goforbroke

So I finally ordered my CCW wheels, but before I ordered them I had to give them a few brake measurements because I wanted to run the biggest lip possible If you're using or plan on running a BBK kit they need brake measurements to insure the brakes will fit over the wheels. My big brake kit consist of RL brakes and Nissan 350Z rotors. I had the calipers already, but I was scrambling around for the rotors and waiting patiently for the FastBrake bracket & hardware to arrive.

This is what the FastBrakes kit comes with. I'm not sure what grade aluminum the bracket is made of but, it's pretty substantial and doesn't feel remotely cheap.


So I went ahead and removed my brake, rotor, and dust shield. I removed the whole dust shield instead or trimming it with a wizard or ect...


This is where the kit falls short and things need to be addressed.The two bolts and nuts which bolt the bracket onto the knuckle are sufficient. The problem is the two long gold colored bolts which mount the caliper to the bracket are way to short in my opinion. Even though 100's ? of people are running this setup without any problems. The bolt only has 6mm of threads going into the bracket, but the bracket is tapped for 11-12mm deep of threads, so why does the kit supply such short bolts? This needs to be addressed and I plan on running longer bolts. I would rather have 1/2" of threads opposed to 1/4" holding the caliper to the bracket.


The kit is pretty straight forward during the install. With everything installed. It looks like this..............actually when you purchase the wrong rotor it looks like that......:smash: This rotor is for the base model 350Z which only has a single piston caliper. This rotor only measured 294mm or 11.6" didn't measure the width. If you have 3/4" of the pad not touching the rotor you done goofed.



This is what it should look like with the correct rotor. This rotor measured out to 324mm x 30mm. When looking for rotors make sure you get the rotors that are for the 4 piston calipers. You can also look for rotors compatible with Brembo brakes. Also these rotors only cost $40 each from Napa auto parts and they don't appear to be cheap quality either. The Napa part number is NB 48880250 for anyone interested. If they warp I'll get something fancy but I needed rotors fast and they fit the bill.



There is about 3mm of extra space left on the rotor that pads don't touch, nothing too alarming.



It sucks these were just for a mock up so I could only take brake measurements but so be it. I still need to grab some TL Type-S wheels to clear the brakes once I install them permanently. Found some 07-08 TL 5 star wheels locally but I'm not sure they will fit.


http://www.ccwheel.com/documents/BrakeMeasurements.pdf
Here are the brake measurements that CCW requested. Remember these measurements are only for RL brakes and 350Z rotors(324mm x 30mm)installed on a TSX.

1. 100mm
2. 180mm
3. 37mm
4. 157mm
5. 25mm

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I'm in the middle of sourcing parts to do this. I'm hoping that this will cure the brake pulsation on my TSX. I've tried so many different pads...always bedded them in correctly. I even spent weeks consciously doing things that I don't have to do in other cars...like leaving my foot off the brake even after stopping from normal speeds.

goforbroke

It's interesting you mention the braking issue on the TSX, because a lot of people are always talking about that and one of remedies that seems to work running and entire different brake setup. Seems a little extreme but it works. My brakes haven't given me any problems I haven't own my car for very long.

It could possibly be your rotors maybe. I'm wired differently but I don't like running cross drilled or slotted rotors. They tend to eat through pads or the pads eat through the rotors if pad compound is too hard.

I've always run blank rotors and never had any issues. Yes lots of high end European cars run cross drilled rotors from the factory with sticky pads without any issues, but those cars eat brakes FAST.

This setup is fairly cheap for a BBK while keeping it pretty close to OEM.
1. $100 RL calipers, these were silly cheap usually they run $250 a pair though
2. $135 FastBrakes Kit
3. $80 Front Rotors, you buy better front rotors ranging anywhere from $200-500
4. $80-100 Front Pads, used the old pads for the mock up though.

So I"ll have roughly $400 into this entire setup when done.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Lol. $400 is almost exactly my number too.

Found super fresh calipers for $180.
Found rotors on sale for $17/ea.
Bought powerstop Z23 carbon ceramic pads for $45.
Fastbrakes adapters for $135.

I don't use slotted or drilled rotors. Drilled rotors don't aid in cooling. Slotted rotors have some benefit, but....I use blanks without trouble n my track car too.

goforbroke

Yeah it's nice brake upgrade that doesn't require spending $1500 for a BBK from xyz company. I'm partial to using Honda stuff anyway. The few I've talked to running this setup really like it.

Still need to grab some better wheels for winter. The TL type-s wheels fit still trying to figure out if the 07-08 TL 5 stair wheels fit. We can run our OEM wheels but we need to run a 15-20mm spacer and I'm not about that life....haha

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I have TL-S wheels for summer and the TL 5 stars for winter.

