well my car is a 00 ss with mods in sig and is going to be seeing heads and a 150 shot. my front brakes i just replaced with duralast pads and recut the rotors and the backs i need to get done. the car is street driven and is taken to the tracks about 10 times per season. when i recently brought it to the track i was worried to not stop in time. it took me a while to stop after i crossed the traps and the brake pedal always feels loose. i really want a good stoping setup thats on a budget with a firm pedal. thanks in advance.

 

can anyone help me really wanna order brakes asap

 

Hello
I noticed that you are interested in a brake upgrade! And I just wanted to suggest that UMI Performance has a C5 Brake upgrade. We offer them in a blank rotor and a drilled and slotted. Below is a link to show you what all we have to offer.

http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...jorln1qh1u8qj5

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I will be more than glad to help.
Thanks
Brad

 

Before you start spending big money on upgrading brakes, are you sure that your whole stock system is functioning properly?

Your car is nearly 10 years old... how new is the brake fluid? Are all the slider pins on the front and rear brakes moving freely, and properly lubricated? Are any of your caliper frozen?

The stiffness of the pedal has little to do with your actual stopping power, but if you have old brake fluid, and/or the original rubber brake lines (the rubber lines between the hard lines and the calipers), the pedal can start to get really spongy. New fluid and brake lines (even just factory replacements) would improve this if the stuff is original.

Given where you live, if the car has ever been driven in winter, you could have corrosion issues that have caused the calipers or the slider pins to bind up. Even without winter driving, a car of that age can start to have issues with these parts if they are not regularly inspected (say every year or two) for proper function. I once had a frozen caliper pin on a car of mine that was only 5 years old, had only 22k miles, and had never been in snow or salt... it can happen.

I think a perfectly functioning stock system with maybe some better front brake pads like some offered by a number of vendors on this site would be all that you would need. There are plenty of guys on this site doing some pretty serious road racing and autocross on a basically stock set up with better pads and having no issues. My experience with only a pad upgrade on an otherwise perfectly functioning system is that it will stand a car on its nose. There is a bigger problem with warping rotors than there is with stopping power. You don't need an upgrade until you really start beating the snot out of the brakes like on a road course in my opinion.

Unless you just have tons of money to spend, I'd start by going through the whole stock system and making sure everything is working right before I started spending money on upgrades. Just my opinion...

Good luck.

 

You probably just need some normal brake maintainance. Fluid flush, regrease calipers, hardware, etc. With new pads that have decent stopping power, there's absolutely no need for a heavy C5 kit for drag racing... unless you like having more front end weight

 

as stated...check to make sure everything is functioning.

and then put some decent rotors and pads on.

resurfacing brake rotors reduces mass, and can negatively affect the brakes under had use.

i suggest either OEM replacements....or better yet some Brembo blanks or ATE rotors from www.strano-parts.com

match those with some Hawk HPS pads, new lines (braided steel if $$ allows) and a fluid flush....you'll be SURPRISED how much it helps.

 

I have various brake packages available for the car, as well as individual components...

The most popular packages I have are BP2, 3 and 4. BP2 is ATE rotors and Hawk HPS pads. Packages 3 and 4 add Stainless steel brakes lines (one kit, the BP4 if for ASR/TCS cars, BP3 is for non-traction control equipped cars--the lines are different). Brake parts put together in kits are found here: http://www.stranoparts.com/searchbym...D=90&ModelID=7

Lines and fluid alone are found here: http://www.stranoparts.com/searchbym...=194&ModelID=7

Street Brake pads are here: http://www.stranoparts.com/searchbym...D=17&ModelID=7

And rotors alone are here: http://www.stranoparts.com/searchbym...=191&ModelID=7

You can see there is no shortage of options.

 

Glad I found this thread. I'm really needing to do my brakes soon. Everything is stock (I know, why wait so long? The car cracked 50k miles not too long ago). I want better performance if I'm going to change stuff out. But I don't want to drop thousands of dollars just for a front brake set up.

I might need to change my rotors as well. Don't know about the brake calipers. I don't like how they look. Not rusted but really brown and look like ***. Do any of you (aftermarket suppliers) have any brake calipers in your kits?

