Dodge Durango; front disk brakes scorching hot---grrrrrrrr

[SirFshAlot]

I threw in some new pads last month before heading to Yellowstone, as they were stinking everytime I braked coming down canyons.

They still stunk on the trip through Yellowstone.
Then I started getting a grinding sound, as though the rotors were being ground. I kept looking and feeling the rotors, and they seemed good.

I finally got fed up with it and took off the recently installed pads, and could tell they were not good. They had uneven surfaces, and seemed lamost as though they had minute cracks through them.
I took them back to Auto Zone, and the parts guy tells me they are burnt.
Proceeds to ask me the silly demeaning crap of "what kind of driving are you doing?"

I asked to get credit, and upgrade to the best pads they had, which he does.

The grinding sound stopped, and it brakes more efficiently.
But, I can still smell a little brake burning on downhill braking.

What's the deal?

98 Durango
v8
38k miles

 

[shiner]

What's the grade of the hills you are driving on? I have a 2000 Durango and have driven all through the Rockies without a problem like this..........

 

[bmacd]

dunno, but i like the new durango R/Ts. They are truly beautiful. 5.9 liters of muscle, no?

-=bmacd=-

 

[Jzero]

I thought brake pads really need to break-in for a few hundred miles before you start going hard on them?

 

[Howard]

What kind of rotors do you have? If they're plain (doesn't matter if they're solid or vented) and aren't cross-drilled or slotted, maybe the gasses aren't being released.

 

[Stark]

Take your foot off the brake.

I used to drive up to Lake Arrowhead 5 days a week. On the way down I'd usually pass one or two tourists just riding their brakes for miles and miles down the mountain. You could smell their brakes before you even caught them on the road.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Break-in is generally only 100 miles or so, and I'm fairly sure that anyone who can install his own brake pads would know how to break in the brake pads. I'm assuming that he's got overdrive locked out while descending the canyons and using a low gear for descending the steeper inclines in order to get some engine braking. I'm pretty sure that he's also pulsing the brakes instead of keeping them applied all the way down too.

Since he's probably doing everything right, it might just be that he got bad brake pads the first time around.

ZV

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: bmacd
dunno, but i like the new durango R/Ts. They are truly beautiful. 5.9 liters of muscle, no?

-=bmacd=-

the 340 owned the 360 :|