My 2012 FX4 has 26K miles and the brakes were starting to squeal. I figured this would be a good time for an upgrade. I liked the Powerstop kits offered through Stage3Motorsports, but should I get the z16 ceramic pads or the z36 truck pads?

All the reviews I could find online, including this forum were for the ceramic pads. The truck pads were advertised as more bite and less fade for towing (which I have never done) or if you have bigger wheels and tires (which I don't, but I plan too) and for trucks in general because they are heavier. I decided since I drive a truck, I should get the truck pads and then I will be set for future events. My wife told me I should but some volcano insurance, too.

With no reviews, I decide to be the guinea pig for these.


Here are all 4 rotors. The box the kit came in was kinda smashed up, and the front rotors had stickers labeling them as rear. I double checked the part numbers stamped on them through Powerstop's webside and everything was correct.

Fronts


Rears


Boxes for the pads


And what's inside


This was an install I probably could have done myself, but I'd never done brakes before and didn't want to screw it up, so I took it to a local place and they installed them for me. I also had the brake lines flushed and fluid replaced with new DOT4 fluid. Volcano insurance.

After I got the truck back, I tried my best to follow the bed-in procedure, but could be difficult in traffic. 5 runs from 40mph to 20, then 5 more from 35 to 5. When I'd reach a stoplight, I put the truck in neutral and let off the brakes to not transfer material in one spot and induce "warping".

Results: They are quiet. Drove with windows up and down and there was no discernible noise I could hear. Awesome! However they dusted like a ****. I expected that, not too upset. Maybe they will dust less after broken in. Stopping power? I haven't mashed on them yet to really test it. I'll give it few more days until they're good and ready before I try.

Rears installed


Fronts installed

 

Nice!

I'm pretty sure you need to get on them hard for the bedding/burnishing process. Find an empty lot and do what you said but get on them.

 

Here's an update. I noticed on the passenger front side, the pad was not making full contact on the rotor based on the wear pattern. In addition, the caliper didn't look like it was sitting properly on the rotor. i took it back to the shop that did it and they said, "nope, normal, you just need longer to break these in."

Not satisfied with that I took it to the dealer. They told me that both inner pads were installed on one side and both the outer pads were installed on the other side. I paid another $100 to Ford to fix that issue but that's for another post.

Going to retry the bed-in procedure. These z36 pads dust a lot. No way to sugar coat it. Hopefully that goes down after a final bed-in attempt. Good news is they are still quiet.

Anyone know if in the future I could put on the ceramic pads without changing rotors as well?

 

Good stopping brakes will dust, a lot. It's just the nature of the beast. There soft and grip well causing lots of dust. My Hawk HPS pad dusted a lot as well but worked great, after 10s of thousands of miles they never dusted less. So don't look forward to them producing less dust as they wear.

Wayne

 

What's the long term verdict on dust? Was that just a break-in side-effect, or do these always dust more than OE brakes?

 

Z7What answered that. Pads are generally the same material throughout, so dust will be the same throughout the life. Most EBC pads do have a small coating for the break-in, those might be slightly different in the first week, but then everything after that should be the same.

 

I'm running these same pads and rotors on the front of my truck. I couldn't stand how dusty the factory pads were so I replaced them at 5k miles. The new pads were very dusty on break in but are significantly less dusty than the factory pads. Have 20k on them now and still very happy.

 

https://www.f150forum.com/f53/will-s...2/#post5691191

 

Yea, the front pads are "Inner"/ "Outer" specific. I went with Brake Performance slotted and dimpled rotors with semi-metallic pads. I have back issues, so I had them installed at a local garage. I told the guy, the front pads are inner/outer specific, and that the rotors are slotted, so they are driver side/passenger side specific. Went to pick the truck up and noticed right away he had the front rotors mixed up, so I had him pull the truck right back in before I would take it. But dummy me, I forgot to check on the pads. I left the garage and went right out to seat the pads. Didn't feel right. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the front pads that I noticed that the pads on the front passenger side were installed wrong. Half of the rotor wasn't getting pad contact. And it was on a Friday, so I had to wait till Monday before I could take it back. Once I got back over there, and I had him correct his mistake (at no charge), I went out to reseat the pads. This time it felt much better, but still didn't feel right. The next day I decided to go out and do the seating process again. After that it was noticeably better, in fact great. At first the brake dust was pretty bad on the front. But after a few weeks it settled down to a manageable level. I occasionally tow my Polaris Ranger in a 7'x'14 enclosed trailer. I really noticed a big improvement in stopping power with the new rotor and pads. It's been about two years. The brakes are still performing real well.