How to buy brakes

[Conza]

My brakes are wearing out, and I've always wanted to take my car to a track day, so the main thing I would 'need' despite other bits I'd want as well, is new brakes.

I they are 15 diameter and 5.5 inches wide, and I want to get brakes that I can use for, idk, hours of track use, but won't wear too much faster for everyday road use.

I find the whole process confusing, I know there's 3 main components in a brake system, rotors, pads and calipers, and I know the pads are worn down (lots of pedal travel, fluid done recently, squeak on ocassion).

Could I have some pointers on internet sites to visit, or even reccomended brands? Brembo comes to mind, but are hard to find in Australia.

 

[Imari]

Depends a bit on what your car is. I've got a 1990 MX5, all I did was change the pads for EBC Greenstuffs (http://ebcbrakes.com/product/greenstuff-brake-pads/).

So far they've lasted two track days and about a year of daily driving and "spirited" weekends. They're maybe half worn? It's hard to tell, but they're definitely not dead yet. Never had any problems with fade on the track, but an MX5 doesn't weigh anything so it's not the best indication.

If I were you, I'd just look at replacing your pads with some heavy duty or sports pads. That will probably be more than enough to see you through a track day without any problems.

Tell us some more about what your car is, and maybe someone can give you specific advice.

P.S. Where are you going for the track day?

 

[Conza]

Depends a bit on what your car is. I've got a 1990 MX5, all I did was change the pads for EBC Greenstuffs (http://ebcbrakes.com/product/greenstuff-brake-pads/).

So far they've lasted two track days and about a year of daily driving and "spirited" weekends. They're maybe half worn? It's hard to tell, but they're definitely not dead yet. Never had any problems with fade on the track, but an MX5 doesn't weigh anything so it's not the best indication.

If I were you, I'd just look at replacing your pads with some heavy duty or sports pads. That will probably be more than enough to see you through a track day without any problems.

Tell us some more about what your car is, and maybe someone can give you specific advice.

P.S. Where are you going for the track day?

No idea where I'm going to do track days, my uncle works at Toyota, and has access to these quite cheaply, but you need to provide your own car, and as I said my brakes are nearly worn out anyway.

They're for a Peugeot 306, which I've looked up, and compared to your car it has almost 200kgs more weight than yours.

Sure, the rotors themselves are probably still fine, so would be the calipers, but to get the maximum life and performance out of an upgrade I'd want to replace all three at the same time, at the very least the rotors and pads at the same time. EDIT: Besides, red calipers would look awesome on my silver car, the black ones may as well be invisible.

Your pads sound good though, but my understanding is that heat effects both pads and rotors anyway? So you do hours of track driving and the brakes are fairly consistent whilst maintaining your calipers/rotors and only using these pads?

 

[Imari]

No idea where I'm going to do track days, my uncle works at Toyota, and has access to these quite cheaply, but you need to provide your own car, and as I said my brakes are nearly worn out anyway.

Heh, that's pretty sweet.

The track days I went to we were split into groups. There would be three groups of drivers, and they would each go out for twenty minutes an hour. Yours may be different. I've only done two, and they were both like that. Eight hours at the track, but only about two and a half actually driving.


Quick bit of reading shows mixed opinions on 306 brakes: http://306oc.co.uk/forum/thread-740.html

Some people think the stock ones are made of butter, some think they're acceptable given decent pads. There's one video on Youtube supposedly of 306 brake fade, but it's after two minutes (how does anyone fade brakes that fast?) and it looks awfully like the guy just went too fast and understeered off.

Do make sure you do your research first to make sure the whole package will fit under the wheels you have. I've seen people caught out by that before.

Research what pads are recommended for a 306. It sounds like Mintex 1144, 1155 and DS2500s might be the go. I'd tend to just order in from overseas if you can't find them in AU. It's not expensive to get stuff like that from Europe/the UK.

Also consider that if you just want pretty calipers, you can do it on the cheap. I know the feeling, I'd love my calipers to be that metallic Subaru blue. Several guys in the MX5 club have removed the stock calipers, given them a really good clean and painted them in hi-temp paint. Looks awesome, costs you a weekend and a little bit of paint. Great as a DIY job.

I suspect the best bet would be do pads and rotors, and paint the calipers. Easy to do, easy to continue the upgrade later if need be.

If you do end up doing the whole lot, consider including braided lines in your setup while you're there, since you're going to be dismantling the whole system anyway. You'll get improved feel in the brake pedal. It will make it a lot easier to reliably hit the maximum brake force.

Sorry I don't know more about 306s specifically. Hope that helps though!

 

[Conza]

Extremely helpful Imari, I think your idea is the best bet, new pads and rotors at the same time, but the calipers can stay, and painting them is probably a great cost saving.

I'll look into those Mintex Rotors, and I'll read up on that forum as well.

Thanks for the help!