Its time for me to get new front brakes. I caant afford to do a whole new big brake kit so I am considering pads and rotors or just pads and turning my stock rotors. I want good high performance brakes. I was considering either Hawk HPS pads Satisfied Brakes GS6 pads. For rotors I was going to go with EBC Ultimax rotors or another rotor Iam still not sure. With stock calipers will will gettting a good rotor make any difference? I am also wondering if anyone has any eprerience with these products or any others. Thanks

 

I have drilled and slotted rotors and Green Stuff pads, its MUCH better then stock.
Even done some laps on a track without any problem.

 

One big improvement for the front brakes is replacing the rubber brake lines with Stainless ones.

 

Nice idea but you still got crapy brakes just a bit more feel!

 

So your solution is to install expensive pads & rotors on your "crapy brakes". [sm=chairshot.gif]And I bet those drilled and slotted rotors look real shape. The Stainess hoses were a suggestion to improve your crappy brakes.

 

[&:] play nice now kids!!! the stainless lines will help a little just by themselves, they do more than improve feel they transfer more of the pressure to the calipers instead of the bubber lines that act as an accumulator and absorb some of the pressure your trying to send to the brakes. drilled and slotted rotors will also make a difference allowing gasses and debris to escape allowing better pad contact. the pads are also an area for improvement. i really liked the carbon metallic that seemed to be the hot ticket several years ago, but are less common nowadays. they worked great even wet, withstood high temps and produced little rotor wear. ceramic seems to be where things are going. i havent had these long enough to give a analysis yet. the R1 drilled and slotted rotors and pads i currently have seem to work well with no complaints yet but i will be switching to the 98 and up larger rotors with aluminum calipers shortly as it seems that even with the R1 set up the overall breaking could be better kurt

 

basically what Iam trying to get at is I dont have $1200 for a big brake upgrade. So i was wondering if rotors are going to make any difference without the calpiers or should i just stick with pads cause with pads you will actually notice a diff but I am not sure good rotors are gonna make much of a diff without calipers. I want my car to break better without spending $1200 not just to look good!
Thanks

 

oh and are you guys running a good set of calipers?

 

If you dont care about looks (stock look is fine with you) and you are't planning on racing our car, why not go down to an auto parts store and buy new pads and rotors - like 100 to 130 bucks for stock replacement (depending on year and car that is). Do it yourself in about an hour and call it a day. I would also venture to say that you dont need to replace your calipers, unless you want an upgrade.
The only time I have ever seen a caliper replaced was by a shop looking to get all they could from a customer.
A friend of mines daughter went to a brake shop and got quoted like 1400 bucks for all new brakes front and back, I took the car (97 saturn) and only had to replace the front pads and disks and rear drums and shoes, she bought the parts (around 200 bucks - pads, shoes, drums and disks - brake cleaner and brake grease) and gave me a 6 pack and I was done in about 3.5 hours.

 

[&:] since we dont know what vehicle and year you have i can only give you examples of whats available. the set up i currently have for drilled and slotted rotors (comes with pads) for both the front and rear was around $200(includes shipping) from R1 and thats for my 95 camaro, very noticable difference. if you have the 93-97 camaro you can swap 98 and later front brakes onto it giving you an inch bigger rotor and aluminum twin piston calipers(read: more clamping force). youll need the knuckle, calipers and rotors for the swap. i got mine at the local yard for about $125. ebay has lots of this set up for around $200 and up not including shipping. as for better calipers well the newer model swap is about as good as it gets without getting ridiculous. only thing you can do is add more pistons to improve clamping force. stainless steel brakes and probably others make this type caliper but im guessing couple hundred a corner. i think there may also be a corvette conversion but i dont know who or how much. stock replacement all the way around will be $250-$300 so why not upgrade for the same amount. there may also be some super razzu pads out there but the trade off is usually very short rotor life. kurt