One day I was driving kinda hard on a back road and noticed my brakes almost went out after just a few times under hard braking. Now my integra is soon to be boosted and I want to upgrade the brakes to handle the extra power. Not going to the track or anything just wanna make sure I have good brakes when needed. So I'm thinking of running brembo blanks and hawk hps pads. No stainless lines or anything like that. Should I just run this setup on the front since it handles the most load or both f/r. Car is daily driven except in the winter. Anyone have experience with this setup? I figure it's pretty basic and not to expensive. Any help is appreciated. Thanks,Adam

 

I assume your brakes faded (became less effective). There are several possible reasons why this happens when they get hot (as yours obviously did):

1. Old or poor-quality brake fluid. Over time, brake fluid absorbs moisture, and as it does so, the temperature at which it boils goes down. The recommended maintenance schedule of most of our cars recommends flushing the brake fluid every 2-3 years, but those driving cars in autocrosses, on racetracks, or in other demanding environments where the brakes get hot will do well to flush with new brake fluid at least once a year. Also, you can get high-performance brake fluid that boils at a higher temperature, such as Motul RBF 600. You can see a list of brake fluid boiling points in this topic.

2. Poor quality brake pads. There are lots of different kinds of brake pads on the market. Some don't stand up to heat very well. If you get cheap no-name brake pads at the auto parts store, don't expect them to be all that good. The stock OEM pads that Honda makes for our cars vary; the ones on sports cars (NSX, S2000, ITR) tend to be pretty good, whereas those on compacts and family cars tend to emphasize quiet and low dust rather than performance. Some aftermarket pads are designed for higher performance. You mentioned the Hawk HPS; you might even consider the Hawk HP+ for better resistance to fading when hot.

3. "Green pad syndrome". This is a phenomenon in which pads fade the first time (and sometimes the second time) they get hot; for the remaining life of the pads, they don't fade. This occurs even with high-performance aftermarket brake pads. This is why the brake pad manufacturers recommend that such pads be "bedded", a procedure for new brake pads in which you make a series of progressively harder stops, then park the car overnight (WITHOUT using the brakes on the way home). This has a couple of advantages; in addition to getting the pads hot to avoid fading in subsequent hard stops, it also creates a uniform layer of brake pad material on the surface of the brake rotors, which avoids shudder and vibration in future hard stops.