Jeep Commander Forum banner

[review] Wearever Platinum Pads & Wagner Rotors

7K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Mongo 
#1 ·
Hi guys,
So when i purchased my 06 Hemi it needed pads right away and with a trip to VA (from NY) a few days away i couldnt order anything from online and have time to get them installed. i had a 30% off code for advance auto parts and decided to get the best stuff they had.

i went with the Wearever platinum and Wagner rotors.

I have no clue how the stock pads and rotors preform so, this is just based on the aftermarket stuff. initially the Jeep had no stopping power but, this is understandable because the pads and rotors need to be bedded in. so i followed the process of breaking in the pads and i went on my trip. Round trip from NY to VA and nothing!

these breaks felt weak and still feel week after 2,300k miles. these are by far the worst set of breaks and rotors i have ever used, i feel like i need to put my foot through the floor for it to stop.

i would not recommend any one getting these breaks and rotors. i would strongly go for something slotted like the RAYBESTOS r-300 or i had great results with r1 concept on my mercedes clk550.

as for pads, i hear that the hawk suv pads are a good bite but leave dust.

from the jeep liberty crowd they swear by the Napa adaptive One pads.

or i would even give RAYBESTOS Advanced Technology Ceramic a try.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I'm running wearever ceramic AND wearever rotors. They're clean and quiet, and stop really good. They were 60 for the pads and I have a one time replacement on them.
 
#3 ·
Perhaps your poor impression of the pads and rotors is actually due to the brake fluid. When was it last changed?

Sent from wherever my Jeep takes me.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Hay lekmedm,
I just got the commander a month ago with 27k miles on it. So I never changed it. It could also be that I have $300 pads on my benz so this feels weak. I will give them some more time see how they feel. Btw the breaks felt good today or it could be me getting use to them.

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App
Hmmmm, sounds like something is wrong? Your pads/rotors were worn out with only 27k miles on them? Most people get 3, almost 4, times that many miles on the OEM pads?

Was this veicle used in the mountains/extremely hilly areas? Was it used for towing heavy loads often?

BTW, brake fluid doesn't deteriorate with useage (i.e. mileage) it detiorates with age (i.e. how long its been in the system). So a low mileage vehicle that is 8 years old could have bad brake fluid, although I doubt its the problem. Bad brake fluid will have a lower boiling temp, but still needs to get pretty hot to boil, so you likely would have normal braking until the brake got hot, then it would require pushing the pedal to the floor to get a small amount of braking. Bad brake fluid will fail to protect the brake components, and you start to have seal failures, sticking calipers/pistons and internal corrosion problems.

Good pads and rotors will bed in within the first few stops, inferior pads rotors might take several hundred miles to bed in.

I have no idea how well Mercedes brake, but the Commander has some big brakes on it and it has "BAS" that will help it stop hard when it senses the driver doing a panic stop, I consider my Commander one of the better braking vehicles I have owned, and definitely better than,

"feel like i need to put my foot through the floor for it to stop"

So maybe its the pads/rotors you selected, but I doubt even that, I have used Wearever Platinum and Wagner rotors on other vehicles and got at least the same as OEM brake performance, and I think most people have that experience.

So, I'm guessing you may have something else wrong with your brakes. Perhaps a bad seal or air in the system.

One check, with the engine off, pump the brake pedal several times to use up all the vacuum in the brake booster, then wait for a few minutes to let the brakes hydraulics to go back to their normal resting state. Push the pedal hard, see how far it will go down without booster assitance, it should only move a fraction of an inch before the force to push climbs huge, if the pedal moves a lot more, than pump the pedal and see if the pedal gets harder and the pressure builds sooner? If it does, that is a classic symptom of air in the brakes.

BTW, for normal, even aggressive, street driving, the drilled and slotted rotors are just gimmics, they don't do anything. In fact, cheap versions are often just stock rotors drilled and/or slots cut in them, and that weakens the rotors and makes them last shorter and perform worse. As well, the holes/slots shave the pads and reduce their life greatly. Even race teams, take drilled/slotted rotors off their cars that they came stock and replace them with solid surface rotors, (Depending on the car and type of racing).

Also, the HAWK pads, I've only tried them on my little Neon R/T because all the Neon crowd swore by them. At least on my little Neon R/T they are trash, ok they are better than most cheap pads, but NOT even as good as the OEM pads for my R/T (The R/T and ACR came with better stopping pads than the other trim levels). The best high performance Pad I have found has been EBC GreenStuff, well they have different colors/forumlas for different applications, I think for SUV they recommend their YellowStuff. Yes, it could be totally different for an SUV or the Commander itself, but the one time I have tried EBC Greenstuff and Hawk pads on the same vehicle, the EBC Greenstuff kicked the Hawk pads A$$.
 
#5 ·
Hahahaha.... Yeah, omega... Don't expect your Commander to stop like the Benz! LOL. Like you said, you'll get used to the difference.
 
#6 ·
The OEM pads are Akebone

My OEM pads wore out at 95k miles, I replaced them with NAPA Ultra-Premium which I think are Akebone, but I'm NOT sure.

The NAPA Ultra-Premium seemed just like the OEM performance, which has been my experience for other vehicles as well.

The NAPA Adaptive One's are there very top of the line pads, they also seem to perform as well if NOT better than OEM, as well as being quiet and long lasting.

The other brands like Weaver/Wagner/Bendix or no name, I won't buy the cheapest pads, without fail they have always performed far worse than OEM, noisey and don't last long at all. Middle of the road price/quality are NOT much better. So my experience with Weaver/Wagner/Bendix top of the lines have been hit or miss, some are as good as OEM while half the time they are NOT what you would expect at that price.

So, that's my pitch for the NAPA Ultra-Premium or Adaptive One's; sure they are just rebranded aftermarket pads, you don't even know what brand they are, but its simple, cause while other brands have disappointed me, the NAPA UP or AO never have, so NAPA must be doing some work to find the best pads that they put in the Ultra Premium boxes.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top