I use Akebono.
Traverse and equinox.

Rock auto definitely shows front pad akebonos
2 lines below the rears..
I did a search on 2012

 

Ceramic?

 

1) Best brake brand for the front brakes,
2) Ceramic or Semi-Metallic? I don't know what I have currently, but they have been working great for the life of the Traverse (now with 115,000 miles)

My choice is AC Delco Ceramic. Put them on my Tahoe and they were still at 1/2 pad after 50k miles when I had to replace the Northeast salt belt rotted rotors. I did a complete brake job at that point (Calipers, hoses, pads and rotors) because I now plow with it.

 

Ceramic..... for the WIN

 

Just so you know, I have to type the name Akebono in to get to see that selection. My normal view only shows the Rear brakes in the Premium section.

Thank you all! Ordered.

 

I'm not impressed with the Akebonos that came on my '20. 39k and shot, 80% highway driving also.
Raybestos Element 3 pad / rotor kit from RA went on as replacements.

 

No matter what we run in the rust belt, we're going to get less than half the life out of pads/rotors than non rust belt climates see.

 

True but my T is a winter garage queen.

 

I'll be honest, I don't really know where the "rust belt" is. I live in Houston. We don't use salt on the roads and I never drive my vehicles on the beach in Galveston.

 

Rust belt are the old, cold,northern industrial towns like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh.

 

5 year old / 100k mile So-Cal rotors...... They'll go 200k..... easy.
Ceramic pads play so nice, with the rotors.

 

If you’re going to replace the pads, I suggest AkeBono pads, along with Drilled and Slotted Rotors, at least on the Front. You can get decent prices on Amazon for both.

 

I would feel like a idiot , driving around a Soccer Mom / Mini Van with drilled and slotted rotors.
And the brakes have little to do with stopping power. Stopping power is determined by friction between the tire and the road.

Mini Van tires = Mini Van stopping power, no matter the brakes.

I have never been in a situation in Wifey's 2020 3LT, where I wished I had more braking power. OEM works fine for me.

 

My plan is to change out just the pads with new clips, clean and grease the inserts, lube the piston rubber rims. My current pads are still at 4 and the rotors are in good shape. If I really need to do rotors too, that's a significantly harder job for me. But if I have to, I will...

 

If I really need to do rotors too,

High-Carbon rotors = WIN

 

I recommend Drilled and Slotted Rotors to minimize or eliminate Rotor Warping not to increase Braking power. I put 5 Sets of Rotors in 5 years on my Wife’s Minivan due to Rotor Warping including top of the line NAPA Rotors. The first 3 sets were put on by the Dealership under warranty, the other 2 set were out of pocket.

Since I replaced the solid rotors with Drilled and Slotted Rotors, I haven’t had ANY Brake Problems for over 10 Years, so I don’t feel like an idiot, I feel pretty smart, and I have never been in a situation where I wished my Brakes would stop shuddering, because I Fixed the problem with Drilled and Slotted Rotors. I felt like an idiot when I was throwing my money away on OEM (POS) Rotors.

And for what it’s worth, I neither Tow or Plow, but If you do Tow or Plow, do you not have a potential for more heat when Braking? If you experience Brake Shuddering on steep down hill grades or find excessive rotor warping, Drilled and Slotted Rotors may help.

 

I put 5 Sets of Rotors in 5 years on my Wife’s Minivan due to Rotor Warping including top of the line NAPA Rotors.

Guess what? The rotors were not the issue.

 

Ok, what was it?

 

So if you went thru 4 AC Delco water pumps and 1 Napa water pump, it's the water pumps that are bad..... Right?

😅 😅 😅

 

I did a little investigation on this issue 10-12 years ago and here’s what I believe the problem is. The Rotors are just plain too small for the Minivan. Was Chrysler possibly trying to keep the weight down? This is a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. I compared the Rotor sizes on a 2008 Challenger, a 2008 Dodge Ram Pickup Truck and the 2008 Grand Caravan. All 3 vehicles were Dodge vehicles, and the Curb Weights were all within 400 lbs. of each other (According to the Chrysler website). The Caravan had the smallest diameter and/or the thinnest Rotors of the 3 vehicles. So In my humble opinion, it is a design flaw. The OEM Rotors are just too small, and warp due to the Heat. At the time, there was a LemonLaw website about this problem and there were many Minivan owners with the exact same issue.

If it was not the Rotors, it certainly fooled at least 3 Dealerships and a couple of independent Garages. Some may think it is poor driving habits like Riding the Brakes, but that is blatantly false. My wife does not Ride the Brakes, and her driving habits have not changed, and as I previously stated, I have not had any Brake issues on this Minivan since I had the Drilled and Slotted Rotors installed, except for having to replace the front pads after 10 years of Driving on the Drilled and Slotted Rotors.

