I am in the process of changing out rear calipers on the truck in my sig due to a piston that is sticking. I have found a great deal on pair off of a '01 model. The only difference seems to be that the piston walls on the '01 calipers are about three times as thick as the one on the e99's.

Supposedly the '01's are designed for ceramic pads and the e99's are for semi-metallic. Is ceramic better at not transferring heat to the pistons or is it worse?

Is this going to present a problem, the extra thick pistons, as far as heat dissipation? Or, is there any other problem(s) that using these calipers might present that I am not considering?

I am aware that there is a right side and a left side for the '01 and the e99 is interchangeable side to side due to front and back mounting on the axle...so I would need two right side calipers using the '01's.

 

I can't answer most of your questions but I can tell you that I do not like ceramic brake pads. They are harder on rotors than semi-metallic and I would rather do the pads an extra time or two than replace rotors.

 

Phenolic pistons have a much thicker cross section, whereas steel are thin.

Benefits to phenolic, they dont transfer heat as quickly, they will not rust and seize in the bore if you have moisture in your brake fluid, and dampen noise a bit more than steel pistons.

Downsides? They tend to swell if you remove them, phenolic once heated too hot for too long will become quite brittle. Sometimes there will be a steel ring so it isnt directly resting on the pad shim.

Personally, I would go phenolic pistons. Properly cared for they work quite well.

 

Super! Thank you for the info. The guy swears the pistons are made of metal. I guess I'll take a magnet with me when I look at them.

How do you feel about ceramic?

 

Honestly, for friction material, I use Ford Super Duty pads because they are FMVSS certified and offer competitive coefficient of friction WITH excellent fade resistance.

Believe it or not, a lot of aftermarkrt pads are required to adhere to internal perfromance guidelines which FMVSS leaves up to the manufacturer. There was a report on numerous pads being tested by a law enforcement agency and most pads performed worse than factory.

Ford offers brown box pads (same as on assembly line), Super Duty, and Motorcraft. Brown box are only available when the vehicle is active on the production line, so you may have a hard time finding a set. Motorcraft are value oriented and not as good of a choice for towing as the fade resistance is not as good from the set I tried. Super duty pads dont seem to be sold as often, many dealers are unfamiliar with them but they can be identified by the blue backing plates. My price was same as Motorcraft value pads. They work awesome, have extremely low dust, no noise, and are wearing well.

I have tried Wagner, Wearever, Velvetouch, Ford brown box, Motorcraft value, valuecraft, Motorcraft Super duty, and bendix brakes. The highest performing pad has been the Velvetouch but those were extremely squeeky. Second best are Super duty pads.

As far as ceramic, have not gone full ceramic, so I cant offer any help there.

Whatever you go with, resurface or replace rotors and make sure to bed the brakes in! Good luck!

 

If you do use a magnet, set it in the center of the piston bowl. If you set it on the face it may stick because they sometimes have an iron based shim...

 

Thank you for the info.

 

i had ceramic pads on my 02, i took them off and put semi metallic pads back on it.

 

Thank you. I more than likely won't do ceramic.