NAPA Proformer Brake Pad Review

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I have posted a few times about how i havent been happy with my 2003 Suburban Braking.. I found the issue while doing a complete brake job.

Rear- Removed OEM rear rotors with 230K miles and perhaps OEM rear brakes. Pad had about 1/8 inch left so it was time and the rear rotors were rusted badly. Replaced with NAPAs cheapest 'Premium' rotors and their cheapest Proformer Semi Metallic Pads.

Front- My buddy replaced the front rotors and pads for me before i bought it off of him. With 20000 miles mostly towing and running heavy I didnt expect to see the pads looking nearly new. I had to PRY the backside pads off and chisel them out with a hammer, they were stuck firmly on the clips. I cleaned everything up and lubed the pins..and noticed that the backside pads werent going in..if i hammered them in they would.. so i began filing the ears and the edge of the pad that lay in the clips. Trial and error i filed for about 30 minutes until they installed and moved freely. Replaced with Proformer Semi Metallic Pads.

Lubricated Pins clips and ears with Sil Glyde. Lubricated mating surfaces of caliper to pad with anti-seize.

Bedded pads in then let rest overnight.


Test Drive- Drove through the country over some hills and mountains then into town. Braking was vastly superior to before the brake job as I suspected. I dont know if i could put myself through the windshield but it was impressive stopping compared to what it was. No brake noises, but it never had any before.. On the way home I was driving down a pretty steep hill and got it up to 60mph and did a panic braking scenario as if there were a deer in the road-- straight and to the point no fuss it stopped as it should.


All in I have about $35 in the pads front and rear. Visually out of all the pads that I looked at the Proformers looked the best with bonded and riveted shims. The DOT friction code was FE, whereas the Platinums and Severe Duty were EE or FE also.

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If something happens like noise or premature pad wear I am going to order online next time.. its just too hard to figure out whats in the box at the brick and mortars and from what I could tell 'Premium' and 'Ultra Premium' or other fancy words like 'Gold' or 'Platinum'..dont mean a thing when it comes to brake pads.. just the price.
 
You might see a slight improvement in fuel economy if all the pads are free moving now, and fully retract when the pedal is released. Slight, but you need all the efficiency with such a big rig.
 
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Your brake job saga sounds almost like what I did for a friend's 98 Tahoe, but you didn't get a defective caliper from Cardone to throw a wrench into the works. I used Wagner ThermoQuiet Ceramics and those pads slipped in easy but the inboard pads didn't clip in with a nice snap.

I used aerosol disc brake quiet against Wagner's wishes and Permatex's silicone brake lube on the caliper to knuckle sliding surfaces after a wire cup brushing of the knuckles. So far, so good.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach


a defective caliper from Cardone


So many reman parts these days with problems...they must be using the cheapest labor and very little quality control downstream.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
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Your brake job saga sounds almost like what I did for a friend's 98 Tahoe, but you didn't get a defective caliper from Cardone to throw a wrench into the works. I used Wagner ThermoQuiet Ceramics and those pads slipped in easy but the inboard pads didn't clip in with a nice snap.

I used aerosol disc brake quiet against Wagner's wishes and Permatex's silicone brake lube on the caliper to knuckle sliding surfaces after a wire cup brushing of the knuckles. So far, so good.



How are the Thermoquiets doing? They are the only pad i could put my hands on that were GG rated.. i read so many reviews of them that I gave up.. half said worst pads ever because of noise and ate rotors, the other half said best pads ever and quiet with no dust and easy on the rotors.
 
Originally Posted By: nascarnation
Originally Posted By: nthach


a defective caliper from Cardone


So many reman parts these days with problems...they must be using the cheapest labor and very little quality control downstream.


Yep, the caliper appeared fine but I wasn't able to get the caliper on. The area where the locating lug for the outboard pad was damaged and that core should have been rejected.
 
Originally Posted By: krismoriah72
Originally Posted By: nthach
thumbsup2.gif


Your brake job saga sounds almost like what I did for a friend's 98 Tahoe, but you didn't get a defective caliper from Cardone to throw a wrench into the works. I used Wagner ThermoQuiet Ceramics and those pads slipped in easy but the inboard pads didn't clip in with a nice snap.

I used aerosol disc brake quiet against Wagner's wishes and Permatex's silicone brake lube on the caliper to knuckle sliding surfaces after a wire cup brushing of the knuckles. So far, so good.



How are the Thermoquiets doing? They are the only pad i could put my hands on that were GG rated.. i read so many reviews of them that I gave up.. half said worst pads ever because of noise and ate rotors, the other half said best pads ever and quiet with no dust and easy on the rotors.




I've had mixed success with ThermoQuiets - the Tahoe seems to be braking good, I used the semi-met version on another friend's 99 Explorer and he tells me they're doing fine. A old friend of mine says the TQs I installed on his Subaru are fine but I drove it the other day ago and I can feel a little shimmy during braking, brakes were at the 40% remaining point so I think rotors are due. The ones I used on the Subie were dimensionally shorter than the OEM Hitachi pads, but they aren't clunking.

I for one will not use them on a Toyota or Honda product. My old Lexus did OK with them but there was a clunking noise that was there from the start and then a squeal. That was caused by a combination of the Wagner pads having shorter dimensions than the OEM pad which caused them to shift and the caliper pistons cutting into the IMI backing plates. A friend's old Civic hated them from the start. Those cars do best on OEM or Akebono. I had luck with Monroe as well.
 
Originally Posted By: nascarnation
Originally Posted By: nthach


a defective caliper from Cardone


So many reman parts these days with problems...they must be using the cheapest labor and very little quality control downstream.


You got that right! Long gone are the day you could buy a part new or reman from a parts store and expect it to work properly, many times it does not, the failure rate is staggering.
I bought some reman calipers from AA put them on the car and the the bleeders were leaking, they had buggered the bleeder seats on both. The ones they brought out to replace them were so badly pitted one was not structurally sound.

I don't use AA, AZ, etc much anymore for hard parts unless its a brand name like Walker, SMP, Bosch, etc.
NAPA has decent parts, the defect rate is significantly lower, their eclipse reman calipers are good. The brand new Raybestos calipers from Rock Auto are also a decent product and priced right.

I did use the Proformer pads just last week on a Toyota Corolla with the premium rotors and eclipse calipers, no problems 15 min a side.
They told me the car needs to go another year and it had one seized caliper so the package was cost effective.
The pads are fine, nothing special but totally serviceable, not boat anchors but stop okay.
 
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