do the rear discs help that much, or is it mostly just for looks? would it be better to just spend the money to get bigger front brakes?

 

Tyr a seach their are a **** load of topics, and they will have your answer.

 

well the stopping distance isn't that much improved....but to me it's just easier to change pads than drums.


Getting better front pads and rotors will definitely improve braking performance.

 

or just upgrading the fronts. to something like fastbrakes.

 

or be like me and dont use rear brakes

 

It's not an amazing difference but it is better. Maintainance is easier, and discs look better than ugly rust covered drums. The only downside is they widen the rear a bit, but that can pretty much be corrected by rolling the fenders.

 

No.

If anyone wants to prove me wrong, I live in Las Vegas. Please, bring your rear disc equiped CRXs and we can do a braking distance and fade resistance test.

Granted, i have 11" front brakes, but I have rear drums and have NO desire to run discs. it's a waste of time/money/effort for minute amount of gain.

Cold stopping distances are extended due to the added weight of the disc brakes.
Warm stopping distances actually match the Front Disc/Rear drum setup.
Hot stopping distances, the rear disc setup stops only a few feet shorter than rear drums.

Now, if it was a drastic change... sure, i'm all for it, but, it's not worth it.

 

The only reason I would go to a rear disc setup is for maintenance reasons. Drum brakes tend to retain a lot more heat than rotors. I still have the rear drums on my car right now, and after about a couple of NASA events, the shoes always have heat/stress cracks on them. I think I can get rid of that problem by switching to disc setup, but I think I can get similar results if I just drill and duct the drums.

 

The rear brakes are hardly used (something like 70-30).

One of the problems with rear drums is, there's a very limited choice in aftermarket pads. If you have any fade issues, ducting the rears won't help. Stress cracks aren't necessarily bad...

 

search would be a good option personally, I would rather spend the money on the motor because your car is light anyways

 

That is why you upgrade your prop valve to a 40/40, so the rears can handle more of the braking

 

lol, i just sprayed my drums flat black.

 

Kam, if you don't mind me asking you know of anyplaces that sell good pads for the rear stock drums?

88EF - If you need to spray the drums again, use engine paint hehe. I had to do mine one day then realized the only paint i had was a little bit of glass black 500 deg engine paint so I sprayed them...it REALLY lasted a good while and stayed pretty damn shiny I must say.

 

it's been said a million times regarding whether it's worth it-
performance wise...no.
maintanence wise...yes.

if you're looking for better stopping i'd get bigger front brakes.
if you're doing it for looks, well drums are easier to paint than calipers hahaha

 

If the rears dont do anything, why do you need performance shoes in the back? On my dad's racing Type R we used stock rear pads because there was no real advantage to using performance pads.

 

"prop valve" what is that and where can i get one? any tips on when i do my rear disk's??

89 si hatch (just bought 91 si rear disk's(crx) and am plaining to do the swap soon i also have a busking kit any problems with the drum master cylinder? and should i upgrade to the integra MC? are stainless lines worth it??

 

Actaully I don't a friend asked me a long time ago and he keeps asking me now and then, thought i'd ask cuz he bugs the hell outta me. BTW what you said about the rears not doing anything always reminds me of the smartass joke "so your saying I can just remove the rear brakes?" hehe sorry. ANYWAYS mine are all new in the back I never worry about them much. Now my FRONT brakes thats a different story, i'd like to just goto bigger rotors or something, but i'm not really ready to make a class jump like that yet just for brakes. And they hold up OK under track conditions but I really need to look for new pads.

Chris-

 

i have a 89 honda civic and i put 95 gsr brakes on it and it is much better than stock and the rear disc are slotted and it makes a hell of alot dif. than stock but i dont know how much of a dif if i had drum on the back all i know is that my bro. has stock and he has brake fade and i dont

 

A lot of people claim stopping distances aren't changed and maintenance and fade and all that. Nobody has mentioned how the brakes feel. That's a very important quality to consider. From what I understand, you get a much better feel for the braking with disks than with drums. I think there was an article about this in Car and Driver a while back...

Ah, here you go. Pure numbers don't always tell the whole story....

http://www.caranddriver.com/xp/Caran...ture_where.xml



[Modified by Lsos, 10:20 AM 11/8/2002]

 

Here I made a huge How-To on this...

http://www.fourthgenhatch.com/reardiscswap.html

 

I just got my trailing arms yesterday and I am planning on swaping them out this weekend. I will post on the difference as soon as I am done.

 

i was verry happy with my all wheel disc upgrade. i ran 90 teg ls knuckles and trailing arms, teg prop. valve, and 91 crx si master cylinder. took a little bit to source all the correct braided line parts, but worth the wait. car stops better than friend's 91 with fancy rotors and pads. i still have some air in the rear lines, so the front dives a bit, but i can stop very fast. it almost feels like any more stopping power would be a bit much for the tires.

 

Yes and no.

The rear disc assembly is heavier than the rear drum assembly. Adding some higher temp brake shoes to the drums would help a little with fade issues (if any)...same with rear pads as well, but you still have that extra weight to stop.

The problem is:

Rear disc assembly is heavier than the rear drum assembly. If it wasn't, it'd be a good upgrade.

Plus, you don't want too much rear biased braking. Trailbraking would be REALLY fun with a lot of rear brake bias.

And, granted, I have fastbrakes and v700s, i run rear drums and have NEVER had ANY fade issues. I brake hard and quickly (too much autocrossing influence) and only find myself locking the tyres up... If i did have fade issues, running rear discs will not magically solve the problem.

About pedal feel. That could be true too. better brake lines could improve brake pedal feel. a bigger booster could as well. a larger MC could as well.

I just see too many people going rear discs because they think they are better than drums (this is ONLY on a CRX...there's obvious advantages in other applications). It's funny when guys come up asking me why i'm running rear drums...you'll know when i outbrake ya and carry more speed around the turn.

 

my pedal feel was exactly the same afterwards.
just another waste-of-money-mod to add to my ongoing list...

 

I agree with Driven, in a small car like a crx you really dont need to go with discs in the rear. Now in a 4dr EF or teg it would be a good idea. Ive driven a 91 EF with rears and it didnt stop any better than my STD with rear drums. his is is heavier and all but still, forget all that extra work!