Brake upgrade questions for stock setups
 

So i need to do some brake maintance and upgrades also as the car has 55k on stock everything brake wise, and its sqeeling and the pads are pretty toast on the rear. So Lets start off by saying i dont need 13" cobra,bullit,mach1 setup. Its not for me as i only do drag racing and street driving so i dont need that extra heat dissapation the larger setup offers.

Now of course i am going to no matter what go with stainless lines for the front thats covered and ordered from AM.com all already. I will also be just either having the stock front rotors cut or grab new blanks from brembo as they are pretty cheap and darn good. And because slotted rotors do little but eat your pads up faster.

My questions really are what should i use for fluide and pads. For fluide i am thinking i will go with a DOT4 fluide like valvoline DOT4 or Mutel DOT4 from maximum motorsports.

Next for pads i am not sure at all. I need a pad that doesnt dust like crazy the same or slightly worse then stock would be ok but i would like to gain more then anything some more bit out of the pad. From what i have gather most of the Hawk street pads are crap, EBC green stuff is also crap. So what others should i look into?

this is something i have really been pushing off to teh side and its time to do it. oh and i will also paint the stock Front and rear calipers either flat black or Mineral Grey like the car, not totaly sure which way i want to go on that. im not the flashy red or yellow brake setup guy :postwhore:

ANY aftermarket pad you get will be made of a softer compound. So you get upgraded stopping power with faster wear and more dust. Simply put, thats how they are and theres little change between any performance pad when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Well yes and no, not all pads are the same. I mean i fell for the hype on my f150 and got the Hawk HPS pads and they were barely better then stock and dusted like hell. You cant tell me green stuff pads and something like Hawk Blue seires are the same. They are softer compound but not nearly the same. I get what your saying, but there not all the same. I guess you could most of the street pads are the close.

When I say they are all the same, I mean the stopping power is all within 2 ft MAX of eachother. OEM pads will be closely behind that as well. I know its not what you want to hear, but you are better off just doing the complete mach1 front setup for under 400 bucks.

absolutely.

Not interested in the 13" setup its a drag car before anything else and i allready have 15" skinnys for the front.

I read people said to use the Ford racing brake fluide but i found out that its now made in china and isnt that great anymore. I heard of a company called ATS i belive the name is. Anyone use this?

It's ATE and their SuperBlue racing brake fluid would be my choice (cuz it is). It's the best thing under the sun for the money. 15 bucks a quart and a super high wet boiling point. I wouldn't use anything else.

good questions spike.....I'm getting ready to do some break maintenance as well, so this is helpful. I asked Randy about getting OEM break pads and they are freaking $150 for the fronts and $135 for the rears....OUCH. So hearing about the difference in pads is pretty helpful and maybe OEM pads are worth the extra cost.

I know you said that you dont like the red or yellow calipers but turly the red ones would look gr8 with your color car

Id just go with stock pads, blanks from Brembo, and the fluid red was talking about.

I've had really good results from EBC green pads but they do increase rotor wear. In your shoes I'd probably go with those, some slotted rotors (powerslot) and good high temp fluid like the ATE super blue or gold.

Well i got my stainless lines from Am.com comming, i bought some of that ATE (thanks for the name correction) and i found some good pads at belive it or not autozone that alot of people on the corvette and other forums use that seem to be good are cheap and have a 2 year warrenty. So i will go with those.

Its a cheap upgrade for me and should stop better. Oh and i checked my stock rotors they are fine well within spec and will just be cut once to clean and straighten them out. I think the calipers will be painted MG.

Thanks for the help boys, i will post of thoughts after its all done. I hope to do it once finals are over next week.

Oh and i did a test today i went 90-0 on the highway (no one around) and then did it again right away after wards again 90-0 and it was sad how much brake fade i had. It had to of added a good 60feet or more to my 2nd stopping distance. We will see how these new pads handle heat.

You should take your front calipers off and sand em down to be polished. that looks pretty badass but it required a little bit of elbow grease.

yeah im not that flashy of a guy.:tongueout:

Dustin:

I am nearly in the same boat as you as I will need brakes soon (I think). Fact is, the dam stockers are pretty freaking good. If it were not for the fact that the upgrade kits on Mustangs are soo dam cheap, just getting stock pads and rotors are definately good enough for 99% of the drivers.

I think for me, I will get OEM pads, stock rotors (which are cheap as hell) and then just get better fluid and stainless lines. I can probably do the entire front and rear for $200 - $250, get a nice improvement, last a long time, and get no dust.

Stopping wise were good, its the brake fade that sucks.

I hear ya, but I have never had an issue with fade. if I was racing, sure. But even if drag racing, fade should not be a problem and they should have time to cool.

OH yeah i mean over the 3 years i have owned this car only once was i scared from brake fade. I think changing the fluide and doing steele lines with better pads is the best route for 90% of people.