Replacing Front Brake Pad and Rotor-Which Brand?

Its time to put on new pads and rotors. Bought stuff from Rockauto and US Autoparts in the past for the Dakota 4x4. Anyone suggest a good source and brand for the XJ? My priority is good stopping performance over pad longevity. I have found that these "lifetime" pads don't stop real well and tear up the rotors. I don't mind changing pads from time to time. Just don't want pads that eat, overheat, and warp the rotors.

Thanks.

ROBZ95Xj said:

http://blackmagicbrakes.com/

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X2.

BMB, or Carquest/Napa premium stuff.

Centric PosiQuiet pads and Centric rotors. Mine have 45000 on them and still have half the pad left. No squeals, or noise whatsoever and great stopping power unless suuuuuper wet.

Happytrails said:

Its time to put on new pads and rotors. Bought stuff from Rockauto and US Autoparts in the past for the Dakota 4x4. Anyone suggest a good source and brand for the XJ? My priority is good stopping performance over pad longevity. I have found that these "lifetime" pads don't stop real well and tear up the rotors. I don't mind changing pads from time to time. Just don't want pads that eat, overheat, and warp the rotors.

Thanks.

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the bold says it all.

Black Magic Pads with centric premium rotors.

blackmagicbrakes.com

Another vote for Black Magic Pads. I've had mine on my '01XJ for ~ 2 years and they're are some of the best pads I've ever used... including some other high-end stuff I used to run on my Mustang Cobra for track use.

Also installed a set of BM pads/rotors on the wives '03 KJ and they are holding up nicely on that rig as well.

Only thing I'll caution (not really an issue if you're looking for performance) is they do put out a lot of brake-dust and keep your rims quite dirty.

I like rotors from:

www.brakeperformance.com

I have no experience with the Black Magic pads or rotors.

When I bought the 2001 (my first XJ) I didn't like the brakes because I needed to really bear down on the pedal to get it to stop quickly. At first I thought I had a problem with the vacuum booster, but it tested out fine. I had replaced the pads and rotors in my wife's Camry with the best Raybestos that Rockauto carried and they worked very nicely. So I replaced the pads on the 2001 XJ with Raybestos pads, even though the original pads showed hardly any wear at all. The brakes work MUCH better!! Not as well as the Camry though, which can be explained once you notice the vacuum booster on the Camry has almost double the area of the one on the XJ.

I replaced the pads that were on my two XJs with Raybestos ATD477C and they stop the Jeeps much better than whatever was there before. They are also relatively dust-free. They cost about $50 a set.

One note: Do not ride the brakes on a long downhill -- they will fade when they get too hot. At least they let you know by stinking when hot and also they slowly require more and more pedal pressure -- it's not like they work real well then suddenly you have no brakes at all.

Don't let the fade issue scare you -- I have to make at least 4 panic stops from 55mph to zero to get them to fade. So the pads are quite satisfactory for normal driving and panic stops, but they do not tolerate being ridden down a multi-mile steep grade. Shift into a lower gear and let the engine do some of the braking.

Centric premium rotors, calipers, and ebc greenstuff work well for me and 33's. able to lock them up on asphalt at 35mph...

Forceful Llama said:

Centric premium rotors, calipers, and ebc greenstuff work well for me and 33's. able to lock them up on asphalt at 35mph...

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I ran the EBC greens, then yellows for a while, they were great pads, the yellows a bit better than the greens.

the black magics have considerably better bite than either.

Hawk Pads (LTS got good reviews, I liked the HPS on previous cars, and they also have a heavy duty which probably is unstoppable but dusts and makes noise) and Napa Premium Rotors.

What I've been running for the past few years?

Carbon Metallic's from Advanced Auto/Autozone/O'Reilly's and Napa Premium Rotors. I'm happy with the stopping power and noise (particularly once I rebuilt my drums with some HD Centrics)

I have Raybestos semi-metallic Advanced Technology brake pads on the front of the ZJ. Work very well and are cheap.

How does one determine the proper part numbers? I noticed black magic starts with 1990 and newer. Also noticed that Performance Brake part numbers change somewhere around 1990.

I have an 88, but a non disco HP D30 has been swapped in. I assumed my old brakes were swapped over, but I don't really know.

I am considering all new pads, rotors and calipers.

