"Performance Friction" pads @ AutoZone

MoJo · April 9, 2004

They list both a carbon-metallic pad and a "Z-rated" pad for my Z71. I went to the mfr. website and they "look good on paper" so to speak. Wondering if anyone has used either.

I know that carbon-metallic generally dust more than stock. How about these?

lrymal · April 9, 2004

I used Performance Friction on my '99 Grand Am and these made all the difference in the world. Basically, just those pads corrected: mushy brakes, DUST, shudder. I can't help but think they'd do the same for our trucks, with the exception of the weight of our trucks being the main difference.

My GrandAm weighed 3400 pounds, I think. My truck is 5200 or so.

I'm thinking of replacing my pads with Performance Friction in a few months, just to correct the occasional shudder I get.

Quadrasteer · April 10, 2004

Do you know who makes the pads ?

lrymal · April 10, 2004

Do you know who makes the pads ?

Performance Friction is the company's name. Go here:

http://www.performancefriction.com/

502rawpower · April 10, 2004

Napa also makes some real nice ceraminc brake pad. Which works well on the heavy duty vehicles.

Bish · April 10, 2004

Word of warning on the PF...they are terrible when cold. I had them for about 10K miles. They were awesome when hot but terrible when cold. Try driving on the freeway in freezing temps, guy cuts you off, you stab brakes...nothing there for about a second or two, then tons of braking once hot. I guess if you drive in the city in stop and go constantly, they would be fine. Drive any distance without braking and they felt scary when cold.

I ended up with Praise. You pay close to oem prices but get significantly better braking hot OR cold. Only down side is I chew threw rotors fater due to the harder pads.

MoJo · April 12, 2004

Word of warning on the PF...they are terrible when cold. I had them for about 10K miles. They were awesome when hot but terrible when cold. Try driving on the freeway in freezing temps, guy cuts you off, you stab brakes...nothing there for about a second or two, then tons of braking once hot. I guess if you drive in the city in stop and go constantly, they would be fine. Drive any distance without braking and they felt scary when cold.

I ended up with Praise. You pay close to oem prices but get significantly better braking hot OR cold. Only down side is I chew threw rotors fater due to the harder pads.

Interesting, the web site specifically says both work good without heating up. Maybe a different compound?

gmcjoe · April 12, 2004

On NBS trucks, buy Raybestos pads or GM OEM (Made by raybestos) - you can't go wrong

JamesB · April 12, 2004

I may be in the minority, but I had terrible luck with the Performance Friction pads I had bought from Auto Zone. They produced huge amounts of dust, sqeeled and glazed over pretty quick. These were the high doller pads at the time. I put them on after replacing the front rotors and rebuilding the calipers. I even had the rotors turned and cut cooling grooves in the pads to try to help the situation, but to no avail. I switched to raybestos and that cured the problems. Of course that was on my '91 suburban that I eventually traded in on my '02 Z71. They have probably been improved in the last few years, but I don't think that I will try them again. I know it's apples to oranges, but once burned...

BTW: I looked at my rotors and pads as the dealer rotated my tires about a week ago and even with 32000 miles on my '02, all of the pads seem to be near new! What's up with that? I thought that I would be nearing a pad replacement by now...

My $.02

James.

gmcjoe · April 12, 2004

BTW: I looked at my rotors and pads as the dealer rotated my tires about a week ago and even with 32000 miles on my '02, all of the pads seem to be near new! What's up with that? I thought that I would be nearing a pad replacement by now...

My $.02

James.

James, the stockers on my 2000 GMC lasted 80K miles, twice as long as every OBS truck I owned