AUTOZONE DURALAST BRAKES SUFFER FROM PREMATURE WEAR OUT ripoff Baldwin Park, California

AutoZone carries Duralast Semi-metallics, Organics and Ceramics (for a dust-free, squeal free, smooth ride/brake).

Daily putt-around-town driving will do more damage and put four times more wear on your brakes than say...highway miles, "scenic" driving and even those occasional "OH no, there's a deer in the road" last minute stops. Stop and go = more damage to brakes.

If you're having to replace rotors, you're letting your brakes wear down below the sensor, thus, creating unnecessary damage and cost. Personally, I would recommend the organics or ceramics for your vehicle.

As an aside, NAPA does occasionally order parts (including brakes) from AutoZone.

Auto Zones duralast brakes pads are excessively noisy, dirty. They are excessively dust producing as evidenced all over my tires and wheels and they wear out much too quickly. My Cadillac sounds like a bus stopping with all the skuealing while stopping and driving along. Do not waste your money on these inferior parts.

I took a look at each auto parts chain web site. You ROR seems more like a commercial endorsement for NAPA auto parts, than it does about a complaint about auto zone. I looked up info about each of the pads you talked about.

NAPA seems to offer 3 different kinds of pads for you vehicle. Metallic tru-stop $19.99, Metallic safety-stop $34.99 and the pads you were raving about AE Metallic $ 47.99.

Autozone offers 5 different pads. Valucraft MKD 215V for $13.99, Duralast MKD 215 for $20.99 , Duralast Gold DG215 for $29.99 and Morse Ceramic 215c for $37.99 . You have wrote that NAPA's Application Engineered pads were about the same price as AZ's duralast pads. The AE pads cost more that twice what the other pads cost. Try comparing apples to apples. The Duralast Gold pads are OEM specific brake material. Ceramic pads are the preferred pads for those who want quiet, efficient, and brake dust free wheels. Ceramic pads have been coming OEM on many vehicles since 2000. You are trying to compare AZ regular pads to NAPA top of the line pads. It is more reasonable to compare AZ duralast to NAPA tru-stop. That is apples to apples.

Going just by what you wrote on how often you have had to replace rotors and pads, you claim to have gone through at least 12 rotors and 6 sets of pads in just 28 months. With the 40 years experience that you have, why are you letting the pads go metal to metal every time? Especially since you say it happens every 5 months or less.

You seem to have done all the normal things a person would do to fix the problems that would cause this. That only leaves a few other possibilities. You most likely would have altered the front. Either by putting on low profile tires with 20-22 inch wheels, or maybe even Donked it out with some 30 inch. If this is what you have done, you needed to go with over sized rotors. You will also have suspension issues.

You have paid more than twice the amount for a set of pads that lasted only 1 year. How could you be happy with that? So which is it, have you changed something from OEM or that even with 40 years experience, you cant figure out what the underlying mechanical issue is ,that is causing the problems. It is one or the other.

If you had so many complaints with the brake pads, why did you buy them again for your caddy?

I also have a hard time believing that you're qualified to make these accusations, because if you were, you would know that you don't turn the rotors after 3-5 months. You said you had to turn the rotors everytime you changed pads. You changed pads, according to you, 6 times. The rotors can't be turned 6 times. Twice is about the limit.

Plus, anyone knows that driving around town is very hard on brakes. Long trips are easy on brakes, since you are on the highway driving 70 MPH and not slamming on the brakes every 5 minutes!

I am not defending Duralast brake pads, I have used them in a pinch before with no abnormal effects, but they wouldn't be my first choice. You get what you pay for.