Power Stop Brakes

[20165.3Eco]

Just curious if anyone is running the Power Stop Z36 kit. I had the pads on my Ram and loved them. The rotors are awful on this truck (have been warped since about 45,000 miles). The pads could probably go another 15,000 or so but since I am taking it apart for 50 bucks I don't want to take it apart again. These rotors seem to be pretty high quality in terms of metal/coating/machining.

 

I hope they can at least make it 50,000 before warping. OEM used to be far superior in terms of run out/warping compared to parts store stuff these days but apparently the new "dura life" rotor isn't too hot. I am pretty easy on brakes considering pad life would be around 75,000 on a truck that tows frequently. I always try to pop the truck in neutral at lights so I am not putting pressure on the rotors when they are hot sitting still. 

 

The Z36 pads on my Ram were much more aggressive cold or hot and didn't seem to lose much power on long aggressive stops when towing. I will report back after the install and after a few months with them on. Likely won't be doing to much distance towing until spring though. 

[ray2005]

I had them on my silverado, tahoe and Suburban with no issues. Definitely an upgrade over stock. I never replaced them since I got rid of the vehicles, but hit 50k and 30k on the rotors without issue.


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[1SLOW1500]

I have had bad luck with them. On my 2007 silverado they didn't last very long and the shop I took it to said they are junk. I read up on brakes and found some interesting facts. Cross drilled and slotted isn't very good It reduces the mass and the heat soak. The wilwood gt race rotors only have semi slots in them. 

Reduced mass is only good in drag racing. I have run the Aerospace drag. I run Wilwood 6 piston kit on my street Cmaro and I will replace my 2016 sierra front brakes with wilwood 6 piston with semi slotted. Only issue is noise on the street car. 

[midwestdenaliguy]

I've ran 4 sets of Power Stop rotors (drilled/slotted) and pads in 3 different cars - 2007 GMC Envoy Denali, 2008 Cadillac Escalade (2 sets), and 2012 Lincoln MKZ. Never had a single issue with any of the sets I ran - none of them warped and the life was excellent (got 90k miles out of the first set on the Escalade). The rotors are zinc coated so they didn't rust like OEM and the pads are ceramic so you won't get brake dust on your wheels. Looked great and performed well. While stopping power improved, it was only slightly. They won't instantly grab like some people expect. For that you'll have to do what 1SLOW1500 said he's doing above and install a performance caliper/brake kit like Wilwood. If you're looking just to replace your rotors and pads with a quality kit that costs less than OEM, I recommend Power Stop. If you do go with Power Stop, make sure you follow the break-in procedure or you'll warp the rotors right away. That's with any new brake kit regardless of brand.

 

PS - I plan on installing the Z36 kit on my 2016 Sierra soon. If you wouldn't mind reporting back on your experience that would be appreciated.

[Back in a Bowtie]

im running Z36 on my 14 and i love them.  So much better than stock.  only put them on 10k ago but no issues.  

[Fredster]

Ran a set of powerstop pads and rotors on wife's Sonata Turbo and they were a huge improvement over stock.  Braking hard was like tossing out an anchor.  Those slotted rotors were noisy though under hard braking.  Got something like 50K out of the front pads they were very durable.  

 

On my 2016 Silverado I installed the Z36 pads at 20K miles - didn't like the stock pads / not aggressive enough.  At 60K miles I decided to replace the fronts as I figured 40K miles was plenty,  but found them to be at 50% and the rears at 80%.  After 40K miles of towing, stop and go driving, commuting etc.  So very happy with the Z36 pads.  I have had zero issues with my OEM rotors, warpage at all.  Guess I got a good set and will run these as long as I can, figure I won't need new pads again until 100K miles or more.

 

As far as rotors......I always get get the highest "rated" rotors I can find.  So far I am very happy with the duralast rotors, big improvement over my 2007 and 2011 1500's.

[20165.3Eco]

Thanks for the info Fellas. 

 

Will be installing tonight. I was hoping for some serious brake life out of the "improved" rotors from Chevy but no such luck. The OE rotors on my Ram were great until about 65,000. I drove the absolute crap out of that truck towing or not. I replaced with HQ lifetime rotors from O'reilly and they were warped again within 10K Miles. Just kept replacing them under warranty until I traded it. 

