ok it's been about 2 weeks since i installed my big brake kit and finally got it bled correctly, damned american wrenches. For those of you who dont know it's a 13 inch brake kit, slotted and x-drilled rotors, wilwood dynalite 4 piston calipers, SS lines, mounting brackets, hardware and wilwood pads(compound d) by default.

ok so the toughest part of the install was getting the stock brake line off the car, followed by the rotor. the precision brakes kit was well precise and fit perfect.

initially it was weird getting used to the new brakes as they used to catch right at the top but now catch lower down. this is due to the increased surface area of the 4 pistons and the SS lines which have a slightly bigger ID but do't flex at all. once i properly bedded the pads and then the rotors i tested these bad boys out, and OMFG they rock. i can't describe how much the brake feel is improved.

from 60-0 i wouldn't say it's more then 5-7 feet, decent, BUT i could do it over and over and over and over and get the same distance every time.

it just gets better from there. 80-0 i'd say 20 feet plus again no fade.

then the unