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Spendy Brakes

Worthwile Upgrades
Posted June 20 2010 07:37 AM by Christian Hazel 
Filed under: Custom Jeep Projects, Jeep Enthusiast Culture, Christian Hazel

 These are some of the best brakes out there in my opinion: EBC Brakes Yellowstuff pads and rotors.


 I live at the top of a mountain and my wife's '04 Hemi-powered Durango offers virtually no compression braking. As such, she kills stock replacement pads and rotors in no-time-flat coming down "the hill" as we call it. The factory rotors developed hard spots and pulsated badly at only 15K on the odometer. I replaced all four sets of pads and rotors with factory-replacement parts from my local NAPA, which lasted until 30K. Then it happened again. I then went to Pep Boy's for some lower-cost Raybestos pads and rotors for all four corners, which lasted 'till about 45K. Then I went back to NAPA for some more pads and rotors, which we eked to 60K.

It didn't take a genius to understand that popping roughly $300-$400 every 15K miles for brakes wasn't adding up, so I pulled the trigger on some EBC Brakes dimpled and slotted rotors (different than the ZJ rotors shown in the photo) for all four corners. I also did the company's super-sticky Yellowstuff pads up front and low-dust Greenstuff pads out back. EBC makes pads and rotors for virtaully every Jeep application. However, if you own an '04-up Durango here are your part numbers:

Rotors:

drilled & slotted

GD7105 front

GD7106 rear

Pads:
YellowStuff 4000
41639DP front
GreenStuff 6000
DP61639 rear

The brakes grabbed phenomenally better than the stock-type parts, whether unloaded or towing one of my Jeeps or my boat. And the best part is they lasted. I put the EBC brake parts on at 60K miles and they only now need replacing with 101K on the odometer. The dimpled and slotted rotors I used never warped or developed hard spots that caused the pedal to pulsate. However, they have developed very small heat-checks and small cracks around the dimples from the severe use. To the laymen getting only 41K from a set of pads and rotors and seeing small checks and cracks may not sound too good. But when you consider how brutally these brakes have been treated and how that big downgrade killed the factory stuff in less than half the mileage, I'm sold.

Now I just gotta scrape up an extra $700 or so for some replacements to get us through the next 40K miles.

EBC Brakes, www.ebcbrakes.com


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