PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

Anybody use the Duralast Gold Cmax (not the plain-jane Gold) pads? I've heard nothing but good things about these $60 pads. Apparently they're not the typical Duracrap pad made from toenail clippings.

Also going to replace the caliper pins. My inner pads are worn to nothing, yet the outers have a ton of pad left.

I have them on 2 of my cars and love them.I also work there part time and they arent returned as much as the other levels of pads.I dont think i will use any other pad that autozone has again.

I put them on my SSEi in March. So far they are extremely quiet, and fairly low dust. I think they are a great pad for the price.

Unless the pins are scored, or oblong, a good cleaning and greasing should be all they need. Check the bores in the calipers, as well. If those are scored or oblong, you'll probably need to replace the calipers. If you see nothing out of the ordinary, clean the slides and bores with some brake cleaner, and maybe run a rolled up piece of sandpaper or something of the like through, to smooth down the edges, and grease well with high-temp brake specific grease.

Calipers are a year old. The rubber insides are getting replaced, though.

The pins were kinda gnarly from what I remember. I don't think I was able to get the pins completely free the last time, so rather than whack at them they're getting replaced with ones that are known to be free.

the cmax pads come with the rubber inserts

And the old rubber inserts the slide pins go into were a pain to get out! New ones went in okay, liberally coated in grease both on the insert and the inside of the casting in the caliper where the rubber inserts go.

The pins were FUBAR'd, as I thought. Did not want to slide very far, and got very sticky near the end of the range of motion. Probably accounts for the popping noises I've been hearing when braking that mysteriously vanished after replacing them (knock on wood).

The pads needed to be ground down a bit to fit into the knuckle. And the knuckle itself needed to be sanded where it contacted the pad. Otherwise the inboard pad would not have gone on, even with persuasion from a hammer.

These pads rock! Boy do they haul my car down quickly. Some initial bite, then a ton of stopping power after that, and very easy to modulate. I'll have to get used to tromping a bit harder on the brake to get stopping power. And unlike the pads that came off, these don't have a scary first stop. They did heat up quickly, though. But several 45-15 mph stops a minute or so apart, followed by a brake-riding descent back to my apartment will do that.

All in all, nice pads for an okay price!