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Time for new brakes on my F150

thestrangebrew1

Diamond Member
I have 2014 F150 xlt with 75k miles on it. Looking into changing my brakes and rotors but this will be my first time ever doing the work. The truck isn't my daily, but I do drive once or twice a week to work. I tow, but not regularly, maybe 5-6 times a year. Looking around, I see the Powerstop Z36 as a set that would be good for occasional towing, and it's got drilled and slotted rotors. People love them but they're pricey and I'm wondering if they're overkill for my needs. If overkill, what are some other brands you guys use for your brakes and rotors? Also, better to do all 4 corners, or can I go with up front for now and rear later/vice versa or do it all at once?
 
Do you tow right at your weight limit, or a good % of that, down long mountain roads? Did you experience any loss of brake performance before they were near worn out? If not,the Powerstop are overkill, the stock brakes are designed to handle normal use up to the full tow rating.

However if you have experienced brake fade from extended application, like going down long hills, you might want to flush the brake fluid at this point, if you haven't yet. All 4 wheels, starting with furthest away (via the brake line routing) and so on till the nearest the ABS module. That is a topic onto itself, make sure the master cylinder reservoir doesn't go empty to keep air in the line or there are tools or have a mechanic do it.

Have you checked your brake pads for wear and rotors for uneven wear? Normally there is no need to do both the front and rear axles at the same time, just the left and right sides of same axle at same time. The main reason to get all 4 done at once is if it is more convenient and cheaper to have a shop do all 4 at once. Otherwise, front vs rear seldom wear out at that close to the same rate, so it makes far less sense to replace all 4 at once if DIY.

Your vehicle is extremely popular, supported by practically every major brand pad or rotor and all should work fine for their intended purpose, though cheap pads tend to be noisy. I just wouldn't get some generic Chinese brand pad or rotor that nobody has heard of besides on ebay or amazon, and some brands offer a lower tier rotor (in addition to their higher tier(s)) that may not be machined to as tight a tolerance which can accelerate wear, glazing and pseudo-warping hard spots on the rotor. The lower tier "can" work fine but that's the nature of a wider tolerance, that one may be closer to perfect than another specimen.

If you're not pushing the limits, you'll get longest life out of non-slotted or drilled (blank) rotors, and standard semi-metallic pads, though your original equipment pads may be ceramic and if you *upgrade* to semi-metallic for more stopping power than you need, you'll have better cold weather performance (at first, it does not take long for a brake pad to warm up) but also a lot dirtier wheels. Your vehicle is capable of towing several thousand lbs and has/had brakes to do that.

When you aren't towing, your stock brakes (in good condition) exceed the traction that street tires can provide. They're set up for more than twice your vehicle weight. The tires will lose traction and ABS will kick in before the stock pads or rotors (again in good condition) become the limitation in braking.

This is different than on some sedan, but if you do tow more than ~2 tons down long hills, extreme duty semi-metallic pads and slotted rotors might be the ticket, as well as coated rotors if you lve in the rust belt because that keeps cooling air flowing through their vanes better, though you now have 7 years on it, the coating usually doesn't last that long, and there will be the trade-off of shorter rotor lifespan with higher friction coefficient pads.


Given the high # of viable choices, it might help to know where you intend to buy them. I usually get pads or rotors at Rock Auto or Amazon, or locally at Autozone the Duralast Gold lifetime pads for vehicles I plan to keep past the next pad change (but not their rotors which are more overpriced for what they are and no lifetime warranty). They don't even care if pads you bring in for exchange are completely worn out or not.
 
