- Joined
- Feb 13, 2022
- Messages
- 251
- Reaction score
- 659
- Location
- North Carolina
- Current Rides
- 2022 Jeep 392 XR, 2022 Ram 1500 Limited
Just finished installing and initially bedding/breaking in the Teraflex Delta Brake Kit on my ‘22 392XR and thought I’d post up a quick write up. I know there is a recent thread warning everyone not to purchase this kit, but suffice it to say I sharply disagree. I am VERY happy with these brakes and would highly recommend them to other forum members. Please forgive the long-windedness of this post, but I thought best to be thorough given the information previously posted.
As I’ve continued to mod up my Beast with more weighty mods like winch, grill guard, full steel underbelly skids, LOD Destroyer rock sliders, etc., I was noticing more and more the stock brakes just weren’t cutting it anymore. I did my research and from everything I could find across multiple forums and reviews those who were complaining about this kit appeared not to know how to properly bleed the system, including an ABS bleed, and/or what to expect in terms of brake performance before and during the full bedding and break in process. For everyone that did understand all that, the reviews were consistently very positive and generally always 5-star. You can now add me to that latter highly satisfied group.
I liked this kit because for the price, 14” rotors and 4-piston calipers all the way around with a heavy duty build quality felt like a good value. I also like that although the calipers are a proprietary design, they used a standard semi-metallic pad and pin set produced for the Toyota Tundra. That means there are tons of after-market pad options that are compatible with these calipers and you’re not just limited to Teraflex in the future.
As a couple other forum members previously posted, I can confirm the Delta brake kit DOES FIT without spacers on the 17” XR wheels. Teraflex notes on their website that they’re not compaitble on the 17” 392 wheels, but that is for the original non-XR wheels.
The install was pretty straightforward and unlike most other mod installs, there were no surprises or issues with things not working or lining up with the instructions (ha ha). Teraflex has a good install video and my install followed it nearly identically. The only real difference I had is that I did not have to bend the steel brake lines at all on either the front or rear. The rear lines/connectors on the 392XR are different than what is on their video and did not require bending. I did have to pull a little of the rear brake lines out as they noted in the vid and that was not a problem.
The standard brake bleed with their check valve bleeders was super easy and convenient. I used J-Scan to do a full ABS system bleed after doing the standard bleed. That was fairly easy to do, and pretty much followed what you can see in this write-up from another forum.
For those who may not know exactly what to expect with a new brake kit that replaces both rotors and pads, you need to expect that you will initially have diminished braking performance until the bedding in has fully occurred over the first 300 to 500 miles, and the immediate performance on a fresh install will be at its worst so to speak. Among other things, one of the key factors to brake performance is the marrying of the pad material to the rotor surface. As pad material is properly transferred to the rotor and smoothed over time, it is the pad contact on pad material on the rotor that gives you smooth, even, and gripping brake performance. If that material transfer and smoothing process (bedding in) is not done properly you’ll have diminished performance and it can even lead to uneven braking surface which can cause poor grip, vibration, and/or the thumping feel like that of warped rotors. Sorry, don’t mean to be preachy here but thought I’d explain more thoroughly because a lot of the negative reviews I saw were from people talking about the immediate performance of this kit before a proper break-in process and it seemed pretty clear they did not know how brakes work.
Many manufacturers publish specifically recommended bedding-in procedures for their pads. Teraflex does not. I reached out to them and they simply recommended following a generic, gradual bedding in approach. I decided to do a little more thorough and prolonged initial bed-in just to be safe and am very pleased with the result. I went to a low-traveled back road near my house and did the following bed in procedure immediately after install:
- Avoid any heavy braking at first, coast to stop wherever possible prior to initial bed-in
- Perform 10 sets of light/gradual braking from 30MPH to 5MPH (do not come to complete stop), with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set to let brakes cool
- Perform 10 sets of light to moderate braking from 45MPH to 25MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- Perform 10 sets of light to moderate braking from 60MPH to 30MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- Perform 5 sets of moderate to aggressive braking (DO NOT lock brakes) from 60MPH to 30MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- If you have to stop during the above procedure, try to brake and slow down gradually with light brake pressure. Coast to a stop when possible. Don’t keep brakes depressed at stop sign/light so you don’t have new pads resting on new/hot rotors (can cause uneven adherence of pad material to rotor)
Immediately after install and before performing above procedures, the brake performance was not great. Pedal feel was ok, but there was obviously very diminished grab/bite at first. This improved significantly as I performed the above procedure. By the end of it, the brake performance was awesome and considerably better than stock. As soon as my foot touched the pedal I could feel the brakes noticeably starting to grab. This performance should continue to improve as I wear in the brakes fully over the next 300 to 500 miles. Until that time I will take the braking easy, continuing frequent light/moderate braking whenever possible, and avoiding prolonged braking and pad/rotor contact with hot brakes. After that 300 to 500 miles it should be smooth, excellent braking performance with no further limitations.
I’ve included a couple pics of the fresh install (one front and one rear), as well as a front and rear pic of the rotors immediately following my bedding in procedures listed above. Note the smooth, even glossy finish starting to develop on the rotor. That’s the end goal to realize the awesomeness I personally think this brake kit delivers.
