I want to upgrade the front rotors and pads of my 1990 Accord EX Sedan. Now, i was thinking to go with AEM brake pads, and when i was at their webiste looking at the different applications they had 2 different kinds for the 4th generation Accord. A pad for Accords w/o Akebono calipers and a pad for Accords w/ Akebono calipers.
Do any of you know what kind of calipers my car has? If you do not, than do you know how i could find out? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This car is my daily beater and i want to increase the performance of the brakes since they suck miserably. I do alot of highway driving to school and back and i need something that will give me good stopping power and wont fade. What rotors do you guys recommend? Slotted? Cross-drilled? Blanks? I want to go Brembo because i know they make an amazing product and they are pretty affordable.
Everytime i go to brake from about 50mph to around 40ish 35ish... my steering wheel shakes like crazy. What is the cause of this? Also, when i come to a stop at like a light, i feel the brakes are not really gripping proeperly, as if my rotor was warped and was only being gripped from a certain spot giving it a feel of back and forth... i cant really describe it. Does anyone know why this shudder occurs?? A
Any help would be sooo greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!



[Modified by MJ23FE, 4:15 PM 11/18/2002]

 

You have a 4th gen Accord. If you just want to increase your brake performance just get the brembo blanks. Many here swear by them. You probably do need new rotors by now. That shuddering is probably from them but also look at other front end steering/suspension components. Things that get loose and sloppy over time like bushings, ball joints and tie rods will also cause that shuddering due to excessive play.

Edit: Your calipers are Akebono


[Modified by Stew Pidasso, 9:15 AM 11/18/2002]

 

Thanks. How did you know thatand/or find out?

 

yea, how did you find that out. as far as I can tell honda used no logic in which cars they chose to put which calipers on. your best bet is to look at the calipers. I believe it either says nissin or has some sort of A symbol, determining which calipers you have

 

I went to http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/ and looked at the brake calipers here http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...+%28AKEBONO%29


BTW, this is the best and cheapest place to get OEM honda parts. (much cheaper than regular dealership).

 

maybe Im missing something, but they also have the nissin caliper right underneath the akebono (when you do the initial search) so I am wondering how you determined his were akebono.

 

Did you scroll down and see how much the akebono caliper assembly cost??? The list price was $10,795, their price was $8,096. WHAT A BARGAIN!

 

Forget AEM.
If you want big brakes (even though stock rotors and calipers with a good pad are more than enough), get 1995 Accord V6 calipers from a junkyard and a new set of 1995 Accord V6 Brembo blanks. (the year doesn't much matter, it has to be a 5th gen V6 or 4th or 5th gen wagon, but it's easy just to tell junkyards and vendors just "1995 Accord V6" to avoid all the confusion and they'll know what you want)

 

Yeah I used to laugh at that. Most surely a typo or error.

 

Well i still have the stock wheels that the Accord came with. I believe they are 14". If i wanted to get the V6 accord calipers and i got Brembo Accord V6 blanks, would they fit under my wheel???

 

No, they won't fit. I thought you were going for the AEM big brake upgrade kit, which requires bigger wheels also.
Anyways, AEM pads are made by Nissin, same as Honda OEM. They are most certainly a more agressive compound than OE. I've heard nothing but good things about the AEM/Nissin pads, they bite good, grab hard, and dust little. They may be overpriced and not a good value, however.


[Modified by 4doorH22, 10:10 PM 11/18/2002]

 

Yeah, i was not talking about the big brake kit. Just the AEM brake pads. I was thinking about getting Brembo blanks and using the AEM pads on my stock calipers. What do you think? My dad was telling me to forget about getting new rotors because he was going to get the ones we have now resurfaced and that they would stop the brake judder and vibration. He says the Brembo's wont be any better than the ones we have now which are OEM honda rotors. What do you think???

 

Depends on how old the rotors are and their thickness.
If you're really on a budget, getting OE rotors resurfaced/turned is just great, otherwise Brembos can be pretty cheap from http://www.collettimotorsports.com.

 

Oh, even more important than the pad and rotor yet always overlooked is the brake fluid. Good fluid must be used and the system blead well.
Honda OEM DOT 3 is fine for regular driving and Valoline Synpower is an upgrade, these fluids can last years between changes. Hi-po fluids like Motul and ATE for race applications have to be blead several times a year.

 

This is what i am planning to do. Get myself some Brembo blank rotors, AEM brake pads, Valvoline SynPower DOT 3 & 4 Brake Fluid. Valvoline has 2 kinds of brake fluid, Pyroil DOT 3 Brake Fluid and than the SynPower DOT 3 & 4 Brake Fluid. Which one should i use? Do you think i should also upgrade my brake lines to like Goodridge SS lines, or is that not neccessary?

With the rotor, pad, and fluid upgrade i have listed above, will my brakes will feel a hell of alot better? I drive aggressively (but with much much much caution. Alot of people will object to that theory), and i want to have a brake setup that will keep me in check when it comes to slowing my *** down. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!!!

Here is a to you!

 

I didn't see any Nissin caliper as an option.
I used to have a 1990 Accord EX Sedan.

 

The reason he is assuming there are two types of calipers is because when you are searching for brake pads like AEM for example. I forget what site exactly, but when you look at the 4th gen model they were offering pads for the Nissin caliper and for the Akebono caliper. That is exactly why i started this post in the first place.


[Modified by MJ23FE, 1:11 PM 11/19/2002]

 

I've done everything to my front calipers as you have described, and I'm very happy with the outcome!
http://images.cardomain.com/installs...91_25_full.jpg
This is a picture of the completion.
Although I can't tell you if the SS brake lines made a difference, but they sure do look good.
And I used Honda's Dot 3 fluid.
(Now I'm looking to go with the AEM big brake kit)
hope this helps in your decision.

 

This helps alot! Thanks! But would help alot more if you told exactly what parts and brands you used. What Accord do you have? What calipers are you using? What size wheels are you running?
Thanks alot once again!!!


[Modified by MJ23FE, 1:14 PM 11/19/2002]