Bonded vs. Riveted

[Magoo]

Well just bought some discs for a friends 92 4x. (IDI) , Well the guy at the parts house is pushing a new premium grade pad but its bonded. Now, Spent my whole working life in our family shop, dad got his start in a brake shop where they relined the shoes themselves and re arched them. Got my start on those old dinosaures. Any way, bonded was always considerd inferior.
Now the parts guy is telling me that the new technology allows bonded to handle extream heat, and that they last longer. Now, I rarely used bonded except where there was no option. (mostly small import stuff) . So what I want to know is, you guys, and gals, who are changing your own pads,
1.what are you using and?
2.how are they holding up?

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

One advantage of bonded shoes is that they have no rivets to eat grooves in the brake drum.

I would not be afraid of quality name bonded shoes.

Adhesives have came a long way.

 

[Dualie]

The only NEW style bonded pads that I have heard that have problems are Bendix. Their stuff used to be the cats ass, but lately every bendix part I have bought seems to be a lesser quality than I remember.

The NEW bonded pads even have an anti noise anti Squeal vibration diminishing layer to them to keep the pads running true and quiet. and i think with today's carbon metallic and ceramic composition works better with the bonding process than the older asbestos pads

 

[reklund]

For what it's worth, EVERY pad on EVERY Toyota car and truck is factory-bonded. No rivets anymore at all- even on drum brake shoes.

I dunno what Ford uses these days...but that's what I use every day on cars I work on. There's no problem with bonded anymore....

My F250 came with some crappy aftermarket pads on the front that squeal no matter what I do. I've turned the rotors, scuffed the pads, cleaned everything up, applied anti-squeal moly paste to the pads, etc. and they still squeak. Any reccomendation for a pad that doesn't squeak? I'm about ready to order some from Ford, even tho these pads are only about 20% worn.

Ryan

 

[Mr_Roboto]

The problem with bonded shoes is if they DO come apart, it's all in one piece. I had this happen very recently with my E350 ambulance conversion. One day there was a grinding noise, and I knew the brakes had plenty of meat on them. Turns out the pad had simply detached from the metal backing.

So if I had a choice in the matter, I'd get riveted ones.

 

[Agnem]

I'm with Mr. Roboto. I had a bonded shoe come apart in my 99 Ranger (factory brakes), and I had a devil of a time getting the drum off because the dang thing jamed up in their in one piece. Yea, maybe there was no rivet to eat the drum, but the heat sure did a number on it. I ended up replacing it anyway. Then my sons ATC 70 did the same thing. Bonded shoe jammed up in the drum, and it was hell getting it off. I had to ruin the drum and get a new one off ebay. I'll take riveted any day. I've had those break apart, but the pieces were always small enough that you could deal with it.

 

[tuckerd1]

Ask the Space Shuttle crews what they think of 'bonded' materials.

 

[Magoo]

So, rivets grinding into the drum or rotor is the only negative I am hearing against rivets. Times have changed though. Used to be when you took your car in for a service you had your brakes checked. If you had a 3/4 ton and up truck that required more work to get to the shoes you had it done at an interval that best suited your type of brake use. Used to be that we only used one shop for all our work. Your mechanic had a record of the last time things got looked at and just did it for you. Having brakes wear down to the rivets or the backing of the shoe or pad was not much of an issue unless some one was not much up to maintanence.
The anti squeal pad was never an issue in the old days but you are right about the new composite brake material needing it. We always used Raybestos and when the squeal issue was resolved their pads came with the anti squeal pad already fixed to the disc pad. Some of the other brands I have seen require you to put them in. I have taken off brakes that had the squeal pad all wadded up from getting out of place. This is an interesting issue. How often do we ask for either type when we order?

PS> Agnem and Roboto-- Smart. I would never ever ever put bonded shoes on a work truck. Even the space shuttle tiles fall off from heat, and they have the best and latest technology on everything. We all know those kinds of things get folks killed.

 

[riphip]

Well, I read more than I post, BUT I stick with the bonded now instead of the riveted on these larger (than F150) trucks. I've spent a lot of money on rotors from the rivets being sheared on the inner pads from HARD stops. I won't go back to rivets. 4 cars / 3 F250 6.9s at present - should be a full fledged parking lot soon. :Sly

 

[Agnem]

Bonded stuff seems to work OK until it gets old or thin. I think the fact that the pads are bonded allows us to sometimes get closer to killing them then we would with riveted material. That may be a factor in why they fail too, so in that way the rivets help keep us from the temptation of using them for another x number of months or miles.