I'll let you know. I'm sure the 5 stars will fit. I'm just waiting for rotors/pads/bracket conveter to come in. Hope to install them this coming weekend.

BTW, so...the stock TSX rubber line and banjo bolt fit right into the RL line inlet, huh? I would not have guessed that. I thought I'd need RL lines (soft line to hard line to caliper setup).

goforbroke

Sweet you already have the wheels.

Yes, the stock TSX brake lines fit right into the RL calipers.
Thank you Honda.

Mattb16teg

Nice stuff! Thought about doing this but just ended up Getting some HPS pads and Stop Tech Rotors.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Did the stoptech rotors and HPS pads work to cure your issue?

Mine still pulses even with my stoptech pads. I like the agressive nature of the pads...but I wish they would have stopped the pulsation.

I hsve been through 3 sets of rotors and pads. I haven't ever had this much trouble with brakes in any car. The brake pulsation is really my only complaint about my TSX.

I can't wait to try the RL setup. If a mere $400 cures my issue, I'll be happy as hell!

Thor294

Pulsating is usually due to a crappy rotor warping. you bought $17 rotors... no wonder why they warp lol

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Lol...no. i bought rotors on sale for $17 for the RL setup (350Z rotors). $17 isn't the regular price, but yes...they're "economy" rotors.

My TSX brakes pulsated with Centric blanks and Bendix blanks.

Rotors don't really warp unless you get them coned out from track day, rotor glowing insanity. Even then...it takes some doing. I've never "warped" a set of el-cheapo blanks on my S2000 at the track. Although, I stopped using extreme el-cheapo's on that car because super cheap rotors CRACK in about half the time as the decent ones. I buy gangs of rotors at a time for that car and its just more cost effective to buy rotors that last 6-8 days vs. 3-4 days. I never warped or cracked centric blank rotors or advance auto rotors with my ITR. Both cars either had race pads or track oriented pads.

I'm so broke from buying rotors :'(

Pulsation is almost always caused by pad deposits/martensite forming on the rotors as a result of improper bedding (I bedded them as if we just left the prom), or leaving the brakes clamped after getting them extremely hot (didn't do that).

Thor294

Ive worked on TSXs and no one ever complained about rotor warping. Have you tried normal pads and rotors? same thing? I just put on either advanced auto mid grade stuff or OE pads.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I bought the car with Honda pads. I tried Powerstop ceramics. I tried stoptech SP's.

I edited my post above, BTW.

And TSX brake pulsation is a rampant problem. Google will confirm.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I used advance auto pads on my EM1 once.

Once.

Never again.

Thor294

hahaha. yeah Ive used cheap advanced pads on a friends car cause he was a cheap sob. i told him its a bad idea but hes like NAH BRO THEY ARE GUD YO "LIFETYME" WARRANTY.

lolz brakes in like 5k miles.

I have had good luck with their higher grade stuff on side jobs I do.

I see VIA google. that's garbage. I'd be so pissed lol I hate vibrations from tires/brakes the most.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I'm having a lot of fitment problems. The front face of the rotor is too close to the caliper and it scrapes badly. I tried buying a different set of rotors. Same problem.

I can see your caliper is pretty close to your rotor face also. Almost seems like the rotor drum needs about a 2mm larger offset.

I'm getting close to putting the stock brakes back on :'(

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Figured it out.

I couldn't use the 12.8" diameter, 30mm wide rotor. I found another 350Z brembo rotor that is 12.6 diameter, 28mm wide. It sits directly in the middle of the caliper and nothing rubs.

I was gonna be EVER so pissed if I had to put my stock brakes back on to get the car home.

goforbroke

Do you have any pics of the setup.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Yes I do. Have you driven on yours yet? I'd be curious to see if your 12.8'' rotors displayed the same issue that mine did.

With the wheels unbolted, I noticed a little bit of scraping with the 12.8'' rotor...and I attributed that to the wheels not being bolted down. I bolted down the wheels and made it down the driveway and noticed a LOT of scraping noises. If I turned my wheel, it got worse. I tried fiddling with the dust shields thinking that was the scraping noise...NOPE. It was the rotor and caliper firmly scraping each other. If I hit the brakes, the pad forced its way out and the noises stopped. So..yes...the caliper was definitely hitting the rotor. I tried a lot of different things to fit the 12.8'' rotors...but I had no luck at all.

Even if you shaved the caliper down.....you'd be rubbing pad on the outboard side. When I jacked the car back up, the wheels were locked in place.

With the 12.8'' rotors with 30mm thickness, you can see that there was really no clearance at all between the marked sections of the caliper. The rotor sat biased to the outboard side of the caliper on both sides. That's a big problem. If it sat INBOARD, you could use washers on the caliper bracket to move it around. Outboard...there's not much you can do.



