After locking up my CRX on a few occasions I began thinking are heavier/bigger brakes really necessary on such a light car? I'm using AEM pads with aftermarket cross drilled rotors and the car can easily out brake the tires. Afterall, you can only brake as much as the tires allow (especially without ABS). My tires aren't new but there is a good amount of tread left. Let the debate begin. Good set of performance pads/rotors vs bigger brake setup.

Bigger brakes
Pro: better braking, little if any fade
Con: increased cost, increased unsprung weight (unless lightweight aluminum)

Performance pads/rotors
Pro: slightly better braking, less fade
Con: slightly more cost than stock

 

Sure, in one stop you can lock the tires, but if you go to the track and do dozens of stops from 100+, eventually you'll cook the stock stuff. Better pads handle it better, but more thermal mass is always helpful.

Drilled rotors

 

I have Wilwood's 13 inch kit on my CRX. Yes, it is definetely overkill however; it has saved my life (literally) at least a couple times. Two crashes would have been a head-on collisions. The first would have happeed with an Expedition being in the oncoming (my) lane but my brakes shut it down real quick and the clumsy ****** had just enough time to countersteer away from me.

The other head-on wreck would have been a 80's Toyota truck doing about 65mph in my lane (trying to pass people on a single line highway even though there were way too many people on the road ). I stopped as fast as I could trying to remain safe and pulled off the highway onto the shoulder just in time. The cars behind me locked up and started sliding, and the ******* crackhead doing this maneuver missed me by maybe 2 feet.

Another time I was on the highway going about 70-ish when a parked semi truck pulled out onto the highway without even looking apparently. I couldn't go into the left lane because there were other cars there so I had no choice but to again stop with the full force my brakes could put out. If I had been in a car that didn't have such overkill brakes I would have slammed right into the rear axle on that semi's trailer. In fact to be honest with you, the distance between us was so small when he pulled out onto the highway that I thought for sure I was going to collide anyways, but my brakes pulled through without anything giving me crap and without me faceplanting on the back of his 18 wheeler.

There are many more instances that are small I could name that would have destroyed my CRX but not killed me. I just told you these because they would have been fatal for me.

 

You forgot one "pro" about the bigger brakes....LOOKS. Bigger brakes behind the rims look cool . But anyways, ur right, braking has a lot to do with the tires as well. Also the fact that u will lose hp when using the bigger rotors (u will see it on a dyno). You've brought up 2 great points that people most often forget. *Subsricbing* to see other people's pov.

 

a lot of things we do are over-kill, i see no reason in not doing bigger brakes, hell they will obviously save your life. the brakes on our cars are really not all that great, i have cooked them many times out inthe canyon and even sat looking over a cliff or two thinking to myself "why have i not upgraded my brakes yet?" a well rounded car has to have brakes...

 

I'm tired of hearing all of the bullshit about upgrading brakes heavily on lightweight Honda's.

Let's just take a moment to think about it logically. Most people argue that the weight of the car ( in general ) is too little to have to really get larger brakes. And most argue just upgrading the pads and rotors and staying the same size is most economical. Which is true, it's a cheap, quick and easy upgrade.

Other's however, argue that most of the time, the Honda isn't fast enough to require that kind of braking power.

Now, consider this. What if you have a reasonably slow Honda with just slightly upgraded brakes ( that still generally cost a decent amount ) and then over some time the engine is heavily upgraded and now the car is scooting faster? Just because the car is light doesn't mean the braking power of the slightly upgraded brakes are going to be enough for the newly beefier engine under the hood. I don't care how light it is.

When it comes to a lot of things with overall car building, and especially in this case with the number one safety feature of every vehicle, I personally believe that it's MOST beneficial to have more than you need. If you want to talk economix for a second, consider this. Car A gets a slightly upgraded brake kit, and later on decides to upgrade his brakes some more because of added power in the engine and perhaps another 60 lbs of Subs in the trunk. He's spent money on brakes TWICE! When instead, he could've just spent a little more money the first time and never have to worry about it again ( unless of course they manage to crank even more power out of the engine and add 300lbs of Playstation 2s and LCD screens ). Whereas Car B goes all out the first time he looks into upgrading his brakes and then builds the car to meet the capabilities of the cars braking power.

Also consider this. Is it not wise to have a car that can always handle way more than the driver can throw at it? Does that not force the driver to fine tune his abilities to meet the capabilities of the car? Is that not better than outdriving your car and having to upgrade it slowly and expensively to meet your driving abilities? Then the driver doesn't get any better because the car is always just "good enough".

Lastly consider this. If heavy duty brake upgrade A has and excess of 50 braking power points than what is necessary based on the weight of the car, the drivers abilities and the power the engine makes versus slightly upgraded brake setup B which meets the requirements of braking power based on the vehicles driver, power, and weight, which would YOU rather have? Come on, it's the number ONE saftey feature of every vehicle. With the heavy duty brake upgrade kit A, you'll be comfortable in knowing that you will always have AT LEAST the amount of stopping power that you need. And you may never require any more.

