Product Focus: What’s new in Brakes

Late-model brakes

Bosch has introduced new aftermarket automotive parts for more than 4.5 million vehicles in operation in North America. The new replacement brake pads, engine management parts and spark plugs offer coverage for select BMW, Fiat, Ford and Mazda applications among others.

Bosch expanded its brake pad category with one new SKU for each Bosch QuietCast Brake Pad and Bosch Blue Brake Pad product lines. The brake pad sets with hardware provide coverage to late-model Fiat 500 vehicles in operation throughout the U.S. and Canada. Bosch QuietCast Brake Pads are developed to meet the needs of shops that work on a variety of vehicle makes and models daily. Bosch Blue Disc Brake Pads are ideal for the shop owner who is looking to provide customers with the best value.

Rotors for Mercedes

Continental offers the new ATE Two-Piece Mercedes-Benz Disc Brake Rotors for direct OE replacement on the AMG C43, E43, CLS, GLC, and other high-performance models. As the only product comparable to the patented original two-piece Mercedes-Benz design, the ATE Two-Piece rotors meet OE specifications in fit, form, and function. They also meet ECE Regulation 90, a strict testing protocol required for replacement brake parts and are officially certified for use as replacement parts. Continental is the first and only aftermarket supplier of the ATE Two-Piece Mercedes-Benz Disc Brake Rotors for high performance models.

www.ate-brakes.com

Galvanized brake pads

NRS Brakes has added 57 new SKUs to its North American made Galvanized brake pad line-up representing coverage for an additional 1,600 vehicle applications. The offering covers vehicles including Honda, BMW, Ford, GMC Trucks, Nissan and more NRS Brakes include ground breaking technology such as the Noise Cancelling Piston Insert. In addition to the Electronic Wear Sensor (where applicable) which gives the most accurate gauge on how much brake pad life is left.

www.nrsbrakes.com

Brake Upgrade for General Motors SUVs and Trucks

Brembo has worked with General Motors Performance Engineering to design, test, and engineer a Performance Brake Upgrade System for the Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban and the GMC Sierra, Yukon, Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade for on and off-road performance.

The Brembo Performance Brake Upgrade System is designed for quiet, consistent operation on the street, as well as dependable and robust stopping when working or towing.

GM challenged the Brembo team to design a six-piston caliper that would fit within 20 different wheel profiles, allowing the customer to add this bold 6-Piston Performance Brake Upgrade System in combination with a wide variety of GM production and GM Accessory wheels. In order to achieve this goal, Brembo developed a unique compact fixed aluminum, six-piston caliper.

Using a disc significantly larger than production also presented several technical challenges, particularly for cooling, which required several iterations of disc geometry, for both the ventilation and the center bell design.

“Production brake systems today are more sophisticated than ever and our Performance Brake Upgrade had to meet the same stringent requirements,” Mark Dickens, General Motors Chief Engineer, Performance Variants, Parts and Motorsports Engineering said. “Our engineering partnership with Brembo leveraged the expertise of both teams to deliver a product that is truly integrated, robust and worthy of our full-size pickup and SUV customers.”

Before going into production, the Brembo R&D team directed over 1,300-hours of design and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) time, 850 hours of dyno testing for vibration endurance, torque and pressure endurance, corrosion resistance, strength and fatigue, rotor structural integrity as well as on-road testing of 40,000 miles to validate the performance bench tests.

“The Brembo Brake Upgrade System allows customers the opportunity to upgrade their already owned or newly purchased Chevrolet, GMC truck, SUV or Cadillac Escalade with the ultimate in braking performance,” Dan Sandberg, Brembo North America President and CEO said. “This unique 6-piston red caliper wraps around a large, vented rotor that not only looks great and fills the wheel opening, but also contributes to optimized braking and better control when hauling loads or pulling a trailer. Together with GM, these packages have been validated for quality and performance, as well as for ease of installation by the local dealer or for the do-it-yourself mechanic.”

The package includes all the necessary hardware and instructions for the do-it-yourself installation or it can be installed at the dealer. The front brake system is available for any light-duty, current model and past model back to 2014 Silverado/Sierra and light-duty 2015 to current Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon/Yukon XL and the Cadillac Escalade with 20-inch – 22-inch original equipment or GM Accessory wheels EXCEPT the SEU option wheel.