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I have 2014 F150 xlt with 75k miles on it. Looking into changing my brakes and rotors but this will be my first time ever doing the work. The truck isn't my daily, but I do drive once or twice a week to work. I tow, but not regularly, maybe 5-6 times a year. Looking around, I see the Powerstop Z36 as a set that would be good for occasional towing, and it's got drilled and slotted rotors. People love them but they're pricey and I'm wondering if they're overkill for my needs. If overkill, what are some other brands you guys use for your brakes and rotors? Also, better to do all 4 corners, or can I go with up front for now and rear later/vice versa or do it all at once?
I tried the powerstop setup. Rotors with holes and slots, some super duper unobtainium brake pads. They worked exactly as well as the stock setup, and lasted about as long. Right now I'm running the latest in new fangled pads that are supposed to stop you with a thought and last into the next decade. They work just as well as everything else, and will most likely last 30k.
My advise is to buy quality name brand parts. They all stop the same, and they all last about as long.
My 150 is a work truck, tool boxes, lumber racks, and often pulling a dump trailer. I get 30k out of the front brakes and around twice that out of the rear.
 
^ Ford doesn't make pads or rotors, nor is there anything special about them, so if you want to do the work to figure who made them, you could buy the same thing under the manufacturer brand for significantly lower cost but in this application there are several major brands that would be just as good.

In fact Ford uses different suppliers for various reasons on different models and/or model years, including Brembo, Varga, PBR, Bendix, Bosch and probably more. Even they aren't that picky...
 
I put the powerstops on my 3500 Ram truck, not because I tow particularly heavy, but because the sale price was cheaper than any autozone or O'Rielly's prices for rotors, pads, and calipers. It was around $700 for the whole truck.
I had an issue with one of the brackets. There was a partially stripped hole, and I contacted powerstop. Their solution? Send me a whole front caliper set, and did not want the old parts back. I had asked them to just send me the one bracket.
That was great customer service.
 
Drilled and slotted rotors always seemed gimmicky to me.
I question the need to change the rotors if no severe warping or abnormal wear is occurring. Guide pins might need replacement if the pads are not wearing straight.

AcDelco Professional is likely OEM grade. EBC Redstuff or Hawk might be better, might be the same as OEM.
45-50 dollars should be good enough to get OEM-equivalent pads.
 
Thanks guys! There is some absolute good info on here for me to contemplate. I'll probably skip the powerstops then and just go with a cheaper option. I don't tow maxed out, my trailer is only 6200lbs fully loaded. But I do go up and down the sierras and coastal range to get to the beach a few times a year. I'm actually taking a quick trip up the sierras this weekend since they've opened up some camping spots for overnight camping. When I get back from that trip I'll start looking at products a bit more.
 
i put the z36 pads on my sierra 1500. i tow in the mountains occasionally, and once in a while very heavy. I use the stock AC delco rotors as they are a bit heavier than some of the aftermarket stuff. skip the slotted/drilled as it has been proven that it does not do anything but reduce your surface area of contact with the pad. I have been very happy with the z36 pads, and would use them again. dust is not bad, they stop better than the stock when hot.

every 30k? holy hell. i usually get 50 to 70 out of a set of pads, and we drive I70 over Eisenhower pass every few weeks.
 
^ Ford doesn't make pads or rotors, nor is there anything special about them, so if you want to do the work to figure who made them, you could buy the same thing under the manufacturer brand for significantly lower cost but in this application there are several major brands that would be just as good.

In fact Ford uses different suppliers for various reasons on different models and/or model years, including Brembo, Varga, PBR, Bendix, Bosch and probably more. Even they aren't that picky...
They do attach the Motorcraft name to their products so people know said product had their direct blessing. Unlike the cars themselves, some parts sold under the brand are actually pretty good.
 
Thanks guys! There is some absolute good info on here for me to contemplate. I'll probably skip the powerstops then and just go with a cheaper option. I don't tow maxed out, my trailer is only 6200lbs fully loaded. But I do go up and down the sierras and coastal range to get to the beach a few times a year. I'm actually taking a quick trip up the sierras this weekend since they've opened up some camping spots for overnight camping. When I get back from that trip I'll start looking at products a bit more.
If you are willing to experiment, I would try out a Hawk or EBC Red- or Yellowstuff pad of the same material that comes with the F150. It's worth taking a chance as they claim to be better than OEM at stopping power.