As you can see, the outboard side has plenty of room with the 12.6'' rotor with a 28mm thickness. The rotors also sit directly in the middle of the caliper. I used Advance auto rotors (PART NUMBER YH145611).







I made 100% sure that I was installing everything per instructions and confirmed it with all the DIY's on the interwebs.


I noticed that with the 12.8'' rotor, the hub rings that came with the fast brakes kit fit EXTREMELY tightly. They were a force fit. You need to bolt the rotor down with force to get them to seat...and you need to use a 12mm bolt to thread into the rotor to get it to come off the hub. With the 12.6'' rotor, the hub rings sat centered natually...like factory rotors sit on factory hub centers.

The disadvantage of the 12.6'' rotors is that there is a small amount of pad hanging off the top of the rotor (the RL has a 12.8'' rotor):



To get the best of both worlds, you'd need a rotor with the same offset, bolt pattern, and hat height as the YH145611, but with a 12.8 (324mm) diameter. I'm looking to see if something like that exists.

Anyway, here are the pics of the stuff on the car:






Also...the TL 5 spokes that I will be installing my winter tires on fit great!

B serious

iTrader: (1)

For fools that aren't so good at math:

25.4mm per inch.

So 12.75'' (12.8'') rotors are 324mm in diameter.

12.58'' (12.6'') rotors are 319.6mm in diameter.

The diameter difference is about .17'', or a little over 4mm.

So that means that with the slightly smaller rotor (12.6/320mm diameter), each pad will stick up about 2.15mm (.08'') over the rotor. . That's not much overhang.

There's so much conflicting information about these rotors. Here's my simplified version of the story:

The rotor I ended up using is a 319.6mm (320mm) x 28mm rotor meant for STANDARD brakes on a 05-06 350Z (non brembo).

The 03-04 350Z standard (non brembo) rotors are 295mm x 24mm. Those are way too small. Do not buy these.

All brembo package 350Z's use a 324 x 28mm rotor...and those did not work for me at all. Not even close.

Fitz Williams

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps you could have machined the 324mm rotors down to the 28mm thickness necessary to clear. Also, you could machine the bracket down 2mm so that the 320mm rotors extend to the edge of the pads. I had to do this on some brackets for the rear when I used a 313mm brake kit. It worked out really well.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

The discard thickness of the 30mm rotors is 28mm. The bracket wall is extremely thin on the side that I would need to machine.

I could either machine the spindle or machine the hub-facing side of the rotor hat.

goforbroke

I haven't permanently installed my kit yet, still trying to find a clean set of TL wheels. I'm going to run 07-08 TL wheels which should bolt up if your 1st gens do.

The issue youre running into I haven't seen before with the kit. Silly question but did you install the bracket correctly? If anything I would say something was off with the 12.8 rotors you bought.
Check these threads out.

http://www.v6performance.net/forums/...k-upgrade.html

http://www.tsxclub.com/forums/1st-ge...ption-tsx.html

Also another thing I believe but I have to check. Where the caliper separates into two I vaguely remember mine lining up better then the set you.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

I am 150% sure its installed correctly.

Fastbrakes tells me that it does happen with some cars...and they're not sure why. They said to just keep using the 12.6" rotor.

Maybe because my car was one of the ones that displayed the problem...it may have something to do with my car having brake pulsation with the stock brakes. Idk though.

xtcnrice

Thread revival!

Hey there, sorry to hear about your rotor issues. I was wondering, is the overhang a huge issue (any grinding noises)? I'm pretty new to modding cars, let alone what could happen in the brakes, and since there's some overhang, that means part of the pad will remain at 100% thickness while the rest of it gets shaved off from regular use. Sorry if I'm being ignorant, but is it possible for this 2mm-wide groove decide to come in contact with the rotor at some point (via vibrations in the hub/brakes or something)? I just want to make sure that this bit of overhang is safe.

Also, there's the flip side. I'm sure not all of the rotor's useable radius is covered by the pad right? Would there be a few mm on the inside of the rotor where it will be raised compared to the rest of the rotor over time from regular use? If so, is this safe?

I have one more question, is this one in particular really shows off my ignorance lol. Could the clearance issues you're experiencing with the 12.8" rotors and the calipers be due to the brackets? So far I've only heard of this issue with the FastBrakes bracket, but fatfourcustoms also makes one (at least for the 2G TSX). Could this problem be caused by an improperly designed bracket?

Sorry for the really dumb questions... was wondering if you (or anyone) knew. I'm very interested in this setup in my TSX, but just wanted to have a few details ironed out.
Thanks!