Duralast Brake pads - It's a trap, get an axe!
 

They sound like a good deal. $30 for a full front set of brake pads with a lifetime warranty! They replace them for free even when they wear out, nice.

Well, Maybe not...

So I was a bit low on cash and my pads where excessively thin...scary thin so I went to autozone and picvked up a pair of duralast pads. This was about 6 weeks ago.

They dust like crazy. 100 miles of city driving equates to my aluminum rims being black. I don't drive the car hard hardly ever and I am easy on the braking. I constantly have to wash my wheels.

Well, today i made a bunch of adjustments on the idle control systems and TPS so I went to test drive the car and make sure everything was good. Toward the engine of my easy test drive I decided to wind the engine out a bit and see how it does. Well, I get to about 55 in second gear and let off and slow down. I didn't get real heavy on the brakes or anything. Well, I get out and check the brake rotors because I was curious if that glazed them or not. I was curious because of the grossly apparent shit for brake pads I bought. Sure enough, a nice uniform blue hue of glazing goodness on my rotors.

So tommorow, I am pulling them off and deglazing them and next payday, new pads. Don't EVER skimp out and get these things. Granted I was in dire need of brake pads at the time, still, these things are pure shit. You'll end up spending more money in the long run losing $30 then spending another $80 on something decent. :wallbash:

normal wear and tear is not under warranty...Failure due to improper manufacturing of the brake pads...yes.

Unless something has changed...I use to work for advance there is a difference between a warrant and a guarantee. It also depends upon the store manager

did you brake them in properly?

I think i used to use rebestos autozone brand

They told me the warranty also covered normal wear and tear, but then again maybe the employee was misinformed (although I have seen him there for YEARS).

I did break in the pads properly. I think the pads are just shit.

I think they do have lifetime pads.

i think they also got lifetime clutches lmao

2 things that should never be bought cheap: tires and brakes. Those are the only things between you and that deer/pedestrian/idiot soccer mom in SUV in front of you.

Where did you hear that BS?

To set the record straight, the 'Duralast' pads do have a lifetime warranty, which includes normal wear and tear. I use them on my entire fleet, but they aren't exactly track pads...

The Duralasts have their place...like on the Ford Focus, but probably not on a sports car in the RX7 class. Just because they make pads that fit it doesn't mean that they should be used. Stick to the higher end brakes, even though they are more expensive. And watch out for those idiot soccer moms!

RAYBESTOS is not an Autozone brand

I got raybestos front pads and duralast rear pads, they are not on yet, but I'm not taking them back either. I will be the second opinion if something occurs. Why do I need an axe?

I got the raybestos and duralast brakes at autozone.

It's a quote from a movie called "army of darkness". You just got to see it.

OP, are you using the Duralast Gold pads? I have those, I've only put like 5 miles on them though.

Try Wagner Thermoquiet if you're concerned with brake dust, and they're affordable, too. I don't buy anything but Wagners.

Nope, I am using the standard duralast pads.

I am going to take the glaze off the rotors tommorow and then re-bed them and see what happens. I'll post pics.

pads
 

sorry to say but there is only 2 major players in the brake pads game now bendix and raybestos . they sell their pads to places like autozone and kragen under the name chosen by them .there are a few smaller companies but the majority of pads fall into those two brands just ask never worked for autozone or kragen but i did for carquest and they where bendix

IIRC the hawks are $50...

My friend used to abuse that ... his friend had bought the clutch with lifetime , and my friend would jus go to a different location with his own clutch and use his friends phone number and name to get a free clutch.. lol

i know i know thats just wrong lol

Lifetime replacement on the clutch eh???? Hmmm. I bet they'd charge me an arm and a leg though. I hate auto parts stores. Advanced auto especially. *blood boils*

Ok thanks for clearing that up.

On that note I think I will NOT being buying brakes from autozone nor advance..I have a feeling that they wear down a little to fast..

I just checked and the LUK clutch kits have a lifetime warranty. My friend is an engineer at LUK. He says the clutches are good quality OEM replacements, just stay away from their torque converters. Apparently the Mexicans are having some trouble building them, where as the clutches have been made in Wooster, OH for about 40 years.

upgraded aftermarket pads (Hawk etc) are one thing, but aftermarket pads intended to directly replace OEM ones are usually inferior in quality. that's true for most OEM replacement aftermarket parts

I have had my pads on for 3 weeks, I put new rotors on when I changed my brake pads. At first its bumpy and stopping isn't at its best, but on the 3rd day the bumping stopped. I did get some glaze, but I used brake cleaner and sandpaper to try and fix the problem, I don't know if I did, because I just put them back in and drove around every now and then applying my brakes.
Just daily driving on these pads is just plan OEM(IMO). If you need to stop, you can faster than with your old pads(obviously). My test was on this windy S-turn area near my house were I'd go over the speed limit(DO NOT TRY THIS) and did my best to do all the "race techniques" I could; these are very bad when used too much! you can smell them all over again and I get the sponge brake peddle. I pulled to the side of the road and put my foot out the door and could feel the heat of my brakes(or exhaust)! So basically Duralast and Raysbesto brakes are for Day To Day driving, not autox and being stupid.

Just while my car is on jack stands, I'm going to make the brake master cylinder brace I saw on here somewhere and see how that works out. I hope my test helped out!

Yeah, they do stop fine unless overheated.

You aren't getting insane brake dust though? I can scrub my wheels to perfectly clean and only a week later have completely black wheels again from all of the dust.