Uprated Discs And Pads

[El Saundo]

I've never been too impressed with the brakes on my imported st182, so as next months pay check includes the yearly bonus I think it's a good time to upgrade them .

Does anyone have any experience with different disc and pad manufacturers and know of any good combinations or manufacturers to avoid? Any guidance would be great.

Also, did the spec of the brakes change during the life of the gen 5's? I only ask as when I reconditioned my 15" alloys, my spare 14" alloy (which came from a 4ws model) wouldn't fit over the calipers on the fronts. Does this mean my brakes have already been somewhat upgraded in terms of size, or that mine's a later model than the spare wheel doner car with brakes with a later factory spec. What I really need to know is if this difference is gonna cause me problems sourcing new discs and pads.

Cheers.

[El Saundo]

Anybody?

[Ben Baker]

Anybody?

try fensport, they seem to know what they're doing. i was looking at discs and pads myself and they seemed about the best place to look.

[chandler32]

personally i'd avoid the drilled or grooved discs. they have been known to fail.... as for pads, green stuff i'm told are crap. The std Toyota ones are pretty damn good! I had a gen 6 so they may be worse for the 5.

Are you sure your hydraulics are all working ok. if its the original calipers, they may be starting to bind and loosing braking power. just a thought! If you're feeling brave you could try a 205 coversion - they use 4 pot calipers but they're huge so your wheels may not fit over them...

try gt4oc.net or celica-club UK for more info.

[El Saundo]

Cheers for the help. From the fensport site it would appear I have the later model in terms of brakes. My wheels are 15" so no space to beef anything up unfortunately, don't have the cash for new wheels aswell.

[chandler32]

insurance companies usually 'do' you quite badly for uprated brakes, compared to other mods. Braided lines might be worth a thought, just make sure they're fitted properly!

[MIP]

I've just put on greenstuff pads (on standard disks). Admitedly I've not been driving on them very long and they're still bedding in, but they're already vastly stronger than the stock pads. They claim lower dust and higher temperature tolerance as well, so can't be bad can it?

I did sort out a totally seized up sliding bolt on one of the front calipers at the same time (I had to, otherwise I couldn't fit the caliper round the thicker new pads), so that might be having an impact as well.

[El Saundo]

insurance companies usually 'do' you quite badly for uprated brakes, compared to other mods. Braided lines might be worth a thought, just make sure they're fitted properly!

Anyone would think an increase in safety would reduce an insurance premium! I guess it's any excuse to screw more money out of people! :ffs:

[Fizz]

Ive used redstuff pads on my old MR2 Turbo and they were great once warmed up. The EBC Greenstuff i have heard mixed reports but more good than bad in all honesty.

As stated above unless your tracking your car dont bother with the grooved or drilled disks.

Stick with standard disks but get uprated pads like EBC greenstuff or Mintex Pads and get the brake fluid replaced with DOT 5.1.

[chandler32]

Anyone would think an increase in safety would reduce an insurance premium! I guess it's any excuse to screw more money out of people! :ffs:

i think the logic is that the better the brakes, the faster you think you can go and the later you brake. Otherwise, why would you want better brakes?

//Devil's advocate mode off

I guess just go for uprated pads then. Just check them occasionally to make sure they don't wear down too fast and take your discs out. I'd look into the braided lines too.

HTH

[CustomIce]

Just got some slightly better pads for my ST162 (which is hard to stop anyway!)

Kevlar ones from fensport, having a little trouble at the moment with them binding on the drivers side, but i'll sort that, otherwise they seeem decent.