Simple OEM Size Brake Upgrade...

[houston05tx]

I have some StopTech Slotted Brake Rotors, Centric Ceramic front Brake Pads on SS. Very solid rotors! I run my truck pretty hard! no cracks in these rotors!

[EXGM]

I have the Baer slotted and drilled rotors and have zero problems. Now I only have about 6k on them but so far seem good. I think if you go cheap they won't hold up but these were a lot.... Probably double what I could have bought a cheap set for. My wife's Benz with the AMG package has crossed drilled pizza platters and no problems with it either.

[CaptKirk]

Yeah I gotta say I'm not feeling the slotted causes cracks thing unless they were just some knockoff brand that were low quality to begin with.

 

Now drilled rotors, absolutely, especially aftermarket stuff. There are some OEM drilled and slotted that do just fine (Porsche does it) but these days drilled is all about bling and not needed in any way for performance. Old high performance pad compounds emitted a lot of gas and it had to go somewhere; drilled rotors helped.

 

Slotted does help prevent buildup of pad material on the rotor (which can make the rotor feel "warped") when you're really beating on them. Several OEM slotted applications and no issues with cracking. If you buy trusted brands then you should be just fine.

 

Richard

 

Agree, I see some super high performance brakes with drilled rotors too...but also, who knows how often they break/replace them.

 

Where in Houston are you guys at? I'm up in spring off 2920 - I see a red SS occasionally up here... maybe it's chevyss05tx

Edited September 13, 2016 by CaptKirk (see edit history)

[houston05tx]

 

Agree, I see some super high performance brakes with drilled rotors too...but also, who knows how often they break/replace them.

 

Where in Houston are you guys at? I'm up in spring off 2920 - I see a red SS occasionally up here... maybe it's chevyss05tx

I live in Spring too off of 2920. You have prob definitely seen me around, I drive around a lot! aint many red sss around that area.

[someotherguy]

West side! Though when I run around town I'm usually in the 300.

 

Richard

[CaptKirk]

West side! Though when I run around town I'm usually in the 300.

 

Richard

 

 

I live in Spring too off of 2920. You have prob definitely seen me around, I drive around a lot! aint many red sss around that area.

 

 

Nice well it was definitely you then chevy I've run into you probably 10 times since I moved here. If yall ever see a black ss hossing it around town it's probably me. I put miles on my truck like it's my job and I dont drive her easy hardly ever lol

[evildcustoms]

I have on 03 silverado ss as well and i did the Powerstop brake kit for the front, drilled and slotted, then i ordered the same kit but for an 07 tahoe for the rear, everything bolted right up and at least i have new calipers as well now. I also replaced every brake line with stainless. The brakes definitely outperform the stock brakes. But still not as good as i would like them to be, plan on doing the hydroboost in the future.

As far as the drilled and slotted concerns go, i live on a 20% grade rd that has about a 1000ft climb and i have absolutely zero issues with them so the powerstop kit has to be of descent quality. Also made sure to bed my rotors and pads in properly which is important.

[CaptKirk]

Alright- went and did the brakes last night. Install went fine minus one of the bracket bolts (18mm) getting rounded off. Ended up having to dremel it down to a 11/16 and hammering on a socket.

Anyway - my brake fluid might not have ever been done before... It's a DEEP dark green color. I sucked as much out as I could with a turkey baster, refilled and then bled the lines. I then went out to burnish in the pads. Everything went fine but the brakes still feel pretty squishy. While burnishing in, I felt they should bite a lot more so I stood on them once from about 45mph and wasn't able to even lock up the tires. Also, the ABS light is on as well. I thought I'd still be able to lockup the brakes with the ABS on.

Now I'm wondering if I got the ABS module all full of crap. Probably going to try and do a full system flush today. Any idea how much brake fluid that takes?

[SS-GTP]

Green is definitely not the right color and needs to be changed. I would not of sucked it out though. I just add new to the reservoir and push out the old stuff and keep re-filling the reservoir. Yes, your going to waste some new fluid as it mixes with the old but eventually you will just have clear fluid at each corner. At this point you probably have air in the ABS module and about the only way to purge that is to take it to shop that has a Tech 2 diagnostic tool and run the proper procedures.

[CaptKirk]

Green is definitely not the right color and needs to be changed. I would not of sucked it out though. I just add new to the reservoir and push out the old stuff and keep re-filling the reservoir. Yes, your going to waste some new fluid as it mixes with the old but eventually you will just have clear fluid at each corner. At this point you probably have air in the ABS module and about the only way to purge that is to take it to shop that has a Tech 2 diagnostic tool and run the proper procedures.

 

I've had a strained back and it wasn't feeling so hot in the morning after the 5 hours or so of wrestling rusted/seized bolts off my brakes last night. So I just dropped it off at a shop and told them to flush it, and flush it again. They were astonished at how bad it was. But now everything's working great and the fluid looks awesome. Brakes feel definitely improved but not as great as I was hoping, which is in alignment of what other's have found as well who haven't done hydroboost yet. I'll get to that a little later.

 

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

If any of yall would like to chime in on my next 'task' with the truck, head over to my new thread: http://www.silveradoss.com/forums/topic/89474-typical-engine-tick-became-louder-after-oil-change/

[CaptKirk]

Update...ABS light still going on and off. Getting the pedal vibration while braking at slow speeds. Wheel speed sensor?

[EXGM]

Probably a failed or failing wheel bearing.

[CaptKirk]

Okay I've done a good amount of reading around the past few days. It seems there's issues with older cars and their ABS sensors getting messed up when they age. Some claim rust starts to slowly separate the sensor from it's mounting spot in the hub and that change in distance from the spot on the bearing it measures causes it to engage the ABS.

 

Whatever it is, I guess I will have to try and investigate the wheel speed sensors and maybe clean up wherever they're mounted. Has anybody had this problem or done this before? The symptoms are very clearly ABS intervening when braking at SUPER low speeds as in just before you stop. I have no wheel bearing noises when turning or straight at any speeds.

Edited September 20, 2016 by CaptKirk (see edit history)

[CaptKirk]

Well, I haven't been able to get to this in the past few days, but I also haven't had the ABS light come on at all nor the vibrations coming to a stop. Just an update for anyone who may find this thread in the future. Maybe I got lucky..

[NolletSSS]

I had the same issue of a spongy pedal, and i mean spongy. The brake pedal would be on the floor and my truck would hardly stop. I did a small upgrade to the brakes and changed the pads and bled the piss out of the system. The same issues remained and the pedal would be on the floor and the truck wouldn't stop. WTF!! I bled the brakes and bled the brakes and bled them some more with same results. Finally I hooked up a Snap-on Scan computer that gave me access to the ABS, did the ABS self bleed function and felt improvement but not the best. I ended up doing the ABS bleed with the Snap-on tool about 10 times and my brakes have never felt better. After you do the ABS bleed you do have to do one final regular bleed at all 4 corners again as it purges the air and crap out of your ABS and puts it back into the lines. Again if you want great pedal feel and pressure do the ABS bleed with a scan tool that can access your ABS system, and you may need to do it multiple times but the ABS self bleed only takes a few minutes.

 

My brake fluid when I started this was also very dark green, so I do recommend changing brake fluid more often.

 

Brakes on my truck: Baer Eradispeed (larger rotors with relocation brackets for stock calipers), SS brake lines and new master cylinder. Truck stops great now and pedal feels 1000 x better.