Napa Brakes!

jerseydrew · April 4, 2011

i have read several posts on here and have had many people tell me to just get them. so i ponied up the cash (they are the most expensive replacement brakes you can get) and got the ultra premium rotors and adaptive one pads. got everything on and bedded the brakes in. about 6k miles later the rotors warped. so i called up NAPA and was told good luck with the warranty. they said you could be waiting for weeks and then not get covered and they had never seen a set of rotors get covered. i was very disappointed by this have just spent over $200 for these things 3 months earlier. so the guy at the store was pretty cool and said that he would turn them for me at no charge. i was sort of satisfied with that since the guy at the store was at least trying to help. put them on and it has now been 2k miles since they got turned and some of the pulsation is back and now the brakes squeal EVERY time i touch the pedal.

i am not trying to bash NAPA or their products i simply want the info out there for those trying to decide on what setup to get. i am going to probably get the same thing i get for every other car we own, the wearever rotors and wagner thermoquiet pads. that combo works well on all our other cars so i hope that will cure this trucks problem.

fyi my truck is an 07 new body silverado crew cab 4x4.

HawkScot · April 4, 2011

I have a several GMs (4 pickups, suburban, yukon) and my experience (just mine) is that rotors warp for two main reasons.

1) the calipers have to be able to float properly. if they hang up, they drag and over heat the rotors. (if you have uneven pad wear, it is generally caused by the caliper not floating right)

2) incorrectly torqued lugs. See this when tire shops put them on with impact guns.

I spend extra time cleaning and lubricating the caliper mounting to make sure the caliper can float. I only use the air tools to take up the slack on the lugs, always torque by hand with decent torque wrench.

j13smiley · April 4, 2011

agreed with torquing the wheels. especially on heavy duty or high performance brake systems.

RaddHazzard · April 4, 2011

Make sure your caliper slide pins are greased up nice.

dewfpo · April 5, 2011

X2 on both counts in my experience. Slide pins and EVEN torquing of the lugs.

DEWFPO

blacksierra01 · April 6, 2011

Ive installed quite a few sets of the ultra premium rotors, not one that i know of has warped, but i do make sure to clean the slides up, and all the rust from the hub and manualy tighten the wheels down, with a known good torque wrench, ive seen tons of torque wrenches that are way out of calibration.