Upgraded D40 Pads and Rotors - Happy Days
G'day all,
I recently fitted some new pads and rotors to my truck ('08 Spanish D40) and I'm sufficiently pleased with them that I thought I'd recommend the combo to others who might be sussing out some new brakes.
I decided to go with DBA rotors, as I've always had good experiences with them. The part for my truck is the DBA2310, which is the standard rotor (non-slotted, non-cross drilled). I went standard simply because I didn't see enough of a benefit of slotted to offset the price difference over the stock rotors. I also figured that, as a consumable, if my decision is wrong I can upgrade the rotors if required.
I picked the rotors up "Vicperfparts" on ebay for $168 the pair.
In terms of pads, I'm not a fan of Bendix, Ferrodo, RDA etc and decided to go with the same brand of pad I run on another car I own - Hawk. I initially had issues tracking down the part number, but after some comparisons between the pad sizes and profiles in the Bendix and Hawk catalogue, I managed to track down the correct part number for my truck - HB618.Y.625. I had wanted to run the ceramic pad (HB618.Z.625), however no-one on the planet seems to stock them, so I settled for the LTS pad instead.
Given I've previously been quoted twice the US price for Hawk pads, I had planned on importing some from Summit in the US. However, I decided to cover my bases and call the Australian distributor - V-Sport (I should point out that I received my previous Hawk quotes through companies other than V-Sport). Much to my surprise, V-Sport quoted me $170ish (I can't remember the exact price) - about half of what I was expecting. Given Summit was going to be $189 delivered, I was pretty impressed.
Having fitted the parts up, I'm pretty impressed in the improvement over the OEM gear. Firstly, there's considerably less dust. There has also been a substantial improvement in the consistency of the brakes under heavy pedal pressure - I no longer get that vague, "are the brakes about to fade out on me" feeling. They also offer noticeably more bite when compared to the OEM pads - less pedal pressure is needed to get the same level of retardation. Finally, they have faaaaaaar superior release characteristics compared to the OEM parts - a small lift will get the truck out of the ABS zone, compared to the stock gear which seemed to require a great deal of pedal movement to achieve the same end.
Overall, I'm most impressed and would happily recommend the combo to anyone looking to move away from the OEM parts.
Finally, guess I should clarify that I'm not associated with any of the aforementioned companies. Just one happy camper.
G'day all,
I recently fitted some new pads and rotors to my truck ('08 Spanish D40) and I'm sufficiently pleased with them that I thought I'd recommend the combo to others who might be sussing out some new brakes.
I decided to go with DBA rotors, as I've always had good experiences with them. The part for my truck is the DBA2310, which is the standard rotor (non-slotted, non-cross drilled). I went standard simply because I didn't see enough of a benefit of slotted to offset the price difference over the stock rotors. I also figured that, as a consumable, if my decision is wrong I can upgrade the rotors if required.
I picked the rotors up "Vicperfparts" on ebay for $168 the pair.
In terms of pads, I'm not a fan of Bendix, Ferrodo, RDA etc and decided to go with the same brand of pad I run on another car I own - Hawk. I initially had issues tracking down the part number, but after some comparisons between the pad sizes and profiles in the Bendix and Hawk catalogue, I managed to track down the correct part number for my truck - HB618.Y.625. I had wanted to run the ceramic pad (HB618.Z.625), however no-one on the planet seems to stock them, so I settled for the LTS pad instead.
Given I've previously been quoted twice the US price for Hawk pads, I had planned on importing some from Summit in the US. However, I decided to cover my bases and call the Australian distributor - V-Sport (I should point out that I received my previous Hawk quotes through companies other than V-Sport). Much to my surprise, V-Sport quoted me $170ish (I can't remember the exact price) - about half of what I was expecting. Given Summit was going to be $189 delivered, I was pretty impressed.
Having fitted the parts up, I'm pretty impressed in the improvement over the OEM gear. Firstly, there's considerably less dust. There has also been a substantial improvement in the consistency of the brakes under heavy pedal pressure - I no longer get that vague, "are the brakes about to fade out on me" feeling. They also offer noticeably more bite when compared to the OEM pads - less pedal pressure is needed to get the same level of retardation. Finally, they have faaaaaaar superior release characteristics compared to the OEM parts - a small lift will get the truck out of the ABS zone, compared to the stock gear which seemed to require a great deal of pedal movement to achieve the same end.
Overall, I'm most impressed and would happily recommend the combo to anyone looking to move away from the OEM parts.
Finally, guess I should clarify that I'm not associated with any of the aforementioned companies. Just one happy camper.
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