Pads and Rotors

fatkid24 · August 19, 2019

I’m looking to swap out my worn down pads and figure I’ll do the rotors while I’m there. Any suggestions on decent set for decent price?

I’ll be doing this myself and am an amateur to say the least. Any tips would be appreciated too.

(Save the comments on how many times this has been asked and answered. If you take the time to respond, please make it helpful. I would appreciate it.)

16LT4 · August 19, 2019

I replaced my fronts with Raybestos rotors and semi ceramic pads up front at 73k, off rockauto. Dirt cheap. The truck stops on a dime for nearly 6k lbs, and the pads are virtually dust free. Factory pads had the wheels filthy in a couple days, now I’ll go a thousand miles between washings (like 2 weeks) and not see any dust discoloration. The low temp pad squeal is annoying AF however, but I guess that’s the price to pay for cleanliness.

aseibel · August 19, 2019

If you want improved brake performance, look for the Tahoe PPV (police) parts.

CamGTP · August 19, 2019

Napa rotors and their "Adaptive One" pads are great stuff.

Jetmek · August 19, 2019

All of the above are great options if you want to stick to kind of an OE brake set up. If you wanted to go a bit deeper, you could look into pads and rotors from PowerStop which I hear are also very good, but also more expensive. Brembo now makes replacement pads and rotors for many applications and the prices seem to be in line with most parts store prices.

Just search YouTube for videos about changing brake pads if you've never done it before. Make sure the caliper bolts are lubricated so the caliper can slide freely, use the new clips that are almost always included with a set of pads. Look up and use the torque specs for both the caliper bracket bolts as well as caliper mounting bolts. I speak from experience here. If you choose to look on YouTube, search for South Main Auto. Eric is a fantastic mechanic and he has tons of brake pad vids. If you follow his advice, you won't go wrong.

swathdiver · August 20, 2019

2 hours ago, fatkid24 said:

I’m looking to swap out my worn down pads and figure I’ll do the rotors while I’m there. Any suggestions on decent set for decent price?

I’ll be doing this myself and am an amateur to say the least. Any tips would be appreciated too.

(Save the comments on how many times this has been asked and answered. If you take the time to respond, please make it helpful. I would appreciate it.)

As for me and my house, we did the rears two years ago and the front brakes a few months ago, all GM OE. The drag reduction clips that ACDelco now offers have doubled the coasting ability of the truck and will likely extend brake life too. All fluids and grease we use are ACDelco OE too.

I put new guide pin bushings on the front brakes but you probably won't need to this time around, just remember to replenish the grease in them.

Lots of guys think highly and have had great success with PowerStop brakes. Used their parts on my daughter's Kia, good stuff too.

Nanotech Environmental · August 21, 2019

It appears based on other threads on here that these trucks get long life out of the OEM items. That is my experience as well. My suggestion is stick with the OEM & shop around for best price. Rock Auto often (but not always) has the best price on stuff.

davester · August 21, 2019

From another forum I visit (dieselplace), some people there think that the original pads last a really long time (like 150+K), but the replacement OEM pads only seemed go maybe 1/2 that....they were using GMT800 trucks IIRC...

swathdiver · August 21, 2019

6 hours ago, Nanotech Environmental said:

It appears based on other threads on here that these trucks get long life out of the OEM items. That is my experience as well. My suggestion is stick with the OEM & shop around for best price. Rock Auto often (but not always) has the best price on stuff.

Amazon Prime and Ebay mostly beat out RockAuto when we did ours.

My factory set of front pads went 55K miles, then 81K for the replacements. Went with GM OE again.

