Time to change the front pads on my '00 Durango SLT. Is it better to go for semi-metallic or ceramic? Don't ceramic pads ruin the discs? Also wondering about the brands. There's too many: Wagner, Bendix, Monroe, Power Stop, Bosch, Centric. How do I choose? Please help.

 

I go with the middle of the road ceramic pads from my local parts store. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive. I've personally not found one brand better or worse than the other. Wagner, Brake Best. I'm not one of these to spend the ungodly amounts of money on the expensive brands for my daily driver. Buying from your local parts store also will get you a lifetime warranty and you don't have to worry about shipping anything anywhere if you should run into issues. My 2 cents.

 

Do you see any disc wear with constant use of ceramic pads? How do they fare when cold?

 

I've never observed abnormal disk wear using ceramic, nor cold season issues. Most (if not all) vehicles come off the assembly line now with ceramic pads.

 

I would not use regular ceramic brakes on these trucks. The brakes are already undersized as it is, and those will have even less friction. Your best bet is a set of semi metallics. I tried a set of plain ceramics (ac delcos) once not knowing better, and they were garbage compared to the autozone semi metallics. Had them on for a couple weeks before replacing them with a set of EBC yellowstuffs. The EBCs work great but they do dust like all hell.

Now ceramic blends can be a bit of a different animal. My only experience is with the powerstop ones. I replaced the oem pads on my Charger with the powerstop z26 (or whatever their higher performance muscle car ones are) and they work great. They respond better than the oem brakes and they barely make any dust. I think a set of those will be going on my Durango next.

 

i ran the bendix ceramics on my durango and they were great.

as far as rotors go, with the complete absence of places to turn rotors around me i replace them every time i do the brakes anyway so rotor wear has become a moot point.

These are the ones i put on my 02, and they worked great.



That_guy, comparing the charger to the durango just isnt a good idea, they are completely different classes of vehicle, i would never put ceramics on my challenger, but then thats my toy and i demand that it work at 100% all the time and dust/wear be damnd, thats why it gets a set of high performance street/track pads (wide temperature range semi-metallics, EBC yellowstuff), if it was a track only car i would be putting metallic brakes on it for better temperature resistance.

EBC makes their ultimax pad which is an OEM type material, advertised as equivilent but in my experience with them improves pedal feel and response as well as stopping power for daily driving, reasonably priced performance with better durability (exactly what you want for a daily driver)

 

Been running these TRW ceramics on my Dakota since last year, with no issues. They stop great and are low dusting.

 

I believe That_guy has a 99 and you have an 02 right? If so, That_guy has the same worthless front brakes I have on my 98. You have different calipers and pads on your 02 and they're much better than the 98-00 I think were the years. I'm going to swap mine to the newer front brakes when my current set of pads wear out. But yeh it takes better pads on the earlier 1st gens just to get them to stop correctly.

 

the 98-02 had the same size rotor and brake pad (iirc) the upgrade to dual piston brakes and larger rotor was for the 2003 model year(this i am certain of), and it accompanied the conversion to 4 wheel discs (instead of drums on the rear).

while the 98-00 and 00-02 may have slight differences in brakes (mounting, hydraulic attachment point ect) i believe that they were functionally equivalent as far as rotor and brake size.

I was looking to do the same conversion on mine at one point, here is the data i managed to gather, the prices may be out of date, but the necessary parts was determined using parts manuals available in the FAQ thread here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

 

I use to go through my brake pads and rotors faster then I thought was normal with my 2000. I would feel the wheel vibrate which mean't my pads and/or rotor needed changing. So I switched to ceramic pads for Wagner. But the BIG BIG key was that I also got new rotors that are SLOTTED from rockauto. The new pads and these rotors have made a huge difference and I have had the same pads and rotors for 75k plus miles. I think my 2000 is at 178k. So I recommend you go ceramic, full bleed the brakes all around, and get the slotted pads. I think mine had holes and slots but slots are proven to be better then the drill holes.