SoonerLS

I'd have to go back and look at my receipts to be certain, but I'm pretty sure they were under $3 each from the dealer. I want to say they were somewhere around $2.50 each.
My guide bolts looked fine, so I reused them.

biscuit141

Mbullock, Did you ever contact Centric?

Bully, those rotors are supposed to be electro coated with some type of rust protection. I wonder what happened.

21RRF150

iTrader: (1)

In the process. But going on experience, i doubt they'll be able to do anything. I don't have any of the paperwork associated with buying them. As I've moved 3 times since I did them for this thread. Got lost in the mix. I bet they will want proof of purchase, which I can't provide anymore unfortunately.

biscuit141

I'm just curious what they say is the cause. That kind of wear seems strange even for a cheap rotor.

biscuit141

I'm just curious what they say is the cause. That kind of wear seems strange even for a cheap rotor.

jetrep

2012 XLT w/ 41k miles. Brakes have pulsated somewhat for a good two years but worked fine. Recently they were squeaking pretty bad.

Outer surfaces and pads of both rotors were fine. Both inner rotor surfaces had a heck of a groove in the center section. Quite a bit of material remained on outer pads. Inner pads had little material left and wore with a significant taper. Slides had plenty of grease and moved freely.

The truck does sit sometimes for a month at a time. The pads were surprisingly difficult to remove. I wonder if they were seized in the bracket. Those caliper bracket mounting bolts were a bitch to remove. I did one side manually but broke out the impact for the other side. I still had to break them loose with a breaker bar before the impact would move them. They had no corrosion on them but there were obvious signs of threadlocker. Must be good stuff.

I replaced with ACDelco 18A2461 rotors $69.98 each and Wagner ThermoQuiet QC1414 pads $36.13 from Amazon.

KP Texan

Yeah, I noticed my old pads were fairly tight when I went to remove them. I didn't need a hammer to remove them or anything, but I did need to kind of twist them a bit.

I also noticed getting my new pads in wasn't a piece of cake. The little stainless clips wanted to fall off sometimes, and the pads were a bit tight fitting in the bracket. I'd say it was the most frustrating part of this brake job (not overly difficult, just a tad annoying).

Did most of you guys experience the same thing when installing your new pads, or should I have filed the pad ears down some to make them fit a little more loose? What can I do to tell if they are dragging because of this? Jack up and spin tire and/or check rotor temps with infrared thermometer? I'm really hoping I don't need to disassemble to fix this...

Platinum_Sean

Yup- installing the pads was a bear! What I did was, once the pads and rotor were off, put the caliper back on the bracket, with no pads or rotor, and swing up (leave the top bolt in), the caliper part. With clear access to where the clips go, wire wheel clean the channel there. Right to new metal. Even a spec of rust will keep the clip from going in flat and that will screw up the pad travel. Once down to clean metal, brake lube that part, push the new clips in, little lube on the top of the clip where the ears of the pads would travel, then, put the new pads in. I found twisting mine slightly to start, then twist to flatten worked real well! This, after about 20 minutes of swearing.

Once the pads are in (and the caliber compressed), remove the bracket/caliper, still only 1 bolt in, put the rotor on, replace the bracket , slide the caliper down, tighten things back up.

The other side took minutes to do using this technique.

KP Texan

Yeah I thought I cleaned out those areas pretty well where the clips sit (they actually looked pretty clean when I pulled the clips), but sometimes the clips still wanted to pop off a bit. Uggg. I really don't want to pull this apart again and, if I do, hopefully I can clean it up without removing the caliper bracket since those bolts are one time use. I used my infrared thermometer to check rotor temps when I got home yesterday and both sides seemed pretty consistent, although a bit warmer than the backs (understandable since most braking is on the front).

ACTIV68-69

Been over 2 years since I've posted but, in the interim, I have gained insight by reading here.
I just finished the front brakes on my '09 and am adding my experience here as I know others probably refer to this thread. Thanks to the OP.

I was surprised to find that the bracket mounting bolts were 18mm, not 21mm as with others posting here. Also, the pads were identical inside and outside, no ears on either; this applies to the ones the dealer had put on at 68,000 and the pads from NAPA ("Adaptive One") which I used. My truck is 4wd, XLT, 6 bolt wheels, disc brakes all around.

The best tip I'd pass along is for those who have difficulty pulling the caliper off the rotor due to the width of the rim of the rotor outside the swept area of the pads. I agree with pfbz (#30 above) that whacking the caliper with even a rubber mallet is not a good idea; I couldn't easily use a big screwdriver as he suggested, but found that clamping the caliper to push the pistons part way into their bores made removal from the rotor easy. In fact, since the pistons will eventually need to be pushed all the way in, this is a good time to do that. A pair of woodworking clamps placed so they clamp the back of the caliper body and the openings in the caliper opposite the pistons did the trick. For me at least, pushing the pistons in while the caliper is still mounted this way is easier than juggling the caliper and C clamps when it is hanging free.

BTW, the truck has 138,000 miles on it and the original rotors were turned at 68,000 that's also the only time pads have been replaced. Primarily a grocery getter (50% highway miles) but I've hauled heavy loads of barkdust, firewood, etc. I'm easy on brakes, always try to watch traffic far ahead and anticipate slow downs.