AC Delco Brake Pad Fitment

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Peter

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Jun 27, 2007
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This is a more general post and not directly related to gbodies but wanted to hear some feedback from the outside world. I've done numerous brake jobs on family vehicles over the last few years (2000+ GM H body, 2004+ GM W body) and 9 times out of 10 I order a set of AC Delco professional line ceramic brake pads as the replacement. Every time, and I mean every time the pads never fits in the caliper abutment bracket. I clean the hell out of the bracket, install new hardware and the pads jam in there. Theres no chance they would move or slide without me spending time grinding down the tabs of the pad itself. Has anyone else noticed this working with their parts?

For whatever it's worth. I do recall picking up a set of Centric ceramic pads in the last 2 years and this set fit perfect out of the box after cleaning up the abutment bracket.
 
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69hurstolds

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Jan 2, 2006
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Like most things, Delco ain't what it used to be. In the OLD days, Delco pads fit like a glove, because, well, they made them for the production lines anyway. I've never, ever had any issues with real Delco brake pads/shoes fitting correctly on a G-body.

What kills me is they developed this "professional" line and I'm really not sure what this means. Many of the parts in the line are actually cheaper than the regular old part numbers. Which normally means lower quality. Never gave it much thought, but I think they give the cheaper line the name of "professional" as to fake out the consumer. JMO.

BTW, I got my ACDelco A348CF filters in the other day and they weren't made in Mexico. They were A348C's made in the U.S.A. That was a pleasant surprise.
 
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pagrunt

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Sep 14, 2014
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On my '14 Silverado when I did the front pads or the first time they were fighters like that & busted out the Dremel to make them fit easier. They were not AC Delcos but O'Reilly's ceramics. Funny thing they are the same as what the POS '08 had they went on easy.
 
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Peter

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Jun 27, 2007
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At least from my limited scope, I have had problems specifically with their brake parts. 2 out of the last 4 sets of front rotors I've bought have warped fairly quickly. Pads fit like total crap prior to grinding down the pad tabs.

Every other part I've used (whether its a blower motor, water pump etc.) seemed to be of good quality and I haven't had to do a job twice.
 

69hurstolds

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Jan 2, 2006
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At least from my limited scope, I have had problems specifically with their brake parts. 2 out of the last 4 sets of front rotors I've bought have warped fairly quickly. Pads fit like total crap prior to grinding down the pad tabs.

Every other part I've used (whether its a blower motor, water pump etc.) seemed to be of good quality and I haven't had to do a job twice.
Unfortunately, GM rotors are made at a facility that does not use sufficient amounts of a certain element in them. I don't recall specifically, but I think it was chromium or nickel or something of that sort. Whatever it is, the rotors are prone to warp easier. Apparently, if you can get Korean made rotors, they have the necessary element to minimize the chance of warping. I learned this from the guy in charge of GM Shows before he retired. Who used to be asst. brand manager for 4th gen Camaro.

4th gen stock rotors warped badly. After turning them a time or two, I replaced mine with Power Stop rotors and a good set of Hawk pads and no more issues with warping and they looked good and stopped very well.
 
Nov 4, 2012
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I just bought brakes for my W-Body Lacrosse and originally I was going to get a set of AC Delco pads. When I got onto RockAuto, I noticed they have 3 different lines of parts- Advantage, Professional, and OE. Advantage are the cheap ones, professional is somewhere in between, and the OE is what would have come on it from the factory. I saw that the Advantage pads had some pretty bad reviews so I ended up going with Raybestos.
 
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