 

I did a little investigation on this issue 10-12 years ago and here’s what I believe the problem is. The Rotors are just plain too small for the Minivan.

It's the same problem for any make/model minivan. I know it was for me and we owned a 2001 Ford Windstar, a 2008 Honda Odyssey, 2013 Grand Caravan and a 2017 Nissan Quest. The windstar had rear drums. The rest were disks all the way around and I'd be lucky to get ~35K miles out of pads/rotors on them.

In the case of the SMA video I mentioned above, that was is a later model Kia minivan.

 

It is a known, proven fact that drilled and slotted rotors have more surface area than solid rotors, which provides for better cooling, and reduces Warping. I honestly couldn’t tell you how much cooler (I’m sure someone did a study) but obviously it reduces the heat by enough to minimize warping. In addition, not that it would add to the problem, but I live in Arizona, where summer temperatures reach 115°, so I’ll take all the help I can get.

Going Forward, if I have to replace Rotors on any vehicle, I’ll be happy to spend a few extra dollars to get Drilled and Slotted Rotors. I have them on my Grand Caravan and my Traverse.

 

UPDATE: I did my very first brake pad & rotor change yesterday on my 2013 Acura MDX (it needed it first). I watched a number of videos and other than some brake fluid overflow, it went off smoothly. That's in HUGE THANKS TO ALL OF YOU who have helped me figure these things out. Dealer & 2 repair shops wanted a minimum of $600. So I saved about $400 off of that (brakes, rotors, brake grease, 22MM socket I didn't own, and a Breaker Bar, but I already owned antiseize and a 17MM socket). Weird thing though, when I removed what was on there, there were NO separation springs installed on either fronts. I was sure to put the springs on the new pads though. Now they're all done and they're silent & strong, so the Mrs. is very pleased.

When my Traverse rotors come in, that'll be the next one done. When I got new tires at Firestone this week, they said that my front brake pads had 3s on the outside and 8s on the inside. Both the back brake pads had 5s. What is the likely cause of the uneven pad wear on the fronts? It's both of them. Just wondering if I may need something other than new pads & rotors.

 

Weird thing though, when I removed what was on there, there were NO separation springs installed on either fronts.

Most likely the last person to install brakes on your Acura, didn't put the springs in. They can be a pain in the a$$ and some people just toss them.

With your Traverse, just make sure everything slides nice and easy. A couple of other people in here had the same uneven wear with their front pads. That's usually an "Up North" problem from the rust. Grease the caliper pins and lightly grease the new shims, and again, make sure everything moves nice and easy. HTH

 

Inner or the caliper side pads always wear more then the outer side pads.
That's why the wear sensors are on the inside pads.
Initial bite is on the caliper piston pad before it ''pulls over'' the other side so more wear on it. Only difference would be in a caliper with pistons on both sides of the caliper like in certain high performance applications.

 

Inner or the caliper side pads always wear more then the outer side pads.
That's why the wear sensors are on the inside pads.
Initial bite is on the caliper piston pad before it ''pulls over'' the other side so more wear on it. Only difference would be in a caliper with pistons on both sides of the caliper like in certain high performance applications.

My inners are at 8 though and it's my outer pads (without the squeelers) that are down to 3.

 

ALWAYS scrub out the pin holes with some kind of cleaner/degreaser, and re-lube.

 

I did rotors and pads a while ago (20,000 miles), got everything from DetroitAxel.com drilled and slotted rotors with pads at a good price. Did front and back, they stop much better than OEM and don't rust up here in the mid west. They got here in a couple of days with free shipping. They are worth looking in to.
Mine is a 2011.

 

love Detroit axel. For all of my cars, well except crossfire. Can usually find better deal on Amazon, than the actual Detroit axel site. IMO

 

Detroit Axle doesn't make anything. It's all imported chinese junk. No thanks

 

 

On my wife's Acura, I used this for the Calipers:

Hope that was alright. I didn't scrub them out with a brush though, but after lubricating them, they were sliding smoothly. I will buy a brush for when I do my Traverse. Still waiting on just the rotors to come in.

For my 2012 Traverse, "yes" that is 8mm and 3mm. Here is my "Recommended Service" which I take very little stock in:

They sold me the tires for a deep discount, so I assumed most of these "recommended" items were a way to make some money off me.

Let me know what you think.

 

They sold me the tires for a deep discount, so I assumed most of these "recommended" items were a way to make some money off me.

Yeah, I bought Bridgestone's for my Fusion. They told me I needed rear brakes because they were under 2mm and rotors as well as a cooling system flush. I know it didn't need any of the work. Too long a story to type in here, but sent an email to Firestone and actually got a phone call. I don't like some wanna be mechanic try to upsell me on work I know I don't need. However, I would check your front end to make sure they aren't lying about the $704 Tie Rod End job.

 

Bill its the right lube, says caliper pins right on the package.

 

Sorry about that, they work fine for me no problems so far.