2008 Ram 1500 SLT 4x4 5.7L

Took to dealer for a few issues. Clunking noise. (Broken motor mount) Radio volume **** won't work right (Needs new radio) Seatbelt won't retract (Needs new Seatbelt) Fortunately, all covered under MaxCare warranty, but the seatbelts are on back order no ETA.

In any case, the dealer said I need new front pads and rotors. The truck is not lifted or used for any towing, just a daily driver.

I have used advance auto's platinum pads and Wearever rotors on a Jeep Grand Cherokee and they were fine. This will be my 1st time replacing the truck pads and rotors myself, and I could go the Advance auto route, with 25% off coupon for platinum pads and painted flat rotors about $137 all in with tax.

I was looking on Amazon and saw this set with zinc-coated drilled & slotted rotors and pads for $196 all in with tax. I admit I'm enamored with the look of the rotors but I know opinions vary on whether the slotted/drilled ones are any better than just flat ones.


Any experience with Power Stop products anyone can report?

Thanks in advance.

 

Powerstop is a good brand, but drill land slotted rotors aren't good on a truck as they tend to crack. This is all opinion mind you, but google "cracked drilled and slotted rotors" an you'll see

 

Back in the day, when brakes pads had real issues with outgassing when they got hot, drilled/slotted rotors were the 'answer' to the problem, giving those gases someplace to go, aside from keeping the pads off the rotors. Todays compounds are far superior, and there is no longer a need for such workarounds. I personally don't like the drilled rotors, for the reasons MoparFanatic states. They give the metal lots of nice places for cracks to start. They really don't contribute anything to brake performance.

 

Holy heck this made my day

 

I went through this same decision process two years ago. I ended up getting drilled rotors and performance pads for my truck. It has been a good decision so far.
The "support" sections of web sites for companies like stoptech, powerstop, EBC, and Hawk have great info on brakes that will help you with your decision. There's too much info on these sites to summarize them accurately. But I would tell you that if you're going to get performance pads (higher friction than OEM), then you should consider performance rotors and DOT 4 brake fluid.
Check the temp range for the pads you are considering and compare it to the boiling point of your brake fluid.
Drilled rotors keep rotors 180 degrees cooler on average. They also have to absorb more heat per area than blank rotors because there is less metal surface on drilled rotors.
Modern pads do off-gas. See EBC site and look up "brake fade".
Good luck, lots of good options out there. I also got the red calipers and they still look very good.

 

Thanks for all of the input.

I just went with the plain old Advance Auto Platinum Pads & Rotors.

One other question came up. The dealership said the old pads and rotors were at the bare minimum. The pads were toast, that was easy to see. The manual says the minimum thickness for the rotors is 26.4 mm. The old rotors were at about 27.4mm for the right and 27.2mm for the left. No pits or gouges. I'm just wondering if I really needed new rotors? The new Advance Auto ones were about 28.4mm, as a reference.

 

Depends on how much you need to take off to get a clean surface again. Just slapping the pads in there, and running 'em *works*, kinda, but, isn't recommended. That said, it's getting really hard to find a place the will resurface rotors any more.....

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess with the new rotors only costing $39 each all in with tax, it probably wasn't worth the time and hassle to get the old ones resurfaced. I might have saved $20 total or something, and maybe had rotors with a razor-thin margin left when all was said and done anyway.

 

Pretty much. And I suspect that is why not many folks offer the service any more either. Even brand new rotors are very close to the discard thickness.....