First time posting in this area...thought here would be approiate.

I am looking into the Wilwood big brake kit for my civic hatch. I dont autox my car, but im sick of the teacups in the front...Sorry if this is an ignorant question, I did a search but yielded nothing.

Is the wilwood big brake kit one to consider? If not, what else is available for that price range? Thanks for any input, appreciate it.

b18eg6

 

If that's the main reason you are considering a big-brake kit well, then any big-brake kit will do the job. A big brake kit won't do much to improve performance on the street, over say, a good set of pads on a stock braking system in good condition...

 

so I could make my setup just as good as a big brake setup, with the stock rotors and some nice pads?

 

Here's some things to consider when upgrading brakes:

Does your car have ABS? ABS cars sometimes act funny when you upgrade the brakes and can result in worse braking with the big brake kit.

(Assuming no ABS) If you drive down the road at say 60mph and stomp on the brake pedal, will the front tires lock up? If so, you already have more brakes than the car can handle. All a big brake kit will do in this situation is make the brakes lock up even easier, again resulting in LONGER stopping distances.

For me, big brakes are only necessary for racing where you have problems with the stock braking system do to the heat being generated.




[Modified by Steve91, 1:47 PM 9/30/2002]

 

hey-

no, i dont have abs.

If i were driving down the road at 60, the tires would definately not lock up. I slowly coast to a halt...

 

How old are the rotors, pads, and fluid,. in time and milage. Brake fluid should be changed every couple years, and imo pads and fluid are ALL you need to be worried about changing.

 

also, what tires do you have? remember it's the tires that stop the car not the brakes.

 

rotors are pretty old, but they are not warped. I would have to say maybe 3 years? Fluid. wow, didnt know fluid made that big of a difference..maybe like...4 years old. Pads just got changed like a year ago.

I have dunlop sp-10 tires.

What should I do instead of spend 600 on the kit? Should I even consider aftermarket rotors, or stick with the honda ones?

What about pads, any recommendations? Brake fluid? Thanks a lot, I dont post at all in here, I dont stray far from FI...

thanks again
b18eg6

 

I think you would be really surprised what a good set of pads would do with your stock brakes.

I'm guessing you have stock civic brakes? From there, I'd look at an upgrade to Integra fronts w/decent pads. I guarantee that will be more than enough stopping power.

If you wanted to upgrade from there, I'd look at the fast brakes kit. http://www.fastbrakes.com . This is very much overkill for the streets, but it's your money...

Don't fall for some "big brake kit" that doesn't include new calipers though...

While you're at it, it's about time to have your brake fluid changed.

 

I have had these on my RR'ed 1992 GS-R... One of the best investments I have ever made for this car. Well... the FAL windows are pretty good to, any ways I have been running them for well over a year now. I actually have two sets of them so I can swap them in and out to rebuild them every so often, and they do need to be rebuilt. This is a racing upgrade so be prepared for rebuilding and brake squeel (depending on pad compound) and rotor wear. I am going through 4-5 sets of rotors a year and this is with canyon driving only, no track time. Another thing this kit is hard mounted so be prepared for more sound transfer to the frame. awesome stopping power. My little gs-r came with abs and there is NO problem, the actuation is off the hub so abs actually still works, though I would like to get rid of it.
Peace
Schu

 

Another thing is that these units are Billet aluminum, not cast peices like so many other kits. But the top of the cake is that they fit under my 16" rims so I did not have to get bigger (Heavier) 17 or larger rims. By far the lowest price kits around. I might get a Third set ^i^
Peace
Schu

 

Well what is it, and why would you want to have to replace the rotors five times a year.

 

What type of pads do you reccomend?

Haha, and what kind of fluid?

 

AFAIK: If you're racing, rotors are about as consumable as tires and pads themselves.

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

 

talk to brian @ fastbrakes

http://www.fastbrakes.com

he can recomend a good setup for you

 

 

i was wondering myself how the wilwood compared to like aem...this si for a street car that will hopefully start to see track days some next year....right now ive got powerslots up front and i think metal masters pads..i think thats wat they are called....this is on my del sol...

 

Afaik the Wilwood kit is more focused on the Calipers.

The Calipers and pads together generate your stopping power, rotors provide the friction surface, absorbing heat and dissipating the energy. Rotors can hold and dissipate more heat as they grow in size. Excessive heat is one cause of 'brake fade.'

AEM offers two kits, a 'Big rotor upgrade' and also a caliper upgrade for use with that system. To me, increasing the size of the rotors is quite ridiculous if not upgrading the calipers. They work as a system and if it's just upsized rotors, then it's likely the look that you're going for.

The Wilwood upgrade, I think, is designed as an entire system. They provide a balance between stopping power and size, so wheel clearance issues might be easier to deal with than when using the AEM setup.

-Bleh

 

The GS-R is set up as a weekend driver. I do drive it daily some times when I feel so inclined, But the rotors are consumables, period. I get a kick out of standing the teg on it's nose. I change rubber about 2-3 times a year... Another thing to remember is that the Wilwood is not a Dust seal sytem, so it might be more slanted towards the track than say a strret brembo system, both are good... great but without seals it easier to rebuild which means more maintenence. But the most important thing for me was the fitment under 16" rims. I wanted to go to four piston Baer system but it required at least 17" rims
Peace
Schu

 

Porterfield R4S, Hawk HPS or HP+, Axxiss Ultimate.
Call Cobalt or Carbotech for details, both companies have good service and knowledgable staff.

ATE SuperBlue, Motul RBF600, or Ford HeavyDuty (available at Ford dealer, cheapest of the three).

With a good set of tires, this setup with stock brake hardware will do fine for spirited street use and autocross.

 

Thanks to all of you, your info has helped me out very much so, I GREATLY appreciate all of your input.

beer to all

 

Fastbrakes just designed an 11" front kit for EF's using the stock calipers. I wouldn't think they would design a product that doesn't work well, but everyone seems to think that no caliper upgrade is a bad idea (in this thread at least). Anyone care to chime in? I was thinking of getting this kit.

 

The 11 in. front kits don't use your EF's stock calipers...they use the larger "stock" calipers from the 10.3 in. brakes off a 90-00 teg / 96-00 EX / 99-00 Si. You would want the $400 version which comes with the calipers (not the $240 one w/o calipers).

Since your car has pretty marginal 9.5" rotors with tiny calipers, the 11" upgrade with the beefier OEM calipers would give you a very significant and noticeable improvement over your current setup.

I think the people who say no caliper upgrade is pointless are the ones who already have the 'good' OEM calipers and 10.3 brakes...for them, upsizing the rotors by only 0.7" and nothing else isn't worth it.