 

The brakes on this truck live a much much easier life compared to the Dodge. 

[Dr Awesome]

Drilled/slotted tend to have a little more bite, but also some more pad wear and brake dust.  Just a matter of if it looks cool enough to do!  I don't have experience with the Z36, but I always liked Raybestos Advanced Technology, they have performed very well on the last few vehicles and never had an issue with noise or anything.  My wife was warping rotors about every other oil change with the cheap ones, so once I got sick of doing that I popped the Raybestos ones in with ceramic brakes and they are lasting much longer!

[20165.3Eco]

Alright, got these bad boys installed last night. The hardware clips seemed to be nice quality. Cleaned and lubricated it all. Cleaned the faces of the wheel bearings. Re used thread locker on the caliper stand bolts but not on the caliper bolts as there was non present from factory.

 

The rotors seem to be very good quality from look and feel. They seated right up against the wheel bearings and centered nicely and the retainer screw tightened up very well. Pads looked pretty normal on the friction side but have nice stainless backing plates on the caliper contact sides. 

 

Completed the break in process and everything was nice and smooth. Brakes gained noticeable grip from beginning to end of break in process. I drove it work and all seems great without noise or vibration. I haven't climbed on them hard yet so I can't comment on performance upgrade yet.

 

My original pads were even thicker than I thought they were. I think I could have easily got those pads to 80-85K judging by the thickness of the new when compared to the originals. I probably should have just surfaced the original rotors but every time I have tried that in my previous experience they have returned to pulsating pretty quickly. I hate throwing away good parts but oh well. Will keep you posted on performance etc.  

[Sierra Jon]

Similar to others my stock rotors warped around 40k. I also tow a 7600lb TT and came from an HD truck so I felt an upgrade was needed.

I replaced them with Power Stop drilled and slotted rotors and Z36 pads and have never looked back. The improvement was night and day and the performance is excellent (not "big brake kit" upgrade excellent, but excellent).

I just crossed 100k miles and replaced my fronts. The only downfall is you need to replace the rotors when you do pads due to the drill/slot life span but 60k - no complaints and they never warped. Yahtzee!

[20165.3Eco]

Good to hear! Unless I randomly tow a Car short distance these days my max tow is 3500-4000. Sometimes that might include 1000+ in the bed but nowhere near rated towing capacity. 

 

Stock rotors are junk at 60,000 so for 200 bucks in parts ever 60,000 heavy towing that's a pretty minimal cost I think.

 

[Bobber]

I have the Power Stop Z23's (K2069/K2083) on mine - have had for about 1.3yrs and ~25k miles (which surprises me now as I think how many miles I had been putting on in previous years!)  I posted a thread about mine back when I did the swap. 

The truck had, (IIRC without going back to my thread), ~110k miles on the OE brakes when they finally started to warp bad enough for me to want to swap them.  I would have been quite happy if I could get true OE rotors and pads as replacements after that kind of life on the first set.

 

But, I went with these for a variety of reasons listed in my thread and at this point am quite happy with them.  I don't have the 110k+ on them yet so I don't know if they will go as far... but they sure do look nicer (more to do with the anti-corrosion coating that is applied) after a WI/UP-MI winter.  If the Z36's are a "high ceramic content version" I don't know if I'd like them as much since I hear a lot of guys with squeakers/squealers when they try to use race-bred brake materials on the street.  But, obviously, I don't push my brakes THAT hard...

[midwestdenaliguy]

Got my Z36 rotor and pads kit yesterday in the mail. Installing this weekend - excited to feel the difference. FYI - my stock rotors are slightly warped at 70k miles. Only really feel it when braking hard, but it's what got me to look into the Z36 kit.

[Jfay06]

I Installed SP Performance Slotted Rotors on my truck and I love them.  I've had them for a few months now and decided to get them for my wifes SUV as well.

[crushNchowda]

I have their pads on my truck now just did full brake job @ 55k (have 2200 miles on the setup now) & I went w/ their "extreme" Z36 truck/tow pads & centric high carbon rotors. Really like this combination great bang for the buck, noticeable improvement over stock, lower dust, & I like how these pads have some kind of metal plate on the exterior (stainless or aluminum is my guess) - gives them a little higher end look once mounted,