Brake pad chioces for 1999 XJ

[saburai]

Hi Gang!

Haven't posted much of late but I've been lurking...

Anyway, it's time to replace my Hankook ATM RF-10 tires. While I was poking around, I noticed my brake pads were getting a bit slim and thought while I had the wheels off I might as well replace the pads. I'm looking for recommendations for pads. I am primarily concerned with on road safety - wet performance, good pedal feel and of course shortest stopping distance. Twice a year, we tow a loaded 5x8 V-nose trailer Florida to New York. The trailer does not have brakes, so that's a concern as well. The XJ has been converted to ZJ rear discs and for a lifted XJ, she stops pretty well.
Any input or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FordGuy1]

Hi Gang!

Haven't posted much of late but I've been lurking...

Anyway, it's time to replace my Hankook ATM RF-10 tires. While I was poking around, I noticed my brake pads were getting a bit slim and thought while I had the wheels off I might as well replace the pads. I'm looking for recommendations for pads. I am primarily concerned with on road safety - wet performance, good pedal feel and of course shortest stopping distance. Twice a year, we tow a loaded 5x8 V-nose trailer Florida to New York. The trailer does not have brakes, so that's a concern as well. The XJ has been converted to ZJ rear discs and for a lifted XJ, she stops pretty well.
Any input or info would be greatly appreciated!

I have been using the EBC pads and they work great when they warm up.

 

[mtnman90]

I use Black Magic pads. They're well priced and came very highly regarded by others in the Jeep community. I'm not one to make claims about products (e.g., my throttle body spacer gave me 25HP!!!!), but the braking performing is significantly better than typical pads from Autozone or Advance Auto.

If your rotors are in crap shape, consider Centric. They're also excellent.

 

[Jakes01234]

http://www.blackmagicbrakes.com/

Also went with the black magic pads. Be sure to follow the break in procedure. I have been very happy with them so far with 8k miles on them so far.

 

[comptiger5000]

I'm running Hawk pads on my ZJ (the HP superduty pads up front, HPS in the rear). They dust a good bit, especially the fronts. And they're a little noisy at times under light braking. When stone cold in the winter, the bite isn't great. But once you get a hair of heat into them (or in the summer), they stop pretty damn well (and they take heat well, it's tough to fade them, although not impossible).

 

[briboki]

I did black magics when I had my '99. They were great. Will put them on the jk when it's time.

 

[iluv83vettes]

Black Magic here as well on my XJ. But really they are WJ fronts and ZJ rears.

Also make sure to get centric premium rotors.

Couldn't be happier.

 

[iluv83vettes]

Honestly I wonder why anyone would buy anything for a Jeep except the Black Magic pads or the very cheapest option.

 

[saburai]

Thanks gents,
EBC and Hawk are both highly regarded, do you think that the Black Magic pads are better? Has anyone here run both?
My rotors are in good shape, rears have about 20k on them. Funds are very tight. I was considering the option to just do the pads, thoughts?
Thanks for the input, keep it coming!

 

[Jakes01234]

As long as the rotors are not glazed and you can give them a good cleaning and then break in the pads properly you should not have an issue.

 

[FordGuy1]

Thanks gents,
EBC and Hawk are both highly regarded, do you think that the Black Magic pads are better? Has anyone here run both?
My rotors are in good shape, rears have about 20k on them. Funds are very tight. I was considering the option to just do the pads, thoughts?
Thanks for the input, keep it coming!

Online they are fairly cheap, but spend the extra 25 bucks and have the rotors machined if you can. Starting with a proper surface will help insure a good bed in which will give you the best stopping power, it sucks to do the job twice. We used to do pads slaps for people all the time and they flew back non stop, its not worth it.

 

[comptiger5000]

That's the only downside to the hawk pads I'm running up front. They're pretty rough on rotors. As in, burns up a set of rotors in 1 set of pads.

 

[saburai]

That's the only downside to the hawk pads I'm running up front. They're pretty rough on rotors. As in, burns up a set of rotors in 1 set of pads.

Don't really care to do that. Any input on the other choices as to rotor ware?

 

[comptiger5000]

Don't really care to do that. Any input on the other choices as to rotor ware?

I don't personally have any (haven't run anything else that's aggressive and stops well on this ZJ). But at the same time, the rotor wear isn't a huge issue. I ran my last set of front pads for 45k miles and could have run another 10k or so on them (needed to do rears and figured I might as well do all 4). Even with the amount of mileage I put on the ZJ, that's 2.5 years on a set of pads and rotors (and the rotors aren't expensive, the Centric premiums go for $34 each from Amazon).

 

[saburai]

Update:
After a phone conversation or two with Blane, the proprietor of Black Magic, I installed Centric rotors and Black Magic pads all around. After brake in, the BM pads have exceed my expectations by quite a bit and Blane was great to deal with. In addition to a few hundred miles of mountain road daily driving, I just pulled a too heavy trailer from the Catskills to Long Island and the pads are better than anything I've used in the past. Thanks for the recommendations gents!