Upgrading my brakes

[Freedom Motorsports]

So I got the rear eline rotors yest. Definitely a noticeable quality difference between the premium and eline.

There is no doubt, the Eline series rotors are not as high a quality rotor as the Premiums. The Premiums are cast from a higher grade iron (G3500 vs G3000), coated with a military grade electrocoat corrosion protective coating, are "double drilled", meaning that they have actually two rows of drilled holes between the slots instead of one row like the Eline's.

However, I will also say that I have actually tested the Eline's on my wife's 04 Denali with great results. I installed them on the Denali to test how they would work on our larger vehicles. They have been on the truck for about 18 months and around 17K miles and not only do the hubs still look good, the pads still have about 90% of the pad left. Brake fade was eliminated after the installation and has actually saved the wife a couple of times in tight spots. One in particular was when coming home from work one day in a hurry, she came around a blind curve and met a police check point and had to slam on the brakes hard to get stopped. I have am actually thankful I installed them because she barely got stopped without running through them, so if I hadn't installed them, she may have wound up in ALL KINDS of trouble. It was actually a good thing that she/we grew up with most of the cops because they jokingly told her to slow it down a bit and let her go on. But can you imagine if she had experienced the same brake fade as in the past? Yeah, it could have turned bad in a hurry.

My recommendation stands as this. If you are one that uses your Tahoe/Yukon for every day driving, never really hauling anything at all. The Eline series rotors would be just fine on your truck. If you however, are one that pulls boats, campers or whatever. You may want to choose the Premiums just because of the better cooling from the increase in drilled holes while also resisting warping better due to the higher grade iron. We don't haul or pull anything at all behind the Denali because I have other trucks for that, so in regular daily driving the Eline series have been GREAT rotors.

Let me say something else about the PosiQuiet pads. Although they are a low dust formula that hasn't dusted the rims hardly at all on my other vehicles; my 05 Silverado has the Eline rotors and Posi's on the front and drum brakes on the rear. Having the drum brakes on the rear has made a difference in dusting. The front pads, while not a ridiculous amount, have caused a little more dusting on the rims than on any other vehicle we have. So if you have drum brakes, you may see some dusting from the pads. I just wanted to put that out there.

 

[TheFuzz]

I talked to R1Concepts yesterday about this and was told that if the proper "seating procedur't followed at the time of installation, leading to possible noise, that if you provide a break in period of between 4-800 miles, the noise would subside once the pads were indeed finally seated in properly to the rotors.

I must stress again, proper attention to detail during installation of new brake parts, regardless of brand, will lead to a better overall experience with those parts. New parts installed without following a full and complete brake system service can lead to issues that may at times make it seem as if the new parts themselves are not all that they were promised to be. With that said, in the past 5-6 years that I have been selling these same packages, for Tahoes, Yukons, 3/4 & 1 ton diesel trucks and even class 8 trucks; I have never once had a customer have issues with the parts not performing as promised when a proper brake system service was completed during installation.

Thanks for the followup, Chris. I did seat them REALLY hard the other night, so I can't imagine the pads needing anything further as far as that goes, but if its actual break-in time they need that's fine.

Overall I am very happy with the eline setup for the money, night and day performance difference over stock. I also very much appreciate the level of CS I've gotten from you so far. Thanks again!

 

[akbrener]

So these rotors really just help dissapate heat, the pad is the real hero when stopping right?

Wouldnt holes and slots actually give the pad less surface area to grab and stop?

 

[08grey]

Holes and slots actually add resistance and add some bite. Pm ckkelly he is the man for r1 parts. I am happy with them on my denali.

 

[Freedom Motorsports]

So these rotors really just help dissapate heat, the pad is the real hero when stopping right?

Wouldnt holes and slots actually give the pad less surface area to grab and stop?

The holes themselves help with dispersing heat while the slots help improve pad bite and also keep the pads clean and help eliminate pad and rotor "glazing". The R1Concepts diamond slot design (how they actually cut the slots/grooves) help to do this in such a way that actually helps to also extend the life of the pads.

Installing ceramic pads on stock oem rotors or blank rotors, while being an improvement over regular oem or "lifetime" pads, will not net the same benefits as installing them with upgraded rotors as well.

 

[jonfo]

I installed my R1 Concepts rotors and pads on front and rear. The rear pads had a lot of life left on them, but the right rear inside pad was completely gone. I had always noticed a smell coming from the right rear when I would get out after driving for a while. I am wondering if cleaning and installing new pads and clips will fix this problem, or if I have to rebuild the right rear caliper?

Also, I was given 4 rear lines, and I only see two to replace. I attached a picture if you can let me know if this is actually the correct part that was shipped.

Thanks!

 

[JeRM number 9]

I installed my R1 Concepts rotors and pads on front and rear. The rear pads had a lot of life left on them, but the right rear inside pad was completely gone. I had always noticed a smell coming from the right rear when I would get out after driving for a while. I am wondering if cleaning and installing new pads and clips will fix this problem, or if I have to rebuild the right rear caliper?

Also, I was given 4 rear lines, and I only see two to replace. I attached a picture if you can let me know if this is actually the correct part that was shipped.

Thanks!

I had read through this thread bc my brakes were squeaking and I was considering upgrading. I decided to inspect what I had first. I don't need to replace anything, just clean and grease and we are all set no more squeak. But any way I had noticed 2 soft lines above the rear diff and had wondered if they were included in the pkg in this thread. Glad to hear they are. I may eventually splurge and get em.
If you take off the wheels you will see the soft lines at the caliper follow the steel line to around the diff and you will see the others.

---------- Post added at 10:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 PM ----------

Jonfo, if it is just 1 pad that has excessive wear, remove and grease your caliper guide pins that will probably take care of your wear problem. If your investing in premium pads, rotors and lines you should be doing that to all 4 calipers anyway.

 

[Freedom Motorsports]

I installed my R1 Concepts rotors and pads on front and rear. The rear pads had a lot of life left on them, but the right rear inside pad was completely gone. I had always noticed a smell coming from the right rear when I would get out after driving for a while. I am wondering if cleaning and installing new pads and clips will fix this problem, or if I have to rebuild the right rear caliper?

Also, I was given 4 rear lines, and I only see two to replace. I attached a picture if you can let me know if this is actually the correct part that was shipped.

Thanks!

Sorry I missed answering this until now. Yes, you should have four lines for the rear. Two lines for the calipers and two lines for over the differential. Exactly as stated above, he hit the nail on the head for the lines and for the one pad with excessive wear. Servicing the calipers can help that and should be done whether you are trying to keep using the old pads or replacing them with new pads.

 

[Danzigman]

Which direction should you install the slots on the rotors?

 

[Freedom Motorsports]

Which direction should you install the slots on the rotors?

Either way will work, but I have found and heard that installing them so that the slots are like this / toward the front of the truck. Some have seen better longevity out of the pads with them in that direction. The key thing to keep in mind is to make sure to perform a proper complete brake system service and then properly maintain the fluids often and you should be good to go with them installed either way. I have them installed both ways on my vehicles to test this theory, but they are all wearing so well that it is taking a long time to complete that testing.