont come with shipping grease on them. So far my conclusions are:

Raybestos zinc rotors: Excellent
Napa gold rotors: excellent
Raybestos ceramic-hybrid brake pads: Excellent

Ps I am pretty impressed with this truck. 244,000 km and all I have replaced is a starter, battery, shocks and brakes.
 
#8 ·
Thanks KXcam222 for the write up.
2007 reg cab Tundra with crummy brakes for years. I ordered Raybestos calipers, SS lines, Raybestos EHT hydrid pads and replaced the stock stuff in December. 100% improvement in braking after 1200 miles of normal driving with a couple 4 wheel bleeds. I used the grease around the bleeder threads for 1 man bleeding advice found here. I also used advice here for getting the air out of the actuator. After 1000 miles I stood on the brakes at 30 mph til the front wheels were skipping, went home and bled the system.

The biggest improvement (I reckon) is the hybrid pads. I could put a finger on the disc after some short twisty driving. With full ceramics the steel wheel used to heat up. I'm not sure about disc importance as Summit sent me a warped rear disc hub and I had to have the Toyota stockers turned instead of waiting for the replacement. The stockers were fine. The stainless lines I would recommend only if you're sure everything else has been done and the truck is more than 10 yrs old. They seem to make the brakes much more controllable without pushing any harder- but it's tough to say.

One experiment that did make a difference. Replacing front brake lines I shot Seafoam Deep Creep on all the tube connectors and they came apart easy after 3 applications. The rear connectors were tougher to remove with no penetrant.
 
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