I have a 93 civic Hatch, and it needed brakes. So I called Fast Brakes and ordered the civic kit (11 inch calipers, adapter kit and Ultimate axis pads). I received everything with in a week. Everything looked great. I tool the kit to World Auto Motor Sport (WAM) (http://www.wamny.com/) this morning hoping that the whole job would only take an hour or two. Well I was wrong!

The kit comes with spacers (moves the caliper a little higher so the 11 inch rotor can fit) and washers to align the spaces so the caliper/brake pad holder would fit properly over the rotor. In my case both washers and the spacers were not the right size causing the inner and two out side edges of the caliper/brake pad holder to grind against the rotor. Now you cannot just go to home depot and get any washer. It has to be hardened steel. The shop (WAM) luckily is close to a machine shop, so they took both of the aluminum spaces there to have them milled 3 thousands of an inch. After that the spacer fit and the inner part of the caliper/brake pad holder was not hitting the rotor however the two outside edges were still hitting the rotor. My mechanic had to grind three parts of the caliper/brake pad holder for it to properly fit over the rotor. The whole job took six hours of labor and agony. I had to pay $360 for the install (it should have been only $80). I paid $635 total, for little more I could have gotten a Wilwod kit (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1874426565)
for the total amount I paid for the brakes and the install and they would have no problem with their clearance (my friend has one and it fit perfectly).

I just want everyone to know what I went through and make their own decision accordingly (May be there was a flaw with JUST my kit. My luck, ever time I try to modify something it doesnot fit properly). The brakes work fine, I still need to bed them in properly. I will keep you posted.


Cliff notes: Bought Fast Brake kit, did not fit properly, and took six hours to install
“Caveat e-mptor”

2 days later
I have used these brakes for two days now and let me just add that they work great!!! The car stops really well! It is too bad that I had to go through what I did


[Modified by wantmorepower, 10:47 PM 12/14/2002]


[Modified by wantmorepower, 10:47 PM 12/14/2002]

 

Did you call fastbrakes at any time during this ordeal? Seems like custom labor was the biggest cost for you, and maybe unnecessary?

 

Did Fastbrakes ship instructions along with the kit? I know that every once in a while i try to install something and the first time it doesnt work right - and then i realize i made a mistake and/or didnt read the instructions.

RJ

 

well what kit is the 11 inch caliper kit?

you get itr/prelude calipers?

or you just get bigger rotors and re-use your calipers?

 

didnt know WAM was still around.
do u do track days or autox?
-spenc


[Modified by SOLOef, 3:39 PM 12/14/2002]

 

dude...where are you located??

i would ahve done the job for 200 bucks....in less time....something is wrong if that stuff doesn't fit right from fastbrakes....i have had 4 kits....(i like new stuff)

anyway...sorry you got ripped!!

 

I've installed the front/rear kits on my car (90 Civic) and a 93 Civic. NO problems. I wouldn't trust a shop doing an install, they ALWAYS seem to find something to charge you more for. Even with the instructions, a little thought may be involved as to how the brackets attach. I would have left the brakes off and contacted Brian@Fastbrakes. Sorry to hear, but that seems outrageous for the install. I'd do it for $100 bucks.

Later, Overkll

(who paid a shop $350 for the LEFT rear disc conversion after snapping the LCA bolt and running out of time to finish- the RIGHT side took me less than an hour to do by myself )

 

I used the stock calipers

 

you're not suppose to use the stock calipers. you need the Integra/Civic EX 10.3" calipers. I believe the integra, 90-01 ones are the ones you need. That's what I put on my car.

 

sorry man, you got ripped off bigtime. you could have done it youself (very simple, i add), and possibly only paid the machine shop (but from what i've read about the FastBrakes kit, shouldn't be necessary).

you're thinking of another upgrade, not the FastBrakes.

 

I think Brian will be out untill monday so we wont be able to comment on this matter till then.

 

From what was posted I suspect you have an 88-91 car, which requires some mods to the brake caliper brackets to fit over the rotor. This is noted on the first page of the instructions. The 92+ cars don't need this mod as the stock rotors are a little thicker and Honda changed the caliper bracket to reflect that.

Sorry you had to pay the extra $ for the install, the mods to the caliper brackets are pretty easy to do with a dremel/small grinder and shouldn't have taken more than 15 minutes.

 

 

I can't figure out then what happened since the 92+ calipers fit just fine on the others that have bought the kit....

 

I remember someone else butchering their kit after trying to put them on the wrong sides. I wonder if it's happened again?

 

From my experiences, Brian & fastbrakes =


[Modified by ILUVTEC, 3:19 PM 12/20/2002]

 

just a thought or something........

im planning on getting the 11" kit within a week or so. is there another caliper i can use for even better braking power?? otherwise, i'd leave it with the stock caliper trying a low-budget brake setup....

 

 

I got the 11" brake upgrade from fastbrakes for my '94 civic coupe. The kit is made for cars that have the 9.5" rotors so you need the integra/civic ex NISSIN calipers for the kit to work. I ordered the complete kit (calipers/rotors/brackets/hardware) and everything fit perfectly. No problems. Only took about 1.5 hrs to do. to Brian!! Great guy to deal with.

I suspect he used the stock calipers, which I believe are the wrong ones. I didn't see any mention of any calipers being purchased. Could be the problem. You need the integra calipers, it's mentioned on his site.

s


[Modified by stevel, 2:05 AM 12/30/2002]

 

so the 11inch upgrade kit wont work on my DX with stock brakes (currently)?? how different are the EX calipers??????? i need integra calipers or ex calipers?!?

i was planning on just getting the rotors and the adapter kit....

 

Fastbrakes & Brian.

Thanks again Brian.

Kevin in Montreal...


[Modified by Kev95lx, 2:16 PM 12/30/2002]

 

Fast Brakes
or you could do what I did, and thats get the $24.99 auto zone rotors that willard runs, space it out .080in with some Spoom calipers. great fit too..
oh yeah and its 4lug too


[Modified by TODAwhore, 6:37 PM 12/30/2002]

 

Nah, you need different calipers. read up --> http://www.fastbrakes.com/pages/kits/bigfront.htm

Buy the Complete kit with calipers.

steve

 

i have the complete fastbrakes front kit on my EH2. it's a great setup, if you have good pads. whatever you do, DO NOT get EBC pads. after i wised up and replaced them with axxis ultimates, the kit is outstanding. fastbrakes