Brake Pads
Does anyone here think it is necessary to have heavy duty brake pads on your truck while towing, and are there heavy duty brake pads available for an F-150 or F-250? I ask because at a recent routi...
Forum Discussion
thomas201 wrote:
Get any good quality brake pads, the OEM are good on Fords. If you do not feel pulsation, the rotors are fine. Take them off and check run out if you are technical.
I agree with this. Generally most high performance pads, although they may not heat up as bad, can transfer the bulk of the wear to your rotors. It's a trade off and as with anything high performance you pay for the better performance either in the initial cost of the equipment or in the end with higher wear of other parts. In other words the better pads may help you stop quicker but you will probably be changing rotors a little more often. The cost verses the tradeoff would be up to you.
Rotors have a thickness they need to be whenever a brake job is done. They come oversized and as they wear they have to be measured to see if they are thick enough to be reused. If they measure thick enough and are not warped (causing vibration when you brake) then I wouldn't replace them. A good brake shop will machine them when they put new pads on though, while most backyard mechanics will just put on new pads, but the pads will last longer if the rotors were machined first. Basic pads are cheap though so there again it's a tradeoff.