Now, as far as cross drilled rotors go, DON'T BUY THEM UNLESS YOU ARE ON THE LIST OF NATURAL SELECTION! They "say" that the holes are to jettison heat from the brakes, however, Porsche in a monthly newsletter openly admitted that the cross drilled rotors they put on their cars in the factory are "for aesthetic purposes only and provide no additional stopping power to the brake setup". Whereas slotted rotors, due to the design and layout of the slots, push the hot air off the rotors ( which is contrary to the popular belief that the slots redirect cooler air over the brakes).

Plus, you have two more things to consider with non blank rotors. On crossdrilled rotors, you actually create MORE heat in the setup due to the minimized surface area with which heat has to disperse. So really, the metal that IS there and NOT drilled out is going to be hotter than a blank rotor with more surface area to disperse more heat.

With slotted rotors, the amount of heat the rotors are able to disperse into the open air far outweighs the extra amount of heat they MAY generate due to a lesser surface area, therefore creating a more effecient situation than both blank rotors and drilled rotors.

Cross drilled and slotted rotors tend to perform like blank rotors of comparable quality due to the mixed characteristics canceling each other out.

Also note, due to the excessive amount of heat that any drilled rotor tends to generate under heavy braking, the rotors tend to warp far quicker than even blank rotors and in the end will just give you headaches and cost you money. Don't even ge me started on the different types of fading that are highly more common with drilled rotor setups, that's just an excessive amount of required text to really explain that one well

 

There is nothing like bigger functional brakes!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ExodusJKD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now, as far as cross drilled rotors go, DON'T BUY THEM UNLESS YOU ARE ON THE LIST OF NATURAL SELECTION! They "say" that the holes are to jettison heat from the brakes, however, Porsche in a monthly newsletter openly admitted that the cross drilled rotors they put on their cars in the factory are "for aesthetic purposes only and provide no additional stopping power to the brake setup". Whereas slotted rotors, due to the design and layout of the slots, push the hot air off the rotors ( which is contrary to the popular belief that the slots redirect cooler air over the brakes).

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just to let you know, I've seen Porsche factory cross-drilled rotors with little cracks forming at the holes. Kinda scary if you ask me. Especially since some of these cars are tracked. I would definitely suggest slotting over cross-drilling.

Also, next week I'm going to be doing a front brake upgrade on my 89 Si using 92 Integra GS-R front brakes. 10.2" rotors compared to 9.5" and a bigger Integra caliper. I'll let ya know how it turns out.

 

a simple 10.3" upgrade with good pads is all you really need barry. but make sure you use GOOD brake fluid. i cannot count how many times my brakes faded while driving down to PCH through some of the smaller roads, at posted speeds, all due to repeaded long term brake application.
use a bigger MC as well.
with that said i am upgrading to wilwood kit as we speak.
stan

 

i have DA front knuckles with AEM big rotor kit on the crx. Stops on a dime and look very cool behnd the wheel.

 

Sounds like to me you need to get a better set of tires, no matter how much tread you have, if the tires are cheap, your car will lock up on oem brakes. Not to sound mean, but your tires can make or brake you, no pun intended.

 

Stan D, you talkin to me? My last name is Barry... :-P

 

no jon, i was talking to Barry the original poster...
stan

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fastassdx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like to me you need to get a better set of tires, no matter how much tread you have, if the tires are cheap, your car will lock up on oem brakes. Not to sound mean, but your tires can make or brake you, no pun intended.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Exactly. Some of u guys say "it will save your life" and what not, which may be true in SOME cases, and very false in others. Like with the story up top about some semi pulling in front of him while he was on the highway. Slam on your brakes and the tires will lock up...at that point its up to the tires to decide when ur gonna stop, not the brakes. I can lock up with stock brakes right now, so whats the difference if i lock up with stocks or biger 10" + ones? On the track the bigger may seem the better choice since most of the time ur not slammin on them like ur about to hit a semi.

 

The point about the tires is a very good one. Don't forget that also tire pressure can have a HUGE impact on how well a car brakes, and what it's behavior will be under "panic" braking as it is sometimes called by testers.

Of the few times that I had to totally hammer my CRX's brakes in an emergency, they never did lock up. They actually only slightly smoked my tires once when a teenage girl in a VW bug (what else needs to be said ) attempted a crazy maneuver on the highway. This happened when I had some cheap *** plastic tires on my CRX last year too LOL. My car stops like it is fixed to a track or something. Also since switching to the Falkens there has never been a grip issue.

One small aspect that I like about the brakes is the pads I get, because they are so durable they seriously last for freaking ever. Not to mention there is hardly any brake dust too.

I will say that it sometimes sucks having these brakes because I am stuck with wheels that rub now, because of the big brake's clearance issues.