Time for new front pads. Tossing up between these two. Has anyone tried either of these ? Preferences ? 1988 TA stock brake set up. Thanks.

 

I went with Stillen D154HD front pads on my ‘88 GTA, no complaints and came pretty highly recommended by a few members with stock set ups who wanted better performance.

I also did the Goodridge brake hoses as mine were still original. The brakes felt much better than before, it was noticeable especially in pedal feel.

 

RedDragon where did you get them ? Can't find them on rockauto, also can't just wonder into a parts store here in Australia and pick them up 😬.
I was hoping to get them from RA to put a little bundle together and make the postage more worthwhile.

 

I ordered them direct from Stillen, they are not readily available at parts stores unfortunately.

 

Ah ok no worries. Might just have to go with one of the ac delco ones. Leaning towards the ceramic ones.

 

For a street-driven car, I prefer ceramic...

 

Thanks.

Quick question, can someone tell me what Rock Auto is referencing when they have "without performance package" in their brake pad and rotor listings?

 

Without Performance Package (aka "1LE") means it's for the standard 82-88 disc brakes with 154 pads, NOT for the "1LE" brakes.

Aside from four 1LE cars in model year 1988, the Performance Package brakes came out in model year 89.

 

Thanks LAfireboyd.

 

Do drilled and slotted rotors make any difference with a stock set up ?

 

I would like to think so. I went with the Power Stop Z26 street performance kit with calipers. I also added the Russel SS brake lines. All this made a huge difference and at the time was only $400 for everything. Rock Auto sells both Power Stop and Russel products.

Z26 Extreme Street Warrior Performance Brake Kit with Calipers

 

Drilled, no. A leftover from the days when pads all out-gassed SEVERELY, and they drilled the rotors to allow that to escape. Hasn't been an issue for 50 years now AT LEAST. Butt since "all the cool fast cars" from the 60s had that, everybody thinks it's "cool" and "fast" when in reality it's just eye candy. Detracts from braking in modern systems, if anything, due to loss of rotor surface area. It's SO embedded into popular car culture that even the OEMs still do it, just so their cars "look" "fast" and "cool".

Slotted, yes. Helps shed the dust which of course is one of the ways brakes cool (different kind of "cool"), by red-hot dust flying off and carrying away some of the heat with it.

Neither makes a hill of beans worth of difference on a car with those outdated 10½" rotors and obsolete calipers though. Good pads, yes; good rotors, of course; all that other crap, not so much.

 

I installed the Powerstop Ceramic pads and fully geomet coated rotors. I bought them through rockauto and so far they have been good to me. Make sure you do the proper bedding process for the brakes, especially if you go with the ceramics if you want them to work properly.

 

100% !
Even NASCAR does not use drilled brake rotors. Only slotted...

 

No, it's an absolute joke to see anything but a solid rotor behind a single piston caliper.

Power Stop is just red flavor stock calipers. But, if you install their "kit", you get a very impressive bullet point to add to your display board. The efficiency losses from the drilled rotors tend to not reveal themselves on the 35mph roads between the garage and the cars and coffee meetup.

I used the AC Delco (likely Raybestos) semi-metallics last time and they're good street pads. Honestly I can't tell much of a difference between ceramics and semi-metallic performance-wise, maybe in how they dust up over time but that's not a factor for me.

 

I just came here to also say, that when I mentioned Power stop, I bought the fully coated rotors, that are NOT drilled and slotted. Them being coated definitely helps with the surface rust. I am also not a big believer in the drilled and slotted rotors thing.