The calipers and pads should all be the same.
The hubs and rotors, though, change with the years. The hub and rotor have to agree with each other with regard to model year. "Non-disco" covers too much territory to be sure but IIRC, the brakes / hubs changed with the housing - so you probably don't have your old brakes on it.
Come to think of it, an HP30 "probably" wouldn't have LP30 (late model, 2000-2006) brakes / hubs on it. They'd work, but somebody would have to go out of their way to put off-year junk on it.
The best thing to do would be to measure the flange offset on your hub, find that hub on Rock Auto & order rotors that match that model year, but it seems darned likely to me that you have mid-90s brake rotors & hubs on your junk.

88trailcrawler said:

How does one determine the proper part numbers? I noticed black magic starts with 1990 and newer. Also noticed that Performance Brake part numbers change somewhere around 1990.

I have an 88, but a non disco HP D30 has been swapped in. I assumed my old brakes were swapped over, but I don't really know.

I am considering all new pads, rotors and calipers.

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yossarian19 said:

The calipers and pads should all be the same.
The hubs and rotors, though, change with the years. The hub and rotor have to agree with each other with regard to model year. "Non-disco" covers too much territory to be sure but IIRC, the brakes / hubs changed with the housing - so you probably don't have your old brakes on it.
Come to think of it, an HP30 "probably" wouldn't have LP30 (late model, 2000-2006) brakes / hubs on it. They'd work, but somebody would have to go out of their way to put off-year junk on it.
The best thing to do would be to measure the flange offset on your hub, find that hub on Rock Auto & order rotors that match that model year, but it seems darned likely to me that you have mid-90s brake rotors & hubs on your junk.

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Renix had 2 piece knuckle/caliper bracket. 231 had vac-disco. 242 Non-disco.
91-98.5(I believe that this was the year split) had different unit bearings/rotors than 99-2001. It has to do with the lip height from the hub surface to the edge of the lip. Cast vs composite rotors. If you do a google/naxja search it should describe which. I believe that the taller lip is the 99-up and the shorter lip is 91-98.5.
Pads are the same 91-up. But, unit bearings and rotors must match. So, in theory as long as you do have the single-piece knuckles, if you replace the unit bearings and rotors from matching years then they will work. Ex: If you do 2000+ UB and rotor then will work together, 91-1998 will work together.
So, if you are not planning on replacing the UB, measure the lip and search.

88trailcrawler said:

How does one determine the proper part numbers? .......

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Read this FAQ -> http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245269210&postcount=22

the BMB wont work on renix, different calipers and pads on the older style brakes.
if you swap the newer knuckles you can run the newer calipers and thus newer BMB brakes. the rotors match the year of the unit bearing, so match rotors to unit bearings, thats it.

I called BMB and talked to the guy about the renix brakes a while ago when I still had a dana 30. too bad for us renix guys.

blondejoncherokee said:

the BMB wont work on renix, different calipers and pads on the older style brakes.
if you swap the newer knuckles you can run the newer calipers and thus newer BMB brakes. the rotors match the year of the unit bearing, so match rotors to unit bearings, thats it.

I called BMB and talked to the guy about the renix brakes a while ago when I still had a dana 30. too bad for us renix guys.

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if you're going to go through all that trouble, just get a bbk... new knuckles, rotors, and calipers

Tim_MN said:

Read this FAQ -> http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=245269210&postcount=22

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Found that and printed it. I guess I need to pull a wheel to figure out what to order.

Interestingly, I changed out Unit Bearings a few years back and don't recall having an issue.

Also - Knuckles are reamed for my 1 ton steering, so trying to draw the line at a break job.

EDIT:

I just crawled under.

Calipers installed say AMC 7316 on passenger side (Couldn't find the part number reference on-line)
Box from unit bearing replacement is a Timken 513107 (Appears to be an 84-89 - Looks very similar to the 1995.5 - 2001 photo on the left of the above referenced thread)
Rotor edge "feels like" the cast rotor.

So.....
If I order ALL NEW rotor, caliper and pads. I just need to ensure it all matches with the installed unit bearings (regardless if it is AMC, up to 1999.5 or after 199.5) - Right?

I am going to pull a wheel and confirm what unit bearings are installed. I am thinking that the original AMC brakes were swapped over.