Edited August 21, 2019 by swathdiver
Additional Information

Gixxer188 · August 21, 2019

I put the Power Stop K2070-36 Z36 Truck & Tow Front and Rear Brake Kit on the wife's 2011 Tahoe LTZ and they work great. And now my 2016 Sierra is in need of new binders at 68k on the OE stuff and thinking of doing the same for it.

mookdoc6 · August 21, 2019

1 hour ago, davester said:

From another forum I visit (dieselplace), some people there think that the original pads last a really long time (like 150+K), but the replacement OEM pads only seemed go maybe 1/2 that....they were using GMT800 trucks IIRC...

i would agree the OE will last longer...Punish the brakes on mountains,grades, heat etc. and that is where the problem is...warped rotors, pads blowing out material etc. If i lived in Nebraska and only hit few stop signs, rolling hills, mild weather & and no heavy FWY stopping on a dime the OE are perfect! I can't so I use exclusively EBC! I can't warp there rotors if I try? Well maybe but it would require a lot of work to do it. Stopping distance is greatly reduced and I will accept the dust buildup for the performance.....Slamming on EBC equipment brake equipment gives me results of absolute security! Worth every penny!

swathdiver · August 22, 2019

20 hours ago, mookdoc6 said:

i would agree the OE will last longer...Punish the brakes on mountains,grades, heat etc. and that is where the problem is...warped rotors, pads blowing out material etc. If i lived in Nebraska and only hit few stop signs, rolling hills, mild weather & and no heavy FWY stopping on a dime the OE are perfect! I can't so I use exclusively EBC! I can't warp there rotors if I try? Well maybe but it would require a lot of work to do it. Stopping distance is greatly reduced and I will accept the dust buildup for the performance.....Slamming on EBC equipment brake equipment gives me results of absolute security! Worth every penny!

My first set of pads and most of the second did so in the hills of West Virginia.

Kubs · August 22, 2019

I tow with my truck every now and then and I just swapped out the OE stuff (not worn out at all) at 20K miles for Hawk LTS pads on new Centric Premium rotors. Initial impressions are positive, but I will see how they do towing, and after a couple miles before giving my opinion. I was told by the Hawk rep that the LTS provide increased torque and fade resistance over OE but are still friendly enough for a DD and they are supposed to be low dust also.

BIGDOGx · August 22, 2019

3 hours ago, Kubs said:

I tow with my truck every now and then and I just swapped out the OE stuff (not worn out at all) at 20K miles for Hawk LTS pads on new Centric Premium rotors. Initial impressions are positive, but I will see how they do towing, and after a couple miles before giving my opinion. I was told by the Hawk rep that the LTS provide increased torque and fade resistance over OE but are still friendly enough for a DD and they are supposed to be low dust also.

On 8/19/2019 at 7:27 PM, Jetmek said:

All of the above are great options if you want to stick to kind of an OE brake set up. If you wanted to go a bit deeper, you could look into pads and rotors from PowerStop which I hear are also very good, but also more expensive. Brembo now makes replacement pads and rotors for many applications and the prices seem to be in line with most parts store prices.

Just search YouTube for videos about changing brake pads if you've never done it before. Make sure the caliper bolts are lubricated so the caliper can slide freely, use the new clips that are almost always included with a set of pads. Look up and use the torque specs for both the caliper bracket bolts as well as caliper mounting bolts. I speak from experience here. If you choose to look on YouTube, search for South Main Auto. Eric is a fantastic mechanic and he has tons of brake pad vids. If you follow his advice, you won't go wrong.

I bought power stop cryo rotors and hawk pads a few years ago for my 2005 silverado and it was a mistake, they lasted not even half the amount of time the oem stuff did and not really all that much better performance. The rotors simply rusted away and were done after 2 1/2 years, my oem stuff went over 5 years and 70k and was still relatively good when i changed them. Very disappointed and will never go that route again, oem is what i'm buying when these brakes need changing. I have a 2014 i bought new and still have good meat left, just no need to go any other direction then oem imo when it comes to replacing rotors or pads.

fatkid24 · August 22, 2019

This will show my ignorance, but where can I locate the factory part numbers for the brakes? And do the clips come with the pads or is that a delegate per number as well?
Thanks again for the help!