aw614

I've been reading up on rear brake pads for road racing/autox and I've read a lot of posts about people using aggressive front pads with the cheapest rear bad available to allow trail braking and prevent rear brake lock up. With ABS I shouldn't experience any of those handling issues right?

is it still generally preferred to still run a less aggressive pad up front even with ABS rather than run the same compound front and rear? Even with ABS are there still unstable handling effects from running say a track pad on all four corners?

I am running the ITR ABS ECU and Prop valve on my 2000 Integra with the stock LS/GSR brakes if that makes any difference?

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

I've always run an aggressive pad up front and something less in the back.
IE: hawk HT10's fr. hawk blues rear.
But my front brakes are changing from 2000 Si to Legend/mini combo.
Pads up front will go from HT10's to DTC60's

Lo-Buck EF

i don't have abs, but i run dtc 30s out back and it only 'locks up' if one tire is unloaded.
aero changes your rear brake pad selection.

joel n

We don't run ABS either But we run DTC-60 front and DTC-30 rear. My boss uses the same stuff for his 07 GTI. Doesnt lock-up. But if you are running a stock ABS system with aggressive pads and tires, it will have a hard time controlling the system. Pending on the system mind you. I dont have much knowledge of the Honda ABS systems but the VW systems are touchy. If you get on the brakes quickly it adds more hydrolic pressure to help you. But when racing it makes its lock-up quickly and since they found out from test that people back off the brakes in a panic situation, it will hold the extra pressure even if you back off some. So keeping the rear tires from early lock-up is very important.

aw614

Thanks for the responses.
Interesting, I think there are settings in vcds/vagcom to change the touchiness, but I never experimented this on my daily driver gti, but it has been mentioned on the forums a few times and I have experienced it when autocrossing on a friend's GTI and mine, which for some reason was getting on ABS a lot sooner than my GTI was, it was annoying. He had some setting done I believe. Mine has done it a few times, but it is very inconsistent, the last few times I've taken it out, it seems a lot better with a really aggressive front pad, and stock rear pads.

With the Integra ABS, I've found it fairly consistent on brake feel and when ABS will get on, but the VW system, sometimes the pedal feel seems to vary to either touchy like you mentioned, or just lacking feel and confidence in stopping hard. You can hear the brake pads making noises because of the undefeatable stability control.


Does anyone know how similar the S2000 ABS system is to the ITR? I noticed a lot of S2k guys still have their ABS and are using aggressive pads and never heard any complaints from them. I'll have to ask them about it and their experiences, curious to know.

joel n

We were told to set the ABS to XX number. So we did. It comes up and says full. lol. so i assume full assist. Boss does a few laps of the shop and said it felt more controllable, But the ABS came on everytime. Not just once in a blue moon. So we figure it wasnt going to be track frendly, so they set it to another XX number and that was less assist. Did a few laps, and found it much much better at the track. So far everything we have read online from the Nerd network is backwards from what it says it will be. So either this VW is is all confused, or the VW Kids on the internet are just plain wrong. And from working at VW for 5 years now, it wouldnt surprize me to find out VW makes every car different. Just to keep people on there toes. lol

Dilbones

A friend of mine running a GS-R (ABS car) in H2 Honda Challenge uses eBay/AutoZone pads in rear with DTC60's up front. He says it's the way to go. That's what I'm doing.

Newer Hondas may be different. I use HP+ up front and HPS in rear for my RSX Type-S for track days and I never ever lock up unless I pull the ABS fuse.

All of my rotation in the RSX-S is from suspension setup, not from locking up. My Civic is probably different...shake down is this weekend 8)

gramkrackers

I run DTC-60's front and DTC-30's rear on my ITR with the factory ABS. I have found it to be an excellent setup, no ABS issues, good modulation.

I personally am not a fan of the whole Autozone rear pad setup. I tried it on my old EK Civic hatch (Integra brakes front and rear, no ABS) and the rear pads were just about done after a day at the track. The car definitely did not have as much bite either in my opinion. I know others who have tried it with similar results.