Unlike most of the posts I've read, my experience with the TRD front brake pads have shown to wear out fairly quickly.

To be fair, I replaced the brake pads with TRD pads when the front driver side rotor was warped.

A few hundred miles after I replaced the brake pads, I replaced the rotors with cross-drilled/slotted rotors. I figured I'd give them a try since I got the rotors fairly cheap (and I don't "race" in my truck).

I strongly suggest NOT getting cross-drilled rotors for extreme off-road or racing applications as these rotors will crack under extreme braking (heat). Slotted rotors don't make much sense since most brake pad materials don't release as much gas as the old brake pad materials.

Anyhow, it's about 24,000 miles later and the pad on the driver side is worn to the indicator. It could be the rotors or the wear from the warped rotor (I doubt) that caused excessive wear on the brake pads.

I have a spare set of PBR pads and I'm going to see how long these last. I do some spirited offroading. I moved some stuff in my truck from my old place to my new place of residence. All other driving has been city driving.

btw, I saw some posts about improving braking performance. Don't be tricked by the x-drilled and slotted rotors. It may help very little to reduce heat, but it helped me very little.
My friends who track their cars have cracked x-drilled rotors as early as their 2nd heat on a track. Weight reduction is moot point on trucks and cars for x-drilled rotors and mainly applicable to motorcycles.

Basically, if you want improve braking performance, you need bigger/stronger calipers and bigger rotors since more surface area will improve stopping power. SS brake lines will help the pressure from the hydraulics to be consistent as the lines will not flex as much as the OEM brake lines.

J

 

Very good observations and conclusions, in particular with the drilled rotors. While they look cool, they do not reduce fade at all, and, even worse, easily crack. Also, some suppliers don't chamfer so you wind up with cheese graters resulting in quite short pad life.

I run slotted rotors on a different car, and I can say that braking is improved in the wet, as water seems to be channeled off the rotor surface. No cracking or warping under track conditions either. Dry braking is the same as blanks.

 

Why not get the performance pads from Autozone, which are the same pads as the TRD's for $39 and utilize the lifetime warranty?

Have you seen Gadget's findings?

I think the part # is 5024 for a 96 LC, but they will still fit.