Jim Henderson
Dedicated LVC Member
I changed my front brake pads about 6,000(?) miles ago to Pepboys brand pads, I think Prostop(?). I have been severely unhappy with those pads. After a few hundred miles my brakes started to squeal like a freight train coming to a stop. To be fair I did not resurface the rotors( I rarely do) at that time and there was no replacement hardware like those sheetmetal sliding surfaces(I'll just call them sliders since I don't know any better) and the spring clips. I greased the sliding surfaces with brake grease. But like I say, squealed really bad and getting worse.
About 3,000 miles I changed the rear pads to Raybestos Quiet Stops and did not notice any additional squeal. The Raybestos pads were much nicer appearing and came with new hardware.
Still the fronts squealed to the point of distraction and embarassment. The only time they didn't squeal was under hard braking, elsewise they were awful. 1,000 miles ago I changed to Raybestos Quiet stop on the front. I did not do anything special, just cleaned things up and removed and replaced the parts as supplied in the kit, no rotor resurfacing etc, so in my opinion apples to apples.
These pads came with new sheetmetal sliders and springs etc. They make absolutely no noise. I love the sounds of silence.
The Raybestos pads again were top quality in appearance. Interestingly of the 4 metal sliders that came with the kit, only 3 had some sort of fabric(Fiberglass?) tape on the backs, I assume to help keep friction on the back of the slider to the caliper surface to a minimum. One slider had only what appeared to be black primer but no tape. I assume a factory QA slip? The original factory sliders had some sort of thick paint on the back. There were a couple shiney spots on the back of each one so I assume maybe they might have contributed to the noise.
Anyway, so far I am delighted. The reason I am going into this is that 20/20 hindsight over the past 30+ years of doing my family brakes, I vaguely recall that the 3 or 4 times I have used Raybestos, I always was impressed with the quality appearance and the quietness of their brake products. Store brands were kind of a "roll of the dice" with wild guess of maybe 50% of the time getting noisey brakes( same vehicle, different brand pads).
I never bought a true high performance pad but I have bought some mighty pricey ("better than stock")pads for various cars and even the expensive ones didn't always make me happy.
So anyway, for those looking for OEM style brake pads, I like the Raybestos brand Quietstops. My recollected experience with Raybestos includes Ford F250, Mercury Villager van, the LS and I think my old SS and maybe a long time ago a 74 Datsun truck. Always happy with the Raybestos.
FWIW,
Jim Henderson
About 3,000 miles I changed the rear pads to Raybestos Quiet Stops and did not notice any additional squeal. The Raybestos pads were much nicer appearing and came with new hardware.
Still the fronts squealed to the point of distraction and embarassment. The only time they didn't squeal was under hard braking, elsewise they were awful. 1,000 miles ago I changed to Raybestos Quiet stop on the front. I did not do anything special, just cleaned things up and removed and replaced the parts as supplied in the kit, no rotor resurfacing etc, so in my opinion apples to apples.
These pads came with new sheetmetal sliders and springs etc. They make absolutely no noise. I love the sounds of silence.
The Raybestos pads again were top quality in appearance. Interestingly of the 4 metal sliders that came with the kit, only 3 had some sort of fabric(Fiberglass?) tape on the backs, I assume to help keep friction on the back of the slider to the caliper surface to a minimum. One slider had only what appeared to be black primer but no tape. I assume a factory QA slip? The original factory sliders had some sort of thick paint on the back. There were a couple shiney spots on the back of each one so I assume maybe they might have contributed to the noise.
Anyway, so far I am delighted. The reason I am going into this is that 20/20 hindsight over the past 30+ years of doing my family brakes, I vaguely recall that the 3 or 4 times I have used Raybestos, I always was impressed with the quality appearance and the quietness of their brake products. Store brands were kind of a "roll of the dice" with wild guess of maybe 50% of the time getting noisey brakes( same vehicle, different brand pads).
I never bought a true high performance pad but I have bought some mighty pricey ("better than stock")pads for various cars and even the expensive ones didn't always make me happy.
So anyway, for those looking for OEM style brake pads, I like the Raybestos brand Quietstops. My recollected experience with Raybestos includes Ford F250, Mercury Villager van, the LS and I think my old SS and maybe a long time ago a 74 Datsun truck. Always happy with the Raybestos.
FWIW,
Jim Henderson
