Looking for better rotors
After one trip down the Bighorns my rotors warped, pulsing pretty bad, seemed the right front wheel was very hot compared to the rest and had a heavier dust buildup on the rim. Had the Ford dealer in ...
Forum Discussion
Padlin wrote:
After one trip down the Bighorns my rotors warped, pulsing pretty bad, seemed the right front wheel was very hot compared to the rest and had a heavier dust buildup on the rim. Had the Ford dealer in Cody Wy check them out, for $400 they turned the rotors telling me they had all overheated. 2 days later the brakes still pulsed on the downhill into Yellowstone. Right or wrong we finished the trip putting most of the braking on the trailer brakes via the manual lever and avoiding the worst of mountains.
Before I bring the truck into my regular mechanic, I'd like to look into the possibility of better then stock rotors and the applicable pads. If anyone has looked into such, I see slotted, drilled, slotted and drilled, and slotted, drilled, and dimpled, do any of these actually make a difference in heat dissipation?
2012 F150 4x4 Heavy Payload (17" 7 hole wheels), 30k miles, IBC.
FW weighs 5000 lbs, new this summer.
With a TV that has lower engine braking than a comparable V8, you are probably going to have to rethink your downhill strategy. If you overheated your brakes, different pads and rotors likely won't prevent an overheat. They may be able to deal with it better, or dissipate the heat a little better, but using the same size pads and slotted/drilled rotors is still likely to result in overheat situation.
If all you experienced was a pedal vibration, new rotors should fix that. However if your pedal feel changed or got softer at all, you boiled your fluid and need to flush it with fresh fluid. I put Hawk HP plus pads on my car for track days/road racing days only, which are awesome for stopping power but for daily driving they are terrible - they squeal, dust like crazy. In traffic they can cause the person following too closely behind me to soil their britches, because a light tap on the brakes can make it seem like I've stood on the brakes.
The idea behind the drilled rotor is so gas buildup between the pad and the rotor has a place to escape. In my experience this is completely unnecessary, but others may swear by them.
I'd probably go with OEM rotors or equivalent, and perhaps upgrade the pads some, along with new fluid. And take my time coming down big mountains. Good luck!
