Brakes/Calipers Questions

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » June 2nd, 2006, 8:05 pm

I was wondering if there are any good brake sets for our cars besides just stock size Brembo cross drilled and slotted rotors? Also where can I get some nice calipers that I can paint. Also, what would you guys recommend for brakes? My brakes just started going and I figure if I'm gonna do them over I'm gonna do them right, the ZE needs more stopping power.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 2nd, 2006, 10:30 pm

Holy mol Bro. Did you even look before you asked all this?
The best rotors are jsut plain Brembo blanks. You can use the ones for a Miata. They are slightly larger, but cheaper. I use them on all four wheels.
As for pads you can get good ones from a few places. EBC sells a set that aren't bad. Hawk sells the best ones for light and regular track use. For just street pads Hawk has a good set too. Metal Master sells some good ones for the rear. To improve the braking beyond good pads and rotors do a complete brake fluid flush and get stainless brake lines.
For new claipers you can paint any caliper with special caliper paint from most any auto parts store. Rebuilt calipers can be bought fora good price from AtuoZone and RockAuto.
You could get slotted and drilled rotors, but they break much more easily and should only be used for looks. A few good hard stops and you are likely to have one break. They also do not stop as well as a pure blank rotor.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » June 2nd, 2006, 11:54 pm

PATDIESEL wrote:You could get slotted and drilled rotors, but they break much more easily and should only be used for looks. A few good hard stops and you are likely to have one break. They also do not stop as well as a pure blank rotor.

I've been runing my brembo slotted/drilled rotors for just over a year. I've done alot of hard driving sessions, and locked them up many times and I have yet to have issues with them. Them, with my PRB ceramic pads, have been a great combo and stop extremely well, which makes me question why people would spend insane money on big brake kits. I would recommend spending the money on a good set of pads and rotors, (and properly working calipers) instead of the cheapo brands, and go from there if your still not satisfied. Unfortunately, due a communication error, I wasn't able to get stainless lines in time, but I found out their not DOT approved in Canada, so it's not a huge deal that I don't have them.

However, in the aspect of the slotted/drilled vs blanks, I have no idea on how to compare them, but if heard alot against using them. The next set I'll probably be going with blanks, but I'm definitely sticking with the same pads, so i'll be a good baseline comparison, but I have plenty of pad left to last me probably for a while. I'm about half way down, and since I wont be driving her for a few months, and she's stored for the winter, so I'm probably good until the end of next year

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 3rd, 2006, 4:01 am

I agree that the Brembo drilled and slotted seem to be fine. However, I've seen plenty of other cars that use slotted and cross drilled or just drilled and they have broken. It is the drilled part that makes them weak. For the ultimate in stopping blanks will be better, but I like the look of the slotted and drilled and run those myself. My next set will be solid just because I don't want to find out how much is needed to break a rotor. yaknowwhatImean?

mr1in6billion · Post by **mr1in6billion** » June 3rd, 2006, 4:19 am

Also if you over heat and warp standard rotors, they can be resurfaced (most of the time), but slotted/drilled ones can't.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » June 14th, 2006, 1:47 am

I just got two new front brake rotors installed (because the previous ones were warped and caused pumping in the pedal) and now for some reason my brake pedal is EXTREMELY irresponsive. By that I mean I have to press the pedal much deeper than I used to to get the vehicle to come to a stop or maybe to even get the brakes to come into effect. What did the mechanics do? Is that normal? I want it to have it shallow obviously! This is dangerous!

Let me know, thanks. By the way, they also said they aligned the front calipers as well if that means anything.

Kuromu · Post by **Kuromu** » June 14th, 2006, 11:50 pm

The key to any slotted or drilled rotor is the quality of the rotor. On my old BMW, I had cheap cross-drilled rotors and they warped pretty quick. I rode it hard on and off the track. When those warped, I replaced them with Brembos and they have never warped, to this day. My buddy who owns the car now still has them on, which makes 3+ years on the same rotors.

oh-hell · Post by **oh-hell** » June 15th, 2006, 2:06 am

I just got two new front brake rotors installed (because the previous ones were warped and caused pumping in the pedal) and now for some reason my brake pedal is EXTREMELY irresponsive. By that I mean I have to press the pedal much deeper than I used to to get the vehicle to come to a stop or maybe to even get the brakes to come into effect. What did the mechanics do? Is that normal? I want it to have it shallow obviously! This is dangerous!

