This past weekend I finially did my brake replacement. I installed Brembo Blank rotors (see the Maintenance Stickey) and Porterfield Pads. In addition, I flushed the fluid, installed speed bleeders, and painted my calipers red.

Taking the brakes apart proved to be fairly easy. I took the calipers off of all 4 corners and striped them totally down. Seals, rings, cleaned the pistons, etc. After that I masked them off (before all the new seals, etc were not installed) and painted them. 1 coat primer, 2 coats red, 2 coats clear. They look pretty good. I'll post pics later.

While painting I took the rotors off the car and installed all 4 new ones. Something disturbing, the inside of the driver-side front rotor was only making contact with about .5 inch of the pad.

I let all this sit overnight.

The next day I rebuilt the cailpers, installed them and the new pads. The only problem installing the Porterfield pads was that we had to drill holes in the front pads backing to install the springs. No biggie. Finially I flushed/bleed the system (which I might add was VERY easy with the help of the speed bleeders) and cleaned up.

After starting the car, the brake pedal felt strange. I don't know if mushey is the word, but there is a lot more travel before the brake engage. Once I get to this point, however, the pedal is quite firm. I think I just need to bleed the system again, maybe better this time? Any ideas?

I took the car for a ride around the block. It sounded like the front pads were dragging a little. When I got back there was smoke pouring out of the front wheel wells. The rotors were now brown, almost like they were burnt! I waited 15 minutes and went out again, and it sounded the same, but there was no burning smell of look. We measured the temperature of the rotors this time, and it was about 225F.

So, we decided that they top-most layer of the pads just needed to burn off. Went out for half hour at the local community college and did several stop-and-go runs the bed the pads. After not to long, everything was working fine!

Impressions:

Wow, stopping is so much smoother now that I don't have a warped rotor. The pads do make a little noise under heavy braking, but nothing that I didn't expect. Stopping distance is dramatically improved. These pads are great! I would highly recommend them!

Overall, this was a cheep (~$300) brake "upgrade" that drastically improved the cars stoping power!

Questions:

- Increased pedal travel. Do you think I just need to re-bleed, or is there a pedal adjustment that I need to do.
- Was/Is that smoking something that I should be worried about? It doesn't do it anymore, and the pads don't drag anymore.

Sorry that was so long!

 

where did you buy your rotors and how much were they...did you get them from carparts.com??

Thanks

 

Well I've done a few brake jobs in my life. And I've noticed that new pads alone usually wont produce smoke protruding from the wheel wells with just a drive around the block. But I've replaced rotors twice in my life and both times it was going from stock rotors to cross-drilled rotors. Each time I've witnessed plenty of smoke coming from the wheels. I think new rotors are usually like that. Its probably some sort of film that rotors are fished with to protect it. I've had people all over the street come up to me (on the first drive after installing new rotors) looking at me like, "do you know your brakes are smoking!?!?!" It can look pretty bad sometimes. Test out your brakes and once they stop the car fine with no pulling on one side and without excessive pedal travel or mushy feel. I'd say if the brakes feel worse than before bleed them again. Please post any updates.

 

Yeah, I bought them from carparts.com. Prices and part numbers can be found in this thread