Just my humble opinion and I hope all this info is helpful to those considering this kit for themselves. Happy wheelin’ fellow 392 Jeepsters!
As I’ve continued to mod up my Beast with more weighty mods like winch, grill guard, full steel underbelly skids, LOD Destroyer rock sliders, etc., I was noticing more and more the stock brakes just weren’t cutting it anymore. I did my research and from everything I could find across multiple forums and reviews those who were complaining about this kit appeared not to know how to properly bleed the system, including an ABS bleed, and/or what to expect in terms of brake performance before and during the full bedding and break in process. For everyone that did understand all that, the reviews were consistently very positive and generally always 5-star. You can now add me to that latter highly satisfied group.
I liked this kit because for the price, 14” rotors and 4-piston calipers all the way around with a heavy duty build quality felt like a good value. I also like that although the calipers are a proprietary design, they used a standard semi-metallic pad and pin set produced for the Toyota Tundra. That means there are tons of after-market pad options that are compatible with these calipers and you’re not just limited to Teraflex in the future.
As a couple other forum members previously posted, I can confirm the Delta brake kit DOES FIT without spacers on the 17” XR wheels. Teraflex notes on their website that they’re not compaitble on the 17” 392 wheels, but that is for the original non-XR wheels.
The install was pretty straightforward and unlike most other mod installs, there were no surprises or issues with things not working or lining up with the instructions (ha ha). Teraflex has a good install video and my install followed it nearly identically. The only real difference I had is that I did not have to bend the steel brake lines at all on either the front or rear. The rear lines/connectors on the 392XR are different than what is on their video and did not require bending. I did have to pull a little of the rear brake lines out as they noted in the vid and that was not a problem.
The standard brake bleed with their check valve bleeders was super easy and convenient. I used J-Scan to do a full ABS system bleed after doing the standard bleed. That was fairly easy to do, and pretty much followed what you can see in this write-up from another forum.
For those who may not know exactly what to expect with a new brake kit that replaces both rotors and pads, you need to expect that you will initially have diminished braking performance until the bedding in has fully occurred over the first 300 to 500 miles, and the immediate performance on a fresh install will be at its worst so to speak. Among other things, one of the key factors to brake performance is the marrying of the pad material to the rotor surface. As pad material is properly transferred to the rotor and smoothed over time, it is the pad contact on pad material on the rotor that gives you smooth, even, and gripping brake performance. If that material transfer and smoothing process (bedding in) is not done properly you’ll have diminished performance and it can even lead to uneven braking surface which can cause poor grip, vibration, and/or the thumping feel like that of warped rotors. Sorry, don’t mean to be preachy here but thought I’d explain more thoroughly because a lot of the negative reviews I saw were from people talking about the immediate performance of this kit before a proper break-in process and it seemed pretty clear they did not know how brakes work.
Many manufacturers publish specifically recommended bedding-in procedures for their pads. Teraflex does not. I reached out to them and they simply recommended following a generic, gradual bedding in approach. I decided to do a little more thorough and prolonged initial bed-in just to be safe and am very pleased with the result. I went to a low-traveled back road near my house and did the following bed in procedure immediately after install:
- Avoid any heavy braking at first, coast to stop wherever possible prior to initial bed-in
- Perform 10 sets of light/gradual braking from 30MPH to 5MPH (do not come to complete stop), with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set to let brakes cool
- Perform 10 sets of light to moderate braking from 45MPH to 25MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- Perform 10 sets of light to moderate braking from 60MPH to 30MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- Perform 5 sets of moderate to aggressive braking (DO NOT lock brakes) from 60MPH to 30MPH, with at least 1/3 to 1/2 mile of driving between each set
- If you have to stop during the above procedure, try to brake and slow down gradually with light brake pressure. Coast to a stop when possible. Don’t keep brakes depressed at stop sign/light so you don’t have new pads resting on new/hot rotors (can cause uneven adherence of pad material to rotor)
Immediately after install and before performing above procedures, the brake performance was not great. Pedal feel was ok, but there was obviously very diminished grab/bite at first. This improved significantly as I performed the above procedure. By the end of it, the brake performance was awesome and considerably better than stock. As soon as my foot touched the pedal I could feel the brakes noticeably starting to grab. This performance should continue to improve as I wear in the brakes fully over the next 300 to 500 miles. Until that time I will take the braking easy, continuing frequent light/moderate braking whenever possible, and avoiding prolonged braking and pad/rotor contact with hot brakes. After that 300 to 500 miles it should be smooth, excellent braking performance with no further limitations.
I’ve included a couple pics of the fresh install (one front and one rear), as well as a front and rear pic of the rotors immediately following my bedding in procedures listed above. Note the smooth, even glossy finish starting to develop on the rotor. That’s the end goal to realize the awesomeness I personally think this brake kit delivers.
Just my humble opinion and I hope all this info is helpful to those considering this kit for themselves. Happy wheelin’ fellow 392 Jeepsters!
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I agree with the value aspect and will be upgrading when mine need it.
