Time For New Brakes On 01 Suburban

[ScottyBoy]

It's time to do the brakes on my 01 Suburban1500 2wd. It has 4 wheel disc brakes. I'm planning on replacing the pads and rotors. I want to get the best brakes I can but still use the stock calipers and stock size rotors. By "best" I mean I want the best stopping power, longest lasting, and little to no n dust, and ZERO noise. I'm leaning towards raybestos top of the line ceramic pads, or NAPA's cereamix pads. As for rotors, I'm not sure, but NAPA carries some drilled and slotted rotors for around 100$ each for the fronts and $150 for the rears. The only stores in my area are NAPA, Advance, O'reillys, Pep Boys, and Autozone(all hell will break loose if somebody recommends AZ parts!). I can buy parts online if it comes down to it though. Any suggestions? , and any tips for me since this is my 1st brake job on this vehicle.

[Rocco715]

I put Baer Deccelarotor Drilled and Slotted rotors on my other truck along with EBC Yellow Stuff pads and that was an awesome combination. Zero dust and awesome stopping power, very very noticable over stock. I went with the Yellow Stuffs over ceramic because ceramics are hard on your rotors, the yellow is a compound bust as good or better than ceramic IMO. Just make sure you clean the rotors up real good with brake parts cleaner and put anti-squeel gel behind pads when installing.

[Westlotorn]

It's time to do the brakes on my 01 Suburban1500 2wd. It has 4 wheel disc brakes. I'm planning on replacing the pads and rotors. I want to get the best brakes I can but still use the stock calipers and stock size rotors. By "best" I mean I want the best stopping power, longest lasting, and little to no n dust, and ZERO noise. I'm leaning towards raybestos top of the line ceramic pads, or NAPA's cereamix pads. As for rotors, I'm not sure, but NAPA carries some drilled and slotted rotors for around 100$ each for the fronts and $150 for the rears. The only stores in my area are NAPA, Advance, O'reillys, Pep Boys, and Autozone(all hell will break loose if somebody recommends AZ parts!). I can buy parts online if it comes down to it though. Any suggestions? , and any tips for me since this is my 1st brake job on this vehicle.

 

I will try this again, I typed notes for you and they went away when I hit the add button. I must be electronically challenged.

 

For stopping power increase you will want Semi Metallic pads. They offer the highest operating temperature. Yes, Higher than Ceramics.

 

For quiet, less dust go with Ceramic pads, I think they operate with a little better pedal feel.

 

Long lasting, probably a push with Ceramic and Semi Metallics.

Less Dust, probably Ceramics, the dust will be a lighter color.

 

In hard working conditions Severe Duty brakes in Semi Metallic help quite a bit. With light loads these need more brake pressure to start stopping. They operate at higher temperatures.

 

Bendix, Wagner and Raybestos all supply OEM brakes. OEM may use a couple others now with World Competiton. I can't offer any more names.

 

Ceramics even offer a variety of blends they are all not the same so choose wisely.

 

Ask your buddies who they use and specifically ask, are they quiet and how is pedal feel. How do they work under severe loads.

 

Wagner makes the Thermo Quiet pads, they are very quiet and offer good all round performance and come in Ceramic or Semi Metallic.

 

Raybestos had very noisy brakes up till a couple years ago but I think they have now figured the blends out and are working again on these light trucks.

 

GM changed to Ceramics with the new body style. The pads had to be increased in size by about 50% to give the same stopping power they had before with Semi Metallics. Look at the early trucks and the new body style pads and see for yourself. Ceramics work great if the application is designed for them. GM did this part right.

 

I hope this helps. Choose wisely.

[alvocado]

I put the OE Delco ceramic pads on mine at my first brake change. I got 55k out of the factory set, they are quiet, stop great and virtually no dust. They were $99/axle from the dealer which is comparable to aftermarket and I knew what I was getting re: performance.

 

For rotors, I bought OE replacement Brembo rotors off Tirerack. They were priced well and Brembo is an OE supplier to GM. Slotted and drilled rotors are a complete waste unless you track your vehicle. Brakes work because of friction. Less rotor surface means less friction, translating into less stopping power. Drilled and slotted rotors are intended to dissipate heat to reduce brake fade and under normal driving conditions, you will never benefit from them. Others may disagree but they are really only relevant on sports cars.