Anecdotally, I have recent experience with EBC Red Stuff on a Corolla, but I have lost calibration regarding how well OEM Toyota pads worked because I used cheap pads the last two times. At least initially, I felt more in control of the vehicle with Red Stuff. I also probably need to do a brake fluid change...Supertech sauce sucks compared to Toyota OEM.
 
They do attach the Motorcraft name to their products so people know said product had their direct blessing. Unlike the cars themselves, some parts sold under the brand are actually pretty good.
My oldest Ford is now 22 years. I have never bought an OEM part for it including brakes, when a 3rd party major brand replacement was available and never regretted that.

Yes an OEM name is some assurance of quality, but after a certain # of years it isn't even likely that the OEM part # you buy is the same exact part it came with from the factory. Any major brand name is also an assurance of quality, as long as it isn't the type of part where they just stuff whatever they could source at lowest price, into a box with their name on it, for example soft brake lines.

As far as the vehicle itself, my TCO has been remarkably low through the first 15 years then still very manageable due to DIY and low parts cost because I didn't fall victim to the idea that it needs to have Motorcraft parts. Motorcraft parts are nothing special, median grade parts at premium part prices. This is also true for any of the vehicle manufacture branded parts. Commodity items (rather than body/trim) they don't make themselves and there is no good reason to buy OEM unless you just don't want to think about it or can't figure out the equivalent replacement from a 3rd party.

Buying OEM commodity parts is something done out of ignorance. At the same time, the amount of research to educate an owner about this could be valued at more than the difference in parts cost. Some people can hunt down info more efficiently than others, and some value their time more than others, but in the current state of the epidemic, spare time seems more plentiful than ever.
 
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I also probably need to do a brake fluid change...Supertech sauce sucks compared to Toyota OEM.

There is zero difference in braking power between one brand of brake fluid and another (even the cheapest auto parts store brand), though if you are talking old fluid that somehow got contaminated with water, sure that will have some fade under extreme conditions and needs replaced with same or any other (doesn't matter) fresh fluid to get rid of the water in it. Odds are that you just have some air in the lines, but the same DOT # fluid from any brand also has similar water absorption rate. Same thing would happen to any brand given same storage and use environment.

At the same time if a manufacturer makes a poor decision to use seals that are not compatible with standard brake fluid, then you are saddled with using their compatible fluid, but it won't perform better, rather won't eat up the seals long term or in the case of silicone, isn't hygroscopic.
 
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There is zero difference in braking power between one brand of brake fluid and another (even the cheapest auto parts store brand), though if you are talking old fluid that somehow got contaminated with water, sure that will have some fade under extreme conditions and needs replaced with same or any other (doesn't matter) fresh fluid to get rid of the water in it. Odds are that you just have some air in the lines, but the same DOT # fluid from any brand also has similar water absorption rate. Same thing would happen to any brand given same storage and use environment.

At the same time if a manufacturer makes a poor decision to use seals that are not compatible with standard brake fluid, then you are saddled with using their compatible fluid, but it won't perform better, rather won't eat up the seals long term or in the case of silicone, isn't hygroscopic.
Perhaps the bleed was indeed not perfect and some air is in the system. Whatever the case, the suckage has been stable for the past 4 or 5 years since I've changed it.

Brake fluid meet the same bare minimums but they have different additives that can improve certain properties at the expense of others.

I did buy a bottle of Castrol DOT4 Advanced performance series, since apparently, according to at least a couple Amazon reviewer, it is a new version of Castrol LMA, which engineered for British cars with systems that were vented. Perhaps overkill on a Toyota, but I don't feel like doing another bleed on a vehicle that is 13 years old/approaching 200k for another 7-9 years. Since it is engineered to last in a system that has a built in weakness to moisture, it should more durable in the more closed systems of more conventional modern vehicles and slow the internal corrosion caused by water absorption.
 
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