I like the kits I am seeing from both of the sites that replied here. I want to redo everything in my brake system except for the pump of course, it still works like a champ. I just want to put steel lines, calipers, and a good set of rotors (non slotted, non drilled) and pads on all four tires and call it a day.

 

Most all SS braided lines are the same.

I would suggest buying a line kit that has some sort of protective coating over the steel braid. I have seen grit work it's way between the stainless steel braid and chaffe the inner rubber line to the point of failure.

I put heat shrink over my lines. Just an FYI ...

If you have a TCS car, you'll need a 6 line kit. So make sure you get the right kit.

For daily use, I'll defer to other's opinions on what to get. It's been several years since I went that route. But I always liked the GM Durastop pad. It was easy on rotors, gave decent street performance and didn't generate a lot of brake dust.

Rotors are a huge debate. I have had extremely good luck with off-the-shelf rotors I get at O'Reilly's. They offer two versions. I use the lifetime version.

C5 calipers will bolt right up to the stock abutment bracket and use the stock 98+ rotors and pads.

And a decent bleed of the brake fluid will complete this refurb. In my street vehicles, I use Valvoline Syntec fluid. It's a cheap, readily available, good performing fluid. But like with rotors, everyone has their favorite because its what they've found workd for them.

 

So really no need to go out and get a complete kit? Just change out my lines (with a covering) and order some calipers somewhere for all four tires and change out the pads and rotors with something I can get from any auto store? And of course change out the fluid, which I will do as it's pretty old.

 

Flush the fluid, replace the brake lines with braided stainless, get some good pads (my recommendation is Hawk) and ensure your calipers are functioning properly. Check all the dust boots, slider pins, etc. If anything is wrong with them, you can exchange your cores for rebuilt units at most auto parts stores fairly inexpensively.

Be sure to check your rotors also. If they look grooved, or overly worn, replace them. Its cheap insurance when replacing them to spend the extra cash over the standard parts store replacements for Brembo blanks or the like. I personally recommend DBA. I have had great results with their rotors and if you are going to be tracking the car or just pushing the hell out of it, their venting system is actually pretty damn effective at not allowing the rotors to get too hot. More effective than the standard Chevrolet curved vane C5 rotors that I used to run.

I offer both the Hawk pads and the DBA rotors. Sam I know offers the other rotors and also offers the pads.

Let me know if I can help you out any further.

-Mike

 

I've got ATE, DBA and Racing Brake rotors commonly. Have some inexpensive (but not junk) blanks, can do EBC as well (but never do). And I 99% of the time use Hawk pads.

FWIW, Racing Brake rotors are actually directionally vaned in stock LS1 sizes like Corvette Rotors are. They pump more air more efficiently than straight vane rotors. And DBA has the "kangaroo paw" vanes which has proven pretty effective as well.

 

stainless lines and new fluid made a huge improvement in my pedal feel.

as did the ATE rotors and hawk pads

 

Thanks for the replies. It will be a while until I get around to doing my brake system (got far away military duties to do). I looked at a glance at my rotors and it appears there is a groove. It's hella cold outside so I didn't stick around to feel it. There is no noise from my brakes or anything but I know it's going to come time soon so I want to gather materials/tools.

My car is a DD but I might do some upgrades to it but it will still remain a street car.

I definitely don't want to have a dealership charge me my first born to do any work on my car. I'm pretty adamant on doing it myself. I'm just leary about bleeding the brakes with my ABS/TCS system. Hopefully I don't need a scan tool or anything like that. Should the Motive Bleeder be fine?

 

just bleed them as you normally would.

don't worry about the ABS system. as long as you don't run the resevoir dry, youll be fine.

you could always do a quick bleed, then take it to a dealer or shop to use the computer to bleed the ABS block.
i didn't bother

 

Cool. Thanks for the replies. Is there anything I can do to the calipers to prevent them from getting that nasty brown look to them? Is that crap rust or brake dust?

 

calipers themselves are aluminum....so its not rust.

clean them, wire brush and sand them....then maybe paint them.

 

I just purchased a BP4 kit from Sam w/braded ss lines. It's been too cold to do them as of lately.
My rotors are warped from the previos owner.
I like to replace the whole system new,so I know what it has on it.
I don't cheap out when it comes to brakes.