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Stay away from Duralast Brake Pads

WheelinJR

WheelinJR

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Portland, Oregon
So I bought some Autozone Semi-Metallic Lifetime Pads for the front of my Jeep the other week, and it didn't turn out all that great.

The pads grab and stop real well for having a set of 32" BFG's. The only problem I am having with them is that if I am using my brakes to control my speed coming down a hill at about 30-35mph, they don't take but a second to turn to goo and start stinking like hell.

My old pads never did that, and they might have had a good couple thousand more miles on them, but when you're chasing Rally Cars thru the woods the last thing you need is brake failure, so I changed them out before this weekends event.

So in thinking I was doing something wise, I actually sabotaged myself. I went back to Autozone, got a set of Morse Ceramic Pads, and they are letting me return the shitty Duralasts.

Weird, cause my last pads weren't anything special... :twak:
 
did you bed them in?

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_bedinfaq.shtml

The Ceramics are a much better pad and worth the price. I don't see mention of turning the rotors or bedding in the pads.

glaze on glaze = no stoppy!

I recommend Akebono Ceramics as the best on the market these days. ( I have no experience with Morse but they seem to have a good reputation).

Lifetime warranty isn't worth anything if the vehicle is dead....
 
Thrasher -

No mention cause I haven't installed them yet. The rotors were perfect when the Duralast set went on tho.

We'll see how the Morse do here real soon, I'll be putting them on tonight.
 
Did you clean everything real good before you put it together. Sure it wasn't just oil and dirt burning off?
 
Blue XJ said:
Did you clean everything real good before you put it together. Sure it wasn't just oil and dirt burning off?
Click to expand...

I'm sure, they've been on for a week, and they turn to mush and stink and I can't stop. Let them cool for a few, and they're rock solid again.
 
I always sand the glaze off the pads and sand the discs. And try and break them in easy, avoid heating them up much for the first few hundred miles.
Worked at a brake shop for awhile, learned in a hurry about brand new pads and the first few stops.
Raybestos has deleted the Taxi (fleet) rated pads, in there catalog for the XJ. We'd have to change discs every two or three pad changes. They would grab that good. They didn't fade much and worked well in the wet.
Hard to find a pad, that grabs well that doesn't eat up the disc some.
We had trouble with the riveted pads overheating and the rivets relaxing and then squealing like crazy. Also had trouble with the bonded pads occasionally overheating and coming unglued.
We made up HD sets of Raybestos semi metallic fleet pads, bonded and riveted. Worked out well. The rivets supposedly helped get rid of some of the heat and where there as insurance in case the bond failed.
 
8Mud said:
And try and break them in easy, avoid heating them up much for the first few hundred miles.
Click to expand...

Yeah I always take it easy on braking for a while when they're new

As for using a good pad thats hard on rotors, I don't care too much about the discs getting eaten up some, alot of autocrossers swear by Autozone blank rotors. They say they're the only ones they manage to not warp. They do say that by the end of an event, they've got heat microfractures like crazy, but the good news is, Autozone goes lifetime replacement on those too :yelclap: .

So if I have to swap out a set of discs and pads every other event or better (we only have 5 major ones a year) I will be happy with that. My only concern is that this weekend when I'm mobbing down a 27 mile stage to aid a team, my brakes can't fade on me like these ones do.
 
Bendix, Raybestos, or Wagner. Brakes are something I really don't like to cheap out on - it's worth a few extra bucks, to me.

If they can't tell me who makes their house brand, no dice. Nice thing about the smaller locals - they usually know that stuff. For instance, my local has a "house brand" brakes (I don't recall what they're called offhand) that are re-boxed Raybestos. Works for me!
 
My Duralast pads smelled funny for a month or two.

I think they wear quickly.....We'll see, I've got a few hundred miles until I do a tire rotation. I'll grab pics.....just put them on last June.
 
yeah, NO MORE Neverlast brake stuff for me! My pads started squalling on monday, checked them today. The compound had dis-bonded from the plate! I am now trying the Carbon-Metallics, and hopefully, they will not be a problem. I have had Raybestos before, but, for some idiot reason, the local AutismZone can't get them anymore. My friend Robert that works there said that the C/M's are alot better, and that they should be fine for the abuse that my XJ gets almost daily. Time will tell...
 
Well, I pulled them off tonight, and saw the glazed look, haha.

Put the morse pads on the left side, bolted it back togeth.....uh-oh, snapped a bolt. Luckily it popped right out and I got some new ones right away.

Put the left side back together, went to the right, and noticed on the back side that chunks around the outside perimeter of the inner surface were chipping away slowly.

Good thing I had this problem, otherwise I woulda not found my dying rotor problem.

Back to Autozone for blanks. Got em in stock and hosed em down with brakleen and slapped it all back together just in time for dark.

I tell you what, those Morse Ceramics might be hard on rotors, but damn do they stop. It's like being on stock tires again!
 
My wife delivers mail and keeping brakes on her car is a chore. I've had better luck with the mid grade brake pads. Not the Duralast, but not the cheapest either. Duralast wore the rotors too much.
 
Well, after this weekend, the new Morse Ceramics and new rotors performed awesome under a crapload of abuse.

We'll have to see soon how the rotors look after this weekends event. They grab like crazy though.
 
Well, after a weekend of serious abuse, I will say that I got them hot enough to stink a little after running a 17 mile stage at speed, but they still grabbed like they were cool! In total friday-monday netted me about 580 miles on the odo, so with the tire offset, I'd wager 650miles or so.

I'll be interested to pull a tire off and see how they look.
 
I'm gonna be objective to the Duralast Brake Pads since I do work for Autozone.....I normally myself would reccomend the better pad but I realize people can't afford them all the time so they get what they can afford ....I tend to Educate my customers on all our autoparts to the best of my knowledge,and yes that includes who makes our Brakes. So Wheelin Jr I no I'm late on this post but those Morse Ceramics you have on your Vehicle are the same ceramics you had before,,,,,That's who makes the Duralast pads check it out if you don't believe.
 
Reopening an old thread, I'd suggest that who makes them is not necessarily as important as how they're made and to what specs.

I put Duralast pads on my wife's Volvo a couple of years ago and one of them lost its lining. It just fell right off. I got my money back on the pads, but it didn't cover the damage to the rotor. No more Duralast pads for me.
 
I am looking for new pads and rotors for my 97XJ. Around where I live, all the major parts stores seem to have their own private label brands now, making it hard to know what you are getting. I get the message to stay away from the Duralast pads and will certainly do that.

I would love a good pad and disk combination that works well and has as little dusting problem as possible.

Any suggestions?
 
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