[Richardv]

alvocado - that makes good sense. Less surface area = less braking. I'd agree with you. I just replaced my front rotors on my 2003 Yukon. I used aftermarket "cheapies" and they work great. The pads didn't need replacing. I merely scuffed them up with sandpaper, cleaned everything well and put it back together. Ensure you properly torque your wheels to minimize rotor warp. Torque them again within 100 miles.

 

-Richard

[ScottyBoy]

Has anyone heard anything (good or bad) about Hawk Performance brake pads???

[ScottyBoy]

anybody?

[Zembonez]

anybody?

Sorry, I haven't had any experience with them.

 

I agree with most of what has been written above. There are some really good opinions and help in here.

 

I have had the best luck with high quality ceramic pads and new rotors on brake replacements for my company cars. They last a lot longer than the semi metallics we had been using and they stop very well with excellent pedal feel. I have them on my company Explorer (yeah sorry it's a Ford) and they work really well with virtually no brake dust. They run about 50 bucks a set...front or rear.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

[no bull]

At 80,000 miles I had the same decision to make. I broke my own cardinal rule of only use Delco!

I installed EBC Slotted and Dimpled (not drilled, they crack) with thier Green stuff pads. Gone are the days of powerful, fast, confident, and QUIET stops. While all in all they are very capable brakes, I now have to deal with this airplane like propellor noise at every stop. Delco only from here on in!

[arzinet]

Has anyone heard anything (good or bad) about Hawk Performance brake pads???

 

I have Hawk HPS pads on my Civic now, and had a set of their HP+ pads on the car before. Excellent pads for that application, but not really too sure whether truck pads are their specialty.

 

Anyway, Hawk makes some great pads, IMO, and I would definitely consider them for our Suburban when the time comes.

[Westlotorn]

At 80,000 miles I had the same decision to make. I broke my own cardinal rule of only use Delco!

I installed EBC Slotted and Dimpled (not drilled, they crack) with thier Green stuff pads. Gone are the days of powerful, fast, confident, and QUIET stops. While all in all they are very capable brakes, I now have to deal with this airplane like propellor noise at every stop. Delco only from here on in!

 

 

FYI Delco does not make any brake pads anymore. They do contract with a manufacturer to build the OEM pads. These are only installed in the vehicle assembly line. Other manufacturers make the product and can provide the same pad, you just need to sort through those available to get good quality.

 

If you have the rotors turned make sure they have been washed with Soap and Water before putting new pads on them. The soap wash lifts all the microscopic metal from the machining process off the rotor surface and eliminates this problem. Just like rebuilding an engine, warm water with some dawn dish soap will remove all the machining material from your cylinder walls after an engine is bored and honed, it also works on your freshly turned rotor. In engines if you don't do this step it causes piston ring failure. In brakes if you don't do this wash the machining metal left in the new surface of your rotor will embed in your new brake pads and cause poor performance and brake squeal. In the business we call this "taking the silver bullet " or in severe cases " brake glide ".

A severce case of this can cause the brakes to function very poorly, a increase in pedal pressure is necessary to get any braking.

If you replace the noisy set of pads that has all this metal in it with a second set the noise and poor performance are eliminated.

 

If you are just doing a pad change and have not turned the rotor this soap wash is not necessary.

 

Hope this helps.

[ScottyBoy]

Thanks for all your input.

[Ben]

Praise Dyno Brake

 

They supply most of the braking materials to the military vehicles over in Iraq.

 

"Performance" level, above most of the ones you listed.

 

Tell them Ben Toy recommended. John Ambrose Jr is the owner, or you might

get one of his 7 sons or sweetie. It's a large family op out of Texas. They only

take phone orders.

 

You don't need special rotors unless these are gouged.

[Ben]

This image is of my 1980 Silverado C10's front rotor/caliper which

has Praise Dyno pads. These are at about 25K-27K miles. Notice

that they are have about 60% left on those pads.

 

The next image is of my 1996 K3500 GMC 3/4 ton Suburban after an

accident with a Land Rover (he jumped a stop sign). Busted the joint

and broke the 4 rivets on the upper A-Arm. These Praise Dyno pads

are at about 10K miles.