Looking for cheap brake upgrades....

[Kaioshin1982]

Hey guys, another stupid post by me.... I'm trying to find any not so expensive upgrades I can do to my car. I want to stay with 4 lug... any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

[christopher]

The cheapest upgrade is probably gonna be some higher performance pads. If you wanna go a little further than that you can also get some new rotors. Drilled or slotted or whatever you like. You don't nessecarilly need to swap out your stock rotors and calipers.

[Kaioshin1982]

so rotos and pads huh? How about calipers? My back one seems soooo small all my friends laugh at me... Also, do we have single piston?

[93sleeper]

Braided steel lines and better fluid will also give good results.

[AZhitman]

Altima calipers and rotors.

[Kaioshin1982]

thanks for the reply guys. What year altima?

[AZhitman]

I think 93-01, but someone else will have to confirm.

[slow s13]

I think you have to get early 90's maxima calipers, and altima rotors

[SmithSR]

I say don't replace with calipers until you have available resources and time to test to see what works.

In the meantime, never put "cheap" and "brake upgrade" in the same post ever.

Brakes are the most important part of the car, besides tires. The ability to stop is most critical of all. The OEM provides excellent(look at all similar priced cars of the same era to compare) braking capability. Replace pads, flush, new rotors, and braided lines if you wish.

If you can lock the brakes and skid, then your brakes are working better than your tires

[kepani]

stay away from drilled rotors!

drilled rotors effectively "look cool". however, the reduced disc mass hurts braking performance. pad manufacturers once had problems with pad material because they would "off-gas". this "off-gasing" of the pad would lead to a thin boundary layer between your pad and your disc; thereby reducing braking efficiency.

however, materials of pads have advanced a long way and no longer "off-gas". the drilled holes in the disc would provide a conduit for this gas to escape. these are no longer necessary. sure they reduce unsprung weight, but they also lengthen your braking distances.

i would recommend either a set of slotted rotors (or standard rotors) and some better brake pads. the slots work by wiping off the dust from the pad surface leading to a fresh pad face.

buy pads that will fit your application. meaning, if you typically drive on the street, buy a set of pads that will fall within the temperatures your braking system will see. if you drive on the track, buy some track/race pads. you'll notice that they work well at high temperatures (of course!), however, poorly at low temperatures.

pads - fitting your applicationbleed your brakes - buy appropriate dot fluidturn your rotors - remove old pad transferstainless lines - won't improve stopping distance...only transient response

kepani

[daniel240]

i found my 300zx calipers on car-parts.com for $50. and the lines were $40. i could have bought the stock rotors for $10 but i got brembo's instead. but i could have done the whole upgrade for $100.

[MAXIMUS Nismo]

but if drilled rotors are so bad, why do they come standard on som eof the most bad a$$ cars on the planet like the Porshe (sp)?

I understand the original need for them but I don't think they are as bad as vented&slotted rotors.

[Juujai]

on the track it is a little better to use drilled and slotted since the rest of the car is going to fall apart too but in our street/track cars its better to use just blanks basically oem. i feel oem is better than the cheap "brembo" rotors usually shops slot and drill them and dont even dip them to prevent coroding. i saw some black magnesium dipped rotors but whats the point its going to come right off and corrode. i think oem rotors are the best people just upgrade to brembo because they can have the name. so basically a pad upgrade is only necessary. usually stock brake lines are fine too unless you feel its not giving fluid

[biggie]

There is also the small upgrade on S13s to go with the '97-'98 S14 brakes. The rears are the same, but the fronts are slightly bigger. I have a set that I took off my car (calipers, rotors, pads), if anyone is interested.

[email protected]

[Chingon]

but if drilled rotors are so bad, why do they come standard on som eof the most bad a$$ cars on the planet like the Porshe (sp)?

I understand the original need for them but I don't think they are as bad as vented&slotted rotors.

As hard as it is to believe, it's looks..

And well, they get good rotors that have their holes casted into or done in a proper way, not ghetto rigged by a shop in Illinois.

[MAXIMUS Nismo]

As hard as it is to believe, it's looks..

I think sometimes looks aren't a bad thing. And you can't argue that they look bada$$. As for the brembo name, only the Gran turismo kit gets my respect. The "brembo blanks" are just rebadged oem disc. Kinda like a Type-R mustang.

[slow s13]

yea maximus my friend and I say that also when people bash on cross drilled rotors. Look at a porche rotors they got like a million holes compared too what we have available for our cars and obviouly porches cant stop.

[kepani]

...have their holes casted into or done in a proper way...

i think chingon is right. unlike many of the "drilled" rotors out there, if you look at a porsche disc with drilled holes in them, they are actually "chamfered" or "rounded". their die probably has these holes with these chamfers or rounded edges built into the mold.

the main complaint i've seen with drilled rotors is premature stress. many of the poorer quality discs that are drilled will have stress cracks and fractures emanating from the holes. having a round will help to prevent the initial crack from forming.

it's not a hate thing.

of course...i can't get over how cool they look either...but function over form definitely takes precendence on a race track.

kepani