Trying to narrow down brake pad selection, but getting mixed signals.

[Mackelroy]

Yeah I know, the last thing BITOG needs is yet another brake pad battle, but I have a slightly different angle this time. My wife's daily is a 2014 Nissan Frontier and I've never been a fan of the brakes on that truck. The pedal always felt softer than what I was accustomed to with a lot of travel. I've done everything possible to firm things up but with limited results, apparently it's just a nature of the beast with these trucks. In 2020 I bought a new Silverado and the first time I touched the brakes I almost blew the air bag, quite the difference.

I was recently rotating the tires and noticed the front pads were getting a bit thin. I replaced the the factory bits several years ago with a PowerStop OEM pad and rotor kit, they're OK but I want to go a different direction this time. My number one priority is a firm pedal, which I never imagined could be affected by pad composition but apparently it is. I used to be a Raybestos fanboy and was considering the EHT series but now I'm hearing that they aren't the company they used to be. I also have the Akembo ACT for consideration but then I read a few entries complaining about a soft pedal which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. That leaves the front-runner, which for now is the Wagner ThermoQuiet, but now it's ceramic vs semi-metallic options. Decisions decisions...

The truck is used as a typical daily commuter, a mix of around town and freeway driving. I don't tow or haul with it anymore so that's no longer a factor, I just want a pad that will give me the best pedal performance possible. As always any advice is appreciated.

Me and a friend had same chevy 3/4ton truck in 1998, front oem brake pads lasted 25,000 miles.

Im a fan of Bendix, but normally have to be special ordered, nobody seems to carry.


I went to firestone one time, and had rear brakes installed (chevy colorado), what ever scrap brand they installed sukkd. Next I install bendix myself, very nice cause they work well. Then of course Bendix went on the front down the road.

 

[D1dad]

My nephew put carquest platinums on his truck and they’re pretty impressive. They look like a bendix pad and I gotta believe they are.

 

[Selmorides]

I did PowerStop Z17 pads and Geomet rotors in 2020 and they were great. Don’t ask me miles. I didn’t record it. Last fall I had a stuck caliper on the rear. Fixed that and did a pad slap on the other three with the same pads. The fronts were still good but I did them anyway. I’m doing the Tempest as soon as it warms up with Z23 pads just because I really don’t know what came with the conversion kit. I think PowerStop is as good as any other pad on the market unless you need a track pad maybe.

 

[DCDG]

I did PowerStop Z17 pads and Geomet rotors in 2020 and they were great. Don’t ask me miles. I didn’t record it. Last fall I had a stuck caliper on the rear. Fixed that and did a pad slap on the other three with the same pads. The fronts were still good but I did them anyway. I’m doing the Tempest as soon as it warms up with Z23 pads just because I really don’t know what came with the conversion kit. I think PowerStop is as good as any other pad on the market unless you need a track pad maybe.

For the money PowerStop is a great kit so overall you were happy with the cold bite and performance of the Z17 pads? I feel them to be adequate as long as I don't have 5 passengers and luggage onboard. Getting back into my wife's new car and driving a loaner for a few weeks made me realize how weak the Z17's are in cold bite. I am about to put an offer in on eBay for these Carquest Professional Platinum Ceramic Front Disc Brake Pad Set PXD1737H and see where it leads me.

Update - went with Wagner OEX's

 

[Dborch41]

I am a long time user of PowerStop I like em don’t get me wrong what I don’t like is even though they match the friction coefficient of the factory pads on my vehicle they do their own thing with friction materials not matching the OE friction material. As in ceramic-semi metallic-hybrid powerstop is ceramic with fillers or carbon ceramic plus fillers. My next pad purchase I’m venturing out to a pad manufacturer that labels OE specific friction material. I did once use BOSCH Blues for rears with O’Reilly rotors and had nice results.

I put a Powerstop OEM-grade kit on the rear wheels of the Frontier a couple of years ago. No complaints until I recently had the wheels off and noticed both rear discs were deeply grooved. There was plenty of pad left and the slide pins were free (I cleaned and relubed them anyway), but the rotors look pretty rough. I'll have to dig into the archives to see how many miles are on the brakes but it isn't that many and like I said the pads are fine. I wonder if this is a known issue with this particular kit.

Update wise, I went with the Advics pads up front and they work great but there was predictably no change in pedal feel. For more on that saga there's this very long-winded epic tale of woe.

 

[DCDG]

I put a Powerstop OEM-grade kit on the rear wheels of the Frontier a couple of years ago. No complaints until I recently had the wheels off and noticed both rear discs were deeply grooved. There was plenty of pad left and the slide pins were free (I cleaned and relubed them anyway), but the rotors look pretty rough. I'll have to dig into the archives to see how many miles are on the brakes but it isn't that many and like I said the pads are fine. I wonder if this is a known issue with this particular kit.

Update wise, I went with the Advics pads up front and they work great but there was predictably no change in pedal feel. For more on that saga there's this very long-winded epic tale of woe.

Nissan's tend to eat up rear brakes especially on the newer vehicles with trace control which is part of their stability/traction control system. I don't know if your Frontier has that in it's stability control. That's surprising to say the least if you're running the Z17 kit these pads have very little bite to do rotor damage I would have lost a bet because I would have bet the pads to have been fried like spam. If sliders move freely maybe at some point you had some debris trapped between pads and rotors just odd both sides.

 

[Dborch41]

Nissan's tend to eat up rear brakes especially on the newer vehicles with trace control which is part of their stability/traction control system. I don't know if your Frontier has that in it's stability control. That's surprising to say the least if you're running the Z17 kit these pads have very little bite to do rotor damage I would have lost a bet because I would have bet the pads to have been fried like spam. If sliders move freely maybe at some point you had some debris trapped between pads and rotors just odd both sides.

Yes, both sides of both rotors.

 

[ripcord]

One thing that can cause soft feeling brakes are rubber brake hoses that have too much flex and expansion. I put braided steel performance hoses on a 60s Ford Falcon I had and it really made a big difference in pedal feel.

 

[Dborch41]

One thing that can cause soft feeling brakes are rubber brake hoses that have too much flex and expansion. I put braided steel performance hoses on a 60s Ford Falcon I had and it really made a big difference in pedal feel.

That's the first thing I did, made little difference.
I think I was being a bit paranoid more than anything. I suppose if it was my daily driver rather than my wife's I'd have been less concerned, call me old fashioned but I tend to be somewhat overprotective in that regard.

 

[ripcord]

Have you used a scan tool to bleed the antilock brakes?

 

[pdxglocker9mm]

Nissan Rogue 2nd Gen 14-20. I watch DFC's YouTube channel they're founder and marketing guru talk a lot about how their company image is to provide OE matched friction material to each particular vehicle.

In 2024 I did pads and rotors on my parents 2016 rogue. I think I used centric posi quiets for all the pads. Centric rotors premium front, regular rear. Did a full brake flush. I think it had 47k miles. Should be good for another 40k.
Everything fit well. It stopped better after than it had before the repair.