Brake Life

R Q

R Q

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Charlotte
My work truck is an '07 Chevy 3500 with 12' dump bed. 6.0 and 4L80E. I pull a 14' single axle trailer every day. Two mowers, a skid sprayer (100 gal empty tank with reel), and regular lawn equipment. GVW probably 12k max. Trailer brakes may live 4-6 months after I rebuild them and then I don't even notice them anymore. I got the truck with 65k on it in 2017 and it was pretty fresh. After a couple years the rear calipers started going bad and using up pads and the chirp alerts for when the pads were worn never alerted me so I got into the rotors each time. 12/30/22 I replaced rear rotors, calipers, pads, and rubber lines with AC Delco gold parts from Rockauto. Today at a stop light i heard and felt the grinding. Got home and laid on 97 degree driveway and started pulling them apart. Right side pads are gone and they've been into the rotors for a good 20% of the outside of the rotor.
Calipers and pads are warranty, rotors aren't.
I drive it about 11k per year so this last brake life span was 15k max., probably 12k since I should have redone them a couple months ago.
I feel like it eats brakes. ESPECIALLY these Rockauto AC Delco rotors and pads! They are GONE!
What do y'all think? (and recommend)?
 
Not sure other than to say it weird it’s the rears as they are not the primary braking in the F vs. R scenario…. Something is fuckey….
 
skyhighZJ said:
Not sure other than to say it weird it’s the rears as they are not the primary braking in the F vs. R scenario…. Something is fuckey….
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Yep and front rotors are shiny and have never been touched, pads neither. Old 14 Bolt drum brakes never needed ANYTHING and you couldn't tell even when you did do something to them.
 
i had a 05 3500 duramax with a utility bed and it would wear 3 sets of rear pads to 1 set of front. Don’t have any advice, was a company truck and they just replaced them and sent me down the road, mechanic said it was odd it wore brakes like it did
 
I'm guessing it's a DRW truck, but if SRW, how do the rear tires wear compared to the fronts? When I'm towing heavy for a while (7500+ on the rear axle), the tires and brakes wear faster than the fronts. 12k doesn't sound right, but maybe the pad compound is part of that. I was getting the "fleet duty" semi metallic. Ceramic would probably be fine as well.

Incidentally, I'd love to know what pads are on the suburban. They were there when we bought it, and almost 70k later they're still looking good. Ceramic of some sort, but I don't know whose.
 
shawn said:
I'm guessing it's a DRW truck, but if SRW, how do the rear tires wear compared to the fronts? When I'm towing heavy for a while (7500+ on the rear axle), the tires and brakes wear faster than the fronts. 12k doesn't sound right, but maybe the pad compound is part of that. I was getting the "fleet duty" semi metallic. Ceramic would probably be fine as well.

Incidentally, I'd love to know what pads are on the suburban. They were there when we bought it, and almost 70k later they're still looking good. Ceramic of some sort, but I don't know whose.
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DRW and by 12k GVW I mean that's about what it weighs loaded on a daily basis. When I go to the landfill, it's 10,700 unloaded with the trailer on it.
 
RoosterRash said:
i had a 05 3500 duramax with a utility bed and it would wear 3 sets of rear pads to 1 set of front. Don’t have any advice, was a company truck and they just replaced them and sent me down the road, mechanic said it was odd it wore brakes like it did
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Both my 02 half ton and 02 2500hd do that same thing.
It seems to me the GMT800 are heavily rear biased when it comes to brakes.
For the GMT900 they went to rear drums and bigger front brakes.

@R Q : maybe, knowing this, you could look into installing bigger brakes on the trailer and more aggressive pads in the front?
 
Bebop said:
Both my 02 half ton and 02 2500hd do that same thing.
It seems to me the GMT800 are heavily rear biased when it comes to brakes.
For the GMT900 they went to rear drums and bigger front brakes.

@R Q : maybe, knowing this, you could look into installing bigger brakes on the trailer and more aggressive pads in the front?
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The calipers and pads are warrantied with Rock Auto so they'll go back in for now but I think I will start replacing pads each winter. I'll be assessing whether the fronts are even working once I get the rears done tomorrow when parts get here. I never had issues with the old 14 bolts with drums...
 
I am also a big fan of PowerStop stuff. You don't necessarily have to run the drilled/slotted rotors, they have solid ones too, but I did notice they seem to have better metallurgy than "stock" replacement stuff. I also like their Z36 carbon-ceramic pads. Good bite, some dust, and no heat fading.
 
Rock Auto stuff, ‘16 5th gen 4Runner I just aquired, the magic of looking for the lowest miles I wanna afford is taken away by the one previous owner Drivng just long enough it needs brakes, and shocks and struts…… one owner, 112720mi runs very well, bounces down the road once suspension warms up, put tires on it And looked at the brakes and they’re about gone…. I can’t fucking win. It’ll be a nice ride soon enough

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Blkvoodoo said:
Rock Auto stuff, ‘16 5th gen 4Runner I just aquired, the magic of looking for the lowest miles I wanna afford is taken away by the one previous owner Drivng just long enough it needs brakes, and shocks and struts…… one owner, 112720mi runs very well, bounces down the road once suspension warms up, put tires on it And looked at the brakes and they’re about gone…. I can’t fucking win. It’ll be a nice ride soon enough

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Thanks.
 
Does your truck have ABS or not? Is it the "classic" 2007 or the "new" 2007? Since it is a chassis-cab I am betting it is the "classic" without ABS. If so it probably has a proportioning valve that may be stuck or needs replacement.

Check the glovebox sticker for RPO code JVA or JK4, if it is one of those then you probably need a new proportioning valve:

 
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