sounds like the vaccume booster. Check your vaccume lines.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » June 15th, 2006, 12:44 pm

vaccuum booster? are you saying they touched my vacuum booster? coz what I'm saying is that the brake "distance" was fine before these rotors were installed... i see no reason why the turgidity of the brake would change... unless someone did something. new rotors would make the brake even more hard wouldn't it? why me

see, there's always something. go to a mechanic, spend two hundred bucks and they set you up so that you come back to them for more...

oh-hell · Post by **oh-hell** » June 15th, 2006, 2:10 pm

You said you had to push harder. The pourpose of the booster is to assist your braking ,i.e. uses vaccume to help push. Just like a feul pressure regulator it requires an accurate amount of vaccume. Unless its leaking brake fluid thats all i can thik of.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » June 15th, 2006, 4:01 pm

so you're saying that the mechanic is in no way at fault

well now that you mention brake fluid, my prepurchase inspector did list that brake fluid is low. but me having the push the brake pedal deeper doesn't explain why i didn't have to push it that deep with the old rotors that were replaced. get me?

i'll refill my fluid in the meantime and see, unless of course i already did, i can't remember, and my car is at this college's parking lot right now and i have to get back to my assignment. bye (and thanks).

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 16th, 2006, 2:15 am

Check your fluid and then bleed the brake lines. When they surface the rotor it lessens the amount of material and thus you have to push the pedal a tad further to make contact. However, this should not be noticable. Call the mechanic who did the work before you touch anything except adding fluid if it is low. If he will take a look at it for free, let him with you standing there (just to make sure no funny business is going on). They may have gone over the max allowed when taking metal off the rotor ro maybe they bled the brakes and didn't do a good job of it, or maybe you are just noticing b/c the pedal isn't bobbing up and down.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » June 16th, 2006, 3:44 am

actually my brake fluid was filled long time ago before any of this ruckus; i checked and remember now. so that's not it. I'm not exactly clear on what you mean by 'surface the rotor', 'amount of material', and 'max allowed', but i'll check this out tomorrow with another shop for second advice (and second agreement). that's a good point about the noticing b/c the pedal isn't bobbing up and down anymore, but i'm fairly sure the brakes altogether brought about a stop quicker before than how they do now; that for sure is noticeable. i drive a brand new mazda protege 5 when delivering japanese food for work, and the brakes on that deliver an instantaneous jolt when the brake pedal is pushed like only 5 cm! instant stop! my new rotors are nowhere near that.

one new thing i'm paranoid of is whether they even actually replaced the rotors! what if, while I was gone, they simply fixed my orginal ones after realizing they could do so, and charged me as if they were new? (because one mechanic, who didn't work on my car but at the front, told me afterwards that resurfacing is possible in rotors). my fault really. i was in a rush, had it done an hour before work, took an hour, never even asked to see the new rotors, the old rotors, hell is wrong with me!? it completely slipped my mind when i was there. damn. now if i go back and ask these, they've had time to manipulate the evidence. sorry if i make strangers seem untrustworthy. but i think they were pissed off coz my alarm kept going off and i'm asian.

PATDIESEL wrote:Check your fluid and then bleed the brake lines. When they surface the rotor it lessens the amount of material and thus you have to push the pedal a tad further to make contact. However, this should not be noticable. Call the mechanic who did the work before you touch anything except adding fluid if it is low. If he will take a look at it for free, let him with you standing there (just to make sure no funny business is going on). They may have gone over the max allowed when taking metal off the rotor ro maybe they bled the brakes and didn't do a good job of it, or maybe you are just noticing b/c the pedal isn't bobbing up and down.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 16th, 2006, 10:29 am

I seriously hope the Asain part didn't affect your transaction with them, but I know it is possible.
All that I said about surface of rotor, surface the rotor or amount of material is null if they replaced the rotors. Usually they will resurface them if they can, it is cheaper. If there is not enough metal they cannot shave the face of the rotor to make it smooth again and they have to replace them. What I meant was maybe they resurfaced/shaved the rotors and took too much metal off and now they are too thin.

happyclown · Post by **happyclown** » June 16th, 2006, 10:46 am

I'd put my money on a bad bleed job, if they even did one... If you get on the breaks pretty hard does it fell like the pressure is inconcistant (stops hard fine one time but pulls left/right another)? Try double pressing the break, press it in and out rather quickly right before you break hard. Do you feel the pedel get stiff like it used to be?

If they didn't do a good job bleeding the breaks you should be able to tell. The reason the pedel will get hard (normal) if you do a quick pump is because you compress any air in the line before you start breaking.