metelhead
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2010
- Posts
- 138
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This place is the bible for anything Tahoe related obviously, however sometimes there's almost too much info too!
I know when I was researching recently for Brakes I scoured everything in print to get the low down on the 'best' rotors, 'pads', fluid...etc.. Ultimately what I found was there was countless opinions on the what worked and what's the best...kinda like 'tires', brakes are something I feel its really important to do 'right' (and maybe more so than any other part or upgrade), so I took this task on gathering as much data points as possible, balancing performance with budget. Given the opportunity, my 1st choice would have been a 'Big Brake kit no question, as the stock brakes are the weakest link on the vehicle in my mind. However that wasn't even close to an option for me, so finding a good rotor and pad pairing was going to have to due.
My 2009 LT has 195k miles all driven my me, I have done full brakes(rotors/pads) twice, and just pads twice over those miles, all being more of less 'stock' replacements, the only upside to the stock I have found is the longevity....but other than that they suck! But I hadn't realize just how bad they suck until I recently did brakes without the stock parts.
For the record, I drive for a living more of less putting on 30-40k per year. And living in the PNW means a whole lot of weather driving (mostly the wet kind) with lots of hills, all of which is tough on brakes....and mine for cooked in each and every way from fluid to rotor!
This is the kit I ended up buying, largely due to quite highly reviewed most places (including other forums from Toyota, to Titans to get more complete idea), but budget was also a high priority (not that I mind spending money on my rig, but I like to spend it wisely). I looked at all the EBC products, StopTech, Baer, and Hawk. I choose the Powerstop kit with Extreme pads (ceramic blend pads), which where supposedly 'paired' with rotors- which who knows what that means, could just be 'paired for profit' IDK.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Stop-K...hevrolet:tahoe&keywords=2009+tahoe+power+stop
I ended up doing the brakes in two parts, as I thought I only 'needed' fronts, when I actually 'needed' rears more. Spent around $400+ for F/R, plus new brake pins/bolts and some good high temp DOT 4 fluid to round it out.
After break-in procedure completed, I'm really pleased with the performance I'm seeing/feeling, in fact from 'the seat of the pants' I'd say stopping distance has gone down quite a bit. I'm still getting acclimated to when I need to start braking again, I keep misjudging the distance and am coming up a car length or so short.
We had a whooping 2" of rain yesterday and the roads where rivers, but very quickly I found every bit of confidence of driving around like perfectly dry streets (except for the hydroplaning
. Impressive.
The difference over stock is amazing, I wish I had done this on mile 1 instead of 195k...now I want more power to go with the braking.
I hope I'm as happy now as I will be in 40k. We'll see, the slotted/drilled rotors could shred the pads in no time or they could last a bit too- either way if braking performance continues I'll be ok with that.
I know when I was researching recently for Brakes I scoured everything in print to get the low down on the 'best' rotors, 'pads', fluid...etc.. Ultimately what I found was there was countless opinions on the what worked and what's the best...kinda like 'tires', brakes are something I feel its really important to do 'right' (and maybe more so than any other part or upgrade), so I took this task on gathering as much data points as possible, balancing performance with budget. Given the opportunity, my 1st choice would have been a 'Big Brake kit no question, as the stock brakes are the weakest link on the vehicle in my mind. However that wasn't even close to an option for me, so finding a good rotor and pad pairing was going to have to due.
My 2009 LT has 195k miles all driven my me, I have done full brakes(rotors/pads) twice, and just pads twice over those miles, all being more of less 'stock' replacements, the only upside to the stock I have found is the longevity....but other than that they suck! But I hadn't realize just how bad they suck until I recently did brakes without the stock parts.
For the record, I drive for a living more of less putting on 30-40k per year. And living in the PNW means a whole lot of weather driving (mostly the wet kind) with lots of hills, all of which is tough on brakes....and mine for cooked in each and every way from fluid to rotor!
This is the kit I ended up buying, largely due to quite highly reviewed most places (including other forums from Toyota, to Titans to get more complete idea), but budget was also a high priority (not that I mind spending money on my rig, but I like to spend it wisely). I looked at all the EBC products, StopTech, Baer, and Hawk. I choose the Powerstop kit with Extreme pads (ceramic blend pads), which where supposedly 'paired' with rotors- which who knows what that means, could just be 'paired for profit' IDK.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Stop-K...hevrolet:tahoe&keywords=2009+tahoe+power+stop
I ended up doing the brakes in two parts, as I thought I only 'needed' fronts, when I actually 'needed' rears more. Spent around $400+ for F/R, plus new brake pins/bolts and some good high temp DOT 4 fluid to round it out.
After break-in procedure completed, I'm really pleased with the performance I'm seeing/feeling, in fact from 'the seat of the pants' I'd say stopping distance has gone down quite a bit. I'm still getting acclimated to when I need to start braking again, I keep misjudging the distance and am coming up a car length or so short.
We had a whooping 2" of rain yesterday and the roads where rivers, but very quickly I found every bit of confidence of driving around like perfectly dry streets (except for the hydroplaning
. Impressive.The difference over stock is amazing, I wish I had done this on mile 1 instead of 195k...now I want more power to go with the braking.
I hope I'm as happy now as I will be in 40k. We'll see, the slotted/drilled rotors could shred the pads in no time or they could last a bit too- either way if braking performance continues I'll be ok with that.
