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The brake systems under Sierra trucks are sufficient up to their stock rated payloads, but if you're looking to push the limits of your Sierra, you'll want to know how to upgrade your system.
Your brakes are responsible for keeping you safe in emergency situations, while you're towing heavy loads, and keeping your poise during off-roading ventures. Make sure your brakes are up for the task.
The stock braking system found on 2007-2013 Sierra 1500 pickup trucks consists of a power-assisted (Hydroboost) disc setup up front and a drum setup on the rear axle. Compared to the previous generation of Sierra half-tons, GM reverted back to a drum system on the rear due to many complaints of poor performance of the vacuum-assisted 4-disc system that 2005 and earlier Sierra 1500 trucks were equipped with.
Factory spec front discs measure 12.99” in diameter with a width of 1.18”. The OEM calipers are a dual piston, floating design and arrive loaded with a ceramic pad. Moving aft, the rear brakes feature a 11.61”x2.36” cast iron drum. Beneath the drum is your typical brake shoe and wheel cylinder assembly. Depending on the gross vehicle weight rating of your Sierra (as configured), the wheel cylinder may have a 1-1/16” bore (7000 GVWR) or a 15/16” bore (.937 inch, 6400 lb GVWR). Sierra half-tons that were ordered with the optional StabiliTrak system had a single piston caliper and 13.5”x0.79” disc setup in the back instead of the regular drum package.
The return to a split disc/drum system for the GMT900 platform actually had a very positive effect on braking performance versus the previous generation. Many owners have reported that braking is good unloaded, and when the truck is loaded, braking performance with the rear drum system is vastly better than the four-wheel disc configuration.
Nonetheless, if you want extra piece of mind your Sierra will quickly slow down when put through the paces there are several upgrades you can do, as explained a little further down.
With the roll out of the 2014 Sierra now based on the new K2XX platform, GM once again changed back to a four-wheel disc system. This time around the front rotors measured in at 13”x1.18” and the drums were replaced with big 13.5”x0.79” discs in the pad. The calipers doing the work on the front axles are a 2 piston free floating design (cast or steel) with the rear caliper being a simpler single piston unit; Ceramic pads continues to be the OEM choice.
Upgrading the stopping power of your Sierra 1500, regardless of generation, is a straightforward affair that can range from just over a hundred dollars to several thousand, depending how on far you want to go.
The first step to achieving better braking performance, be it for a GMT900 or K2XX based Sierra, is to ditch the factory ceramic pads. From a manufacturer standpoint, the OEM pads are great; low noise, low dust and long service life. Performance wise, this approach leaves plenty on the table due to the conservative composition of the factory brake pads.
Aftermarket Sierra brake pads are often made of ceramic as well, but they feature a more aggressive blend that produces a stronger bite on the rotor. Furthermore, their special formulation will have a higher thermal capacity as compared to the stock pads, which means they can deal with plenty more heat (a.k.a hard braking) before any brake fade develops. Brake noise and dust should not dramatically increase as the composition of these pads is still ceramic, and those are two characteristics ceramic pads are known for.
Another offering from the Sierra aftermarket is carbon-ceramic brake pads. The name implies their composition and they are an even more aggressive pad. Of course, with the extra bite you can expect to see a decrease in overall service life and a possible increase in brake noise and dust.
Moving away from the pads, we can examine a rotor upgrade. Performance rotors are often cross-drilled and slotted. Apart from looking nice, the former characteristic reduces the overall weight of the rotor. While this makes it easier for the rotor to warm up, it also means it can dissipate heat more quickly once heated up.
Having slots in the rotor helps to always keep the surface of the brake pad fresh and glaze free. The slots act as a grater of sorts and lightly scrape the surface of the pad when a clamping force is applied. Finally, while modern brake pads don’t necessarily produce much gas as a byproduct of the friction, in the event that outgassing does occur, the slots provide a channel for these gasses to escape instead of building up between the pad and rotor.
We’ve saved the big guns for last. Ditching the entire factory braking system and instead replacing it with a big brake kit will monumentally change the braking performance of your Silverado.
Sierra front big brake kits up the rotor size to 15” and are clamped by massive 6-piston calipers. Increasing the number of pistons provides a more even distribution of clamping force across the back of the pad which translates to shorter stopping distances. (If you want to go all out, some big brake kits feature up to an 8-piston caliper). These kits have all the necessary conversion brackets and brake lines included such that the swap is a bolt-on affair – no modification or scrounging for extra parts needed.
The rear brakes can benefit from a big brake upgrade kit as well. In the back, rotor size is increased to 15” and most of the calipers are bumped up to a 4-piston design. Of course, there is no big brake upgrade kit for 2007-2013 Sierra 1500s that are equipped with drum brakes. You could always first convert the drums to disc, but as it stands there is not a direct-fit kit to adapt a drum brake Sierra pickup to a disc brake system.
