New brakes and rotors for street use?

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

People will go on and on about how it makes the pedal feel less squishy, more responsive, yada yada. It's metal on the outside, it has to be stiffer then that squishy rubber right!

Steel braided brake lines use the same plastics inside as the OEM rubber coated lines to hold brake fluid. However as the brake lines age the plastic gets old, less stiff, it does get squishy. Flexible brake lines are a maintenance item on any car in service long enough or used in harsh enough conditions.

For a new-ish street driven car say <10 years old it's a waste of money imho. Heavy track use cars (the 0.01% who spend like dozens of hours on track per month) should likely replace every season or two, the rest of us are somewhere in the middle.

The big problem with people claiming it improves feel is that they replace stock pads with performance pads at the same time. Like 99% of the difference in feel is because of less compressible performance pads, not the lines (unless the stock lines are really old and needing to be replaced anyway). I swap pads between winter and summer, and the difference in pedal feel is night and day, no other changes (other than wheels/tires).

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by wparsons

The big problem with people claiming it improves feel is that they replace stock pads with performance pads at the same time. Like 99% of the difference in feel is because of less compressible performance pads, not the lines (unless the stock lines are really old and needing to be replaced anyway). I swap pads between winter and summer, and the difference in pedal feel is night and day, no other changes (other than wheels/tires).

It's one of the few mods I noticed no difference at all

[NoHaveMSG]

I could only tell a difference with SS lines on the motorcycle. On the car they are negligible. I am sure a lot of the feel difference is in the difference between hand and foot operation though.

[kevaughan]

Hey OP I'm in Canada too and winter daily my FRS. I went with Centric blank rotors and Stoptech pads all around. Stoptech STR600 DOT4 brake fluid as well. It was enough for me at the track and works in the winter worry-free.

[Goingnowherefast]

To really answer this question, it's important to remember the function of brakes. Brakes do not stop the car, brakes stop the wheel. Depending on your tires, upgrading to much higher mu pads might not impact your braking performance much if you can already lock up the wheels with stock pads.

So it's very important to realize that if that is the case, then upgarding your tires with have a much greater effect on braking (and really everything else). If you aiming to change up pedal feel, that is another story.

As far as streets pads go, here's a few suggestions:

-Stoptech Sport - A great street pad, that is capable of *very* light track use. Requires some hard use to keep it fully bedded on the street.
-Powerstop Z26 - Again, another great street pad. Low cost, but at the expense of pad life. Good if you don't mind swapping pads a bit more often
-Akebono Pro-ACT - these pads have less mu and initial bite than the others, but excel in having extremely low/no noise and minimal dust compared to others

Also mentioned was the Hawk HPS, which I hate to my core. These pads were garbage, though I've heard their newer stuff is much improved. I'd skip lines and stay with Centric premium blank rotors. For a street car, basic DOT4 fluid is fine since you will not ever get near boiling point on the street.

[CrowsFeast]

Originally Posted by Goingnowherefast

Also mentioned was the Hawk HPS, which I hate to my core. These pads were garbage, though I've heard their newer stuff is much improved.

What do you dislike about Hawk HPS pads?

I haven't put them on this car (yet) but I've had them on all my previous cars and they've been great. They were even good on track until I advanced enough. Now I'm at the point where I have 1 set of pads for winter and in summer I daily something more track oriented (DTC-60's for now -SQUEAL-)

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

What do you dislike about Hawk HPS pads?

See my posts #5 and #20. They were complete and utter garbage on my S2000. Might have been a bad batch or maybe they've improved the formula by now, but I got a long/soft pedal immediately on the street, and at the track they were totally useless.

[CrowsFeast]

Originally Posted by ZDan

See my posts #5 and #20. They were complete and utter garbage on my S2000. Might have been a bad batch or maybe they've improved the formula by now, but I got a long/soft pedal immediately on the street, and at the track they were totally useless.

Woops, didn't notice it was the same guy and in the same thread. Post 20 was replying to me asking about them! lol

[Sam86]

Can someone describe to me how the stock brakes feel when they're new? I've never test driven a new 86/BRZ and got my 86 secondhand when it had about 30k kms on it and whilst the brakes have always 'worked' i've never been fully confident in their stopping ability if I was travelling highway speeds and had to come to a complete stop for any potential hazards.

Did some really brief tests today driving around at normal backstreet speeds then putting the foot to the floor of my break and it felt like my car still moved a little before coming to a complete stop.

Are they meant to feel really reactive or are they a little spongy as I would describe mine to be.


Forgot to add I don't have the stock tyres, I don't know how good they're considered to be as they aren't a 'known' tyre brand but my car has always felt grippy

[churchx]

Our stock front calipers are from wrx, rears IIRC from legacy gt, both much heavier cars then ours. I have complete confidence in their capabilities at daily driving, limited number emergency stops and so on even on stock pads. If anything, our stockers should do better then those heavier ones.
Limitations of stock brake heat capacity may surface at track, with much higher heat load, at least for everybody that intend to go for long sessions. Or have heavily modded car (eg. very grippy tires, lot of aero, forced induction). But you mentioned daily driving on public roads, see no reasons to worry.
Spongy .. hmm, maybe you have air in your brakelines? Considered new brake fluid replacement/flush?