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I'm curious too. One thing to remember, that the EVs get their full brake performance by also applying significant regen braking on top of the mechanical brakes. (My fleet currently includes a Mach E GT-P, alongside my LS swapped toys). In my daily driver, most of the normal braking is done via regen. My brakes never even get warm in my Mach E. Its kind of ridiculous to have 15" rotors on them.
Now, that being said, they still have to work good in case there is a fault in the regen...
I am curious if it can move enough fluid and have reasonable pedal travel with large caliber pistons. I wouldn't mind a better setup for my GMC.
Mike Dusold has some Tesla videos on his YouTube channel and his biggest complaint was the brakes. He felt they were undersized for repeated hard braking. However, there was no complaints about the iBooster and their plan to fix the brakes was to develop a big brake kit using Wilwood components.
I think a 26mm bore MC is the perfect size for big brakes with some sort of power assist, be it vacuum or iBooster. If you look at most cars with big, power assisted brakes, they mostly use 25-26mm bore MCs.
Mike Dusold has some Tesla videos on his YouTube channel and his biggest complaint was the brakes. He felt they were undersized for repeated hard braking. However, there was no complaints about the iBooster and their plan to fix the brakes was to develop a big brake kit using Wilwood components.
I think a 26mm bore MC is the perfect size for big brakes with some sort of power assist, be it vacuum or iBooster. If you look at most cars with big, power assisted brakes, they mostly use 25-26mm bore MCs.
Andrew
I'm used to the truck stuff being 1-1/8 to 1 5/16.. in the 28-34mm range. I need to finish my interior and stereo before its time for brake upgrades anyway
i was able to get mine powered up over the weekend and mess around with the brakes. it basically goes from a stiff pedal thats 'hard' to push when off to feeling like theres no fluid in the system its so easy to press the pedal.
im going to drive it a little more but will probably try to move the pushrod up the pedal to hopefully make it a little harder to push.
from a effort perspective hydroboost doesnt really compare.
ill have to look into that.
i did a quick data log of pressure and current draw. i am pretty sure the system is fully bled but i think the pressure is a bit low. i only rolled back and forth in and out of my garage, no real driving yet.
i was able to get mine powered up over the weekend and mess around with the brakes. it basically goes from a stiff pedal thats 'hard' to push when off to feeling like theres no fluid in the system its so easy to press the pedal.
im going to drive it a little more but will probably try to move the pushrod up the pedal to hopefully make it a little harder to push.
from a effort perspective hydroboost doesnt really compare.
I think I read on the EV site that the pedal pressure sensor needs to have pressure on it to work correctly. I extended my pushrod until there was just about zero slack in the pedal and when we powered it up, everything felt really smooth. I think it also said on the EV site that if there is no pressure on the pedal position sensor then you might hear some clicking sounds coming from the unit. Mine did not make any clicking sounds when we powered it up.
Does yours make clicking sounds on the initial power up?
ill have to look into that.
i did a quick data log of pressure and current draw. i am pretty sure the system is fully bled but i think the pressure is a bit low. i only rolled back and forth in and out of my garage, no real driving yet.
I would expect to see pressure closer to 1000psi at the calipers. Where are you measuring the pressure?
i didnt notice any clicking.
its not really feeling like something is wrong, it just feels like the booster is really strong.
the sensor is in the proportioning block, brakes on the car are all stock and original except it has new braided soft lines.
i definitely want to mess around with it a little more.
I bought a Tesla iBooster this weekend and am very curious to know how y'alls brakes feel. I'm planning to run a C5 brake setup up front and was planning on running a standard vacuum booster and 1" MC until I saw these units recently. Really cool technology. Looking forward to getting mine and seeing how it fits on the firewall.
The factory Tesla calipers are pretty good size,, I've stopped my model 3 from about 120 hard,
the Regen braking is not always a big percentage it depends on the battery charge level, speed, up or down hill etc..
I know if you let the car panic stop itself, its like hitting something. It stops hard...
I'd compare the piston diameter on the Tesla to the C5..
i was able to get mine powered up over the weekend and mess around with the brakes. it basically goes from a stiff pedal thats 'hard' to push when off to feeling like theres no fluid in the system its so easy to press the pedal.
im going to drive it a little more but will probably try to move the pushrod up the pedal to hopefully make it a little harder to push. from a effort perspective hydroboost doesnt really compare.
So are you saying there is less effort needed compared to a hydroboost? Pedal effort is one thing, but how does it compare to a hydroboost in actual stopping power, assuming you've driven cars with both boosters? The reason I ask, is from the very limited research I have done on these in the last few weeks, I would think they're comparable to a vacuum booster. My reasoning behind that, again coming from my limited research, is that they use these boosters on the 2017ish Malibus with adaptive cruise control, but the regular cruise cars got vacuum boosters. I wouldn't think they would want them to be significantly different in feel between the the two cars.
if you use the canbus like an oem you can fully program the feel of the booster.
in failsafe mode like we use in hot rodding its a fixed amount.
what i meant by my post was the pedal effort is almost nothing to fully depress it. you can see my log the pressures are lower than ideal, so i need to figure that out. i pushed the pedal until it stopped but i either ran out of travel, which i checked during the build, or just didnt press hard enough. the pedal was nearly effortless to get to that stop and it felt like i hit the end of travel in either the master or the pedal.
i converted my awd tt silverado to hydroboost several years ago and it was way better than vacuum but i think the ibooster will be even better, especially considering how much cleaner the install is.
i have a few things i need to mess with on mine and i havent driven it on a road yet but my initial impression is very good. i generally have minimal garage time during the week so it likely wont see much attention til the weekend.
I decided to install the new automatic brake pedal. Before installing it, I took some measurements to check the pedal ratio with the existing holes. The top (manual brakes) hole gives about a 6.5:1 pedal ratio. The bottom hole (stock power brakes) gives about a 3.5:1 pedal ratio.
The various information that I could find about the iBooster said that the Tesla pedal ratio is 4:1. So we added an extra hole just above the stock lower hole, which resulted in about a 4.25:1 pedal ratio. This was about as close as we could come given the proximity to the lower hole.
This change resulted in a much more favorable angle for the pushrod.
i could get over 1000 psi on mine today by pumping it up. no leaks and all soft lines are new braided so it looks like the master is bad.
powered off the pedal is stiff but slowly falls to the floor.
i have another ill swap out and rebleed to report back.
Anyone have any information on using the CAN data to dial in the brakes? I came across something on FB about a week ago where someone was able to modify using CAN, but can't seem to find the article I read.
Between this and electrically assisted power steering, one can really un-clutter the front of the engine.
Just alternator and water pump.
Old school, baybee....
ive been wanting to do epas but wasnt sure how to deal with the ratios. as far as i know all manual boxes for older cars are a much slower ratio. my wagon has a 12.7 hydraulic box now and i wouldnt want to give that lock to lock up.
If I had seen this before we did the install, I would have used it. I bet it makes installing an iBooster super simple. I would still use the Detroit Speed reduced angle booster mount and get their little rubber boot kit to seal the hole in the firewall.
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