Need brakes, want advice.

[FRSTR90]

Hello all,
I need some advice... I have 2010 1SS/RS LS3 with almost 42k miles. At the very least, I need to purchase a set of pads and rotors for both the front and rear. The rear currently has a little bit of life left, but the front pads were down to the wear indicators. I was doing a little bit of research, and I found that Stoptech (made by Centric) has a set of slotted rotors, semi-metallic pads, and SS lines for $760 on autoanything.com + a 10% discount and free shipping. The only problem was that they estimated it would take approx. 2 weeks for the kit to ship.

I looked on the forum to see what other options I have... I ran into Dropspeed's thread about the CTS-V front brake upgrade... If I bought all of the parts today from Amazon, I am looking at about $1500 for the front + an estimated $300 (pads and rotors for stock SS calipers for the rear) + about $440 to have them powder coated by Mike the Powdercoater. So, if I went this route, I looking at about $2250. I think I could save a little money if I went with different pads than the stock brembo, which is another topic I would like advice on.

Although I would love the CTS-V/ZL1 brakes on my car, the rational part of my brain is telling me to stick with my stock brembos. I took some advice from my dad, who was in favor of going with the upgrade... He recommended that I throw on a cheap set of pads and come summer, when I had money saved up, do the upgrade then. His advice was good and bad. The bad is how horrible my car stops with the cheap set of pads. When I applied the breaks to stop my car from 60 MPH, my heart literally stopped for a second. I felt as if I had lost more than half of the stopping power that I use to have. After 3 hard stops, the pads were stinking horribly. When I parked the car, I went over to front to look over my brakes and I could hear a sizzling, popping sound. The good part is the lesson that I learned... I will NEVER throw on a cheap set of pads on any vehicle that I own EVER!!! Not even to get me by for a couple months...

So, I am currently considering either the Stoptech kit or OEM pads and rotors. Price-wise, I think both are about the same. I would like to know if anyone has any experience with the Stoptech kit. If so, was it an improvement over OEM? Are the rotors good quality? How about their pads?

I would prefer, at this time, not to spend over $1,000... If anyone has any suggestions on what other pads or rotors to consider, please let me know.

And because everyone likes pictures... here are a couple of my car

[toehead93]

You have an SS so you can keep the rear brakes for the CTS upgrade. You can use CTS-V rotors up front instead of ZL1 rotors, the total with pads is just over $1,000 plus braided lines (racing brake is $130 compared to goodridge $180). Have them painted at a local wheel repair shop for half the cost of powder coating. You're looking at $1,400 total, maybe more a little more to paint both front and rear calipers vs painting the CTS-v calipers tot match the rears. Plus you can sell you SS fronts for $500 so its just got affordable.

[hworth18]

Check out Brakeperformance.com. I just bought a full set of dimpled/slotted rotors and pads for a little over $400.. I have friends that have used these and highly recommend this place.

[Compromis/sed]

Check out R1 Premier Series drilled and slotted rotors and throw on some Hawk HPS pads and you have a killer looking and performing set of brakes. If you want them painted don't be afraid of G2 caliper paint. It works very well.

[Team STILLEN]

I can get you taken care of!

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257770

PM or Call me with any questions.

Thanks

JT

[rotwiler]

For a cheap solution I went with brakemotive, comes with centric ceramic pads, stainless new hardware and slotted drilled kinetic rotors, fronts shipped was 160 rear shipped 122, so 282 for complete setup

[littlebuffalo]

Unless you do any track days, I would just get new stock rotors and pads. I think the stock pads and rotors are pretty good. I personally upgraded to cts-v front brakes cause I do some high speed track days, other wise I would have left them alone.

[FRSTR90]

I'd like to thank everyone for their responses! I ended up purchasing the factory AC Delco/Brembo rotors, Brembo pads, and AC Delco Caliper Kits for $540 shipped from Amazon.

I have seen many positive reviews for brakemotive and brakeperformance kits. However, my recent experience with throwing on a cheap set of pads as a temporary fix has deterred me from going that route. Maybe I am missing out on a good set of parts, but I didn't feel comfortable risking it. I didn't mention it in my original post, but the pads that I put on were AutoZone Duralast semi-metallic pads. They were $20 bucks, and surprisingly, made in the USA.

I received the OEM parts today... Front rotors and front and rear pads are made in Italy. Rear rotors and both caliper kits are made in the USA.

Maybe in a year or so I'll upgrade the front with CTS-V/ZL1 stuff as a cosmetic upgrade (I don't track my car). For the meantime, I am happy with my purchase.

[Rabamaro]

Why are you replacing rotors with only 42k miles? Seems unnecessary unless you're having some shuddering when you brake hard.