Time for at minimum new front rotors and 4 pairs of pads. Done some comparison shopping. Thinking about doing front and rear slotted/cross drilled power stop rotors from summit racing and hawk hp pads. The hawk pads are well reviewed and a bit cheaper than comparable ebc ones. Anyone have good or bad experiences?
Are there cheaper rotors that get the job done? My stickers are warped pretty bad. Towing on roads like interstate 68, with it's 7 mile 7% grades, is hell on my brakes.

 

They don't actually warp; they develop non-parallel surfaces due to rotor runout and low rotor abrasive brake material. A change to a more aggressive friction material reduces the need for true running rotors, but it's still important.

Drilled rotors should never be used, drilling is only done to reduce weight for autocross. Slots are only beneficial if you exceed the thermal range of the friction material. Quality, higher cost friction materials are going to be fine on this vehicle.

The benefit of the Hawk LTS (recommended for this class of vehicle) is that it's thermal capacity is high so you don't need slots and it is more rotor abrasive then the stock pads on Excursions. Any full surface, high quality rotor will be fine, but buy the best. If you want to insure you don't develop pulsation from rotor thickness variation in the future it's best to index the rotors (which checks that you have good ones) to the service spec listed in the Ford service manual, no more then 0.0015" runout.

 

The Hawk LTS pads are fantastic and are a great match to the Excursion. I have the Raybestos R300 rotors up front on mine and regular Carquest rotors in the rear. I went with the slotted rotors just to try them actually - had Napa Premium rotors there previously and did not have any issues. Make sure you follow the bedding in process to transfer pad material to the new rotors.

 

I have Hawk Super Duty pads and stock rotors, boy what a difference the Hawk pads make.

 

Another vote for the Hawk Super Duty pads instead of the Hawk LTS pads.

 

I am not a huge fan of drilled rotors but they have been used by OEM's for 2 decades now on a variety of vehicles including heavy luxo-barges. The only instances of cracking I've seen documented have been both on a race track and dealing with an aftermarket non standard rotor/caliper fitment. Chamfering significantly reduces the chance of cracking. The only true slotted, non drilled rotors I've seen are outside of my price range. Slotted rotors deliver better performance than standard rotors, though its not understood entirely why. some believe its because of pad outgassing, some believe its because the slots get a better bite on the friction material on the pad. I'm not opposed to a standard, non slotted rotor but there are a billion brands and no way to judge quality. I don't have a dial gauge to index the rotors. I'm pretty set on my pad choice, but would like to know if anyone else has ran the power stop brakes. I'd prefer to get rotors from summit racing since they stock my brake pads and I'll be putting it on my summit credit card. but if there are good ones available for less somewhere else let me know.

 

these EBC plain rotors are $92 each and thats the absolute max I could spend on rotors. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ebc-upr7083

I don't see any other known name brands within my price range. those are cheaper than the ultra premium or either of the slotted ones that napa sells by a good bit.

I am not going to be as picky about the rear rotors, they just don't see the same heat as my fronts.

 

ebay brakes and rotors .... still working strong

 

What I was saying was that drilled rotors gain you nothing unless you are trying to loose weight. They can actually cause a thermal disparity across the rotor if the vanes were not designed for the holes.

>>Slotted rotors deliver better performance than standard rotors, though its not understood entirely why. some believe its because of pad outgassing, some believe its because the slots get a better bite on the friction material on the pad. <<

Not by the instrumented vehicle tests that I had to run unless it was due to the reasons I gave, the friction material choice exceeded the vehicles temperature parameters.

 

I spoke to Hawk before I chose the LTS pads and if you are towing heavy loads in hilly terrain they recommend the SD pads. The downside is increased dusting and possible noise as well as faster pad and rotor wear. I'm in flat country so went with the less aggressive compound. Both are excellent choices - If I had larger wheels/tires I would have probably gone with the SD pads even with the flat terrain.

Most of the rotors you see on OEMs (Porsche, Mercedes, Audi) are actually cast with the holes vs. having them drilled in. They are still very prone to cracking and will not last as long as a solid surface rotor but in the right environment can help with braking performance.

 

Theres no such thing as transferring pad material to the rotors. Some racers were able to do that years ago with old style pad material so the race would be consistent and it became a myth from that. This was already hashed over in here about a year ago. There is also about 10 ways to break in brakes but that's all a myth also. Not going to elaborate on it.

 

And no pads are better than just the cheapest, stock pads right?

 

That's all you need if you're not towing, mine serve me very well.
(Or if you don't drive like Russ)

My total investment for my front brake job was about $15 and I couldn't ask for more.

 

Then none of us would have very good braking.

The effectiveness of any braking event is very much improved by the very light material transfer layer onto rotors and drums rubbing surfaces. This is the light grey or brown coloration you see on the rubbing surface and without it we would be replacing rotors and drums quite often due to abrasive wear. All friction materials, organic, ceramic (which is organic with potassium titaniate fiber reinforced), and semi-metallic all develop a transfer layer to the rubbing surface.

"Organic", non metal reinforced friction has the propensity to spot transfer a heavy layer of material onto the rubbing surface if the constituents of the formulation are not considered carefully especially for the operating temperature range, or the friction compound has not been fully thermally processed before sale.

All friction material relies on the carbonization of the pad or shoes rubbing surface to operate properly. This is the dark material a few thousands of inch deep on the brake pads rubbing surface and what is transferred to the rotor. Some friction material compounds are not fully processed before sale or their composition requires a higher degree of heat to fully achieve ideal coefficient of friction. This is when a manufacturer will give a procedure to seat in the new pads. This however still does not fully achieve full capability that will occur in 500 to 1000 miles of normal use by polishing our the machining grooves in the rotor / drum and friction material surfaces as well as wearing in to full contact.

All new vehicle production line friction materials go through an intensive post press bake cycle as the vehicle manufacturers want almost full braking capability for their vehicles during a potential customer test drive. Aftermarket companies may or may not go through such a procedure. Often these materials a placed in an oven for extended time at an elevated temperature, which is way some pads are more expensive. Performance Friction illustrates another procedure using a laser to 'burn in' the pads surface.

However, even NHTSA understands that this condition does not present the best effectiveness achievable and requires a burnish procedure of 200 stop or snubs before performing the main stopping distance tests required by law. They also require the friction materials to be at an elevated temperature as they also realize that consistent and most effective braking occurs after a new transfer layer has been deposited on the opposing surfaces.

The trick in compounding these materials is to use binders and fillers that will only allow a transfer layer at a molecular level and not smear into a deposit of a few ten-thousands of an inch thick. When using high organic materials this requires significant research and experience while also using only premium and expensive ingredients. That is why it's often the cheaper brake products that develop the problems, and since it is with high organic products, you will not see the issue on heavy weight vehicles that require compounds that are high in metallic content due to the loads and temperatures.

 

Mine are metallic, no break in, and they work very well, I think you get too deep into it.