What are your thoughts on NAPA severe duty calipers/pads? Also are NAPA rotors worth looking at? Any input appreciated.

 

i use them, and never had any problems in over 20 years.

 

I have been very happy with my napa slotted rotors , made by united , and hawk pads

 

I have the NAPA rotors and pads ion my truck now. They have been great. I have about 50K miles on them. I got the best rotor they offered and the best semi-mettalic pads they had.

Been Happy.

I notice just a slight warp now after 50K miles.

 

Had the expensive on my mom's old 85 dodge charger, and they were excellent. The only pad we put on that car that lasted for more than 6 months. Lasted 2 years.

 

I put a set of ceramic NAPA pads on my E350. They were downright dangerous and I removed them after a week. They wouldn't stop the truck! I put stock specification pads on it and it's been great ever since.

 

Having good service out of Motorcraft pads from Ford. Not too expensive and stops great

 

I put napa pads and rotors on my 250 sd and they squeeled from when they where installed until I had to replace them again.(THIS TIME WITH FORD PARTS).

 

What grade were they, the cheapest ones? Mid grade? Top?

 

Wow Bill, I have a set of the napa ceramics on my truck and they stop much better than the stock pads. Did you turn your rotors before the install? I have heard if you dont turn the rotors before putting on ceramics they wont stop very well till you cut the glaze off the rotors.

 

Is there a huge difference bewteen severe duty and regular pads?

 

I love NAPA. I've never had anything bad from them. Now autozone and advanced thats another thread all together.

 

I replaced both the pads and the rotors when I did the replacement. I broke them in for about a week and then took a trip with our 9500# car trailer behind the van. I was on a four lane highway and was running about 45 mph on a slight downgrade and the traffic signal at the bottom of the hill turned red. Ordinarily, I would have had plenty of room to stop. I was standing on the brakes and my trailer brakes were locked and sliding the tires, but the van wheels were still rolling. There was a car stopped in my lane so I swerved into the other lane and went right through the intersection (thankfully the car at the intersection saw my predicament and didn't enter the intersection). I pulled off the road and all four brakes on the van were smoking. I had another downgrade on the trip with a stop sign at the bottom of the hill, so I approached the hill slowly and geared down. Even then, the brakes on the van were smoking at the bottom of the hill. Also, the brand new rotors now had enough heat that they were warped. As soon as I got home, we replaced the new rotors and pads with CarQuest stock specification parts and, two years later, I still have great brakes.

I have a class B CDL and don't crowd braking distances and always keep myself in a position to allow plenty of distance to make safe stops. Those ceramic pads just didn't have the adhesion to grip the rotors enough to properly brake the vehicle. I've used ceramic pads on other vehicles in the past and didn't have this problem, but these must have been defective. We reported the problem to NAPA Corporate and they determined that the parts were unfit and gave me a refund.