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Ford F-150/F-250: Brake Pad Reviews

Because brake pads are responsible for your life, make sure you get the best brands for your Ford F-Series truck.

By Pizzaman711 - September 3, 2014

This article applies to the Ford F-150 (2004-2014) and the F-250 Super Duty (2005-2014).

Hawk

Wagner

Bendix

Price $70 $45 $60
Size 0.705 0.785 0.737
Performance Great for towing, harder driving Great for daily driving, better stopping Great for daily driving, short range stopping
Warranty Lifetime Lifetime Lifetime
Noise Quiet Medium Quiet
Dust High Low Low
Lifespan Long Very Long Long

Best Quality: Wagner

Best Value: Wagner

Upgrading your brake pads can be a headache. There are a lot of brands out there that offer similar features depending on what type they are. The three main types of brake pads are semi-metallic, ceramic, and organic. The stock F-Series usually comes with a form of an organic pad, which isn't the best unless the environment is your primary concern. Depending on the type of organic pad, they generally wear pretty fast, can generate a lot of noise, and a produce lot of dust. Semi-metallic pads have the same downfalls as organic plus quicker rotor wear, but have very good stopping power. Ceramic pads generally offer the best performance for the daily driver. They express very low levels of brake dust, they’re soft on rotors, and they provide increased stopping power over OEM.

Hawk

Evaluation

  • Great for towing
  • Great for harder driving
  • Generates a lot of dust
  • Hard on stock rotors and will wear them out faster
  • Generally quiet compared to semi-metallic pad
  • Longer lifespan than OEM pads
  • Limited lifetime warranty

For those who do a lot of towing, these pads are great, especially if you don't use trailer brakes in addition to your F-Series' brakes. These are also great for those who would rather mash the brakes to stop instead of slowly coasting up. The Hawk LTS pads offer better stopping performance than OEM for heavy loads and are made from a carbon metallic compound, which offers a higher heat resistance. This basically means the brakes are less likely to distort under heavy braking, so less brake fade.

Wagner

Evaluation

  • Great for daily driving
  • Better stopping performance
  • Extremely long pad life
  • Soft on rotors
  • Little dust
  • Not recommended for hard driving or a lot of towing
  • Brake squeal when coming to a full stop
  • Limited lifetime warranty

I recommend these pads for those who use their trucks as a daily driver and just need a cheap replacement. Cost wise, these pads are hard to beat. Compared to OEM pads, you’ll notice better stopping power and a decent bit less dust due to their ceramic design. However, even with the ThermoQuiet name, they do have some brake squeal upon coming to a complete stop.

Bendix

Evaluation

  • Great for daily driving
  • Superior short range stopping distance
  • Dust is minimal
  • One of the quietest pads on the market due to the high quality steel shims
  • Feel and responsiveness is better then OEM
  • Better pad life the OEM
  • Not recommended for towing or harder driving style
  • Limited lifetime warranty

I’d highly recommend these for the daily drivers. The cost is a little higher than the Wagner ThermoQuiet’s but these offer all the features of them plus they’re pretty much silent. These are great for the daily driver because the short range stopping distance on them is so good, which means they’ll perform great for those who get stuck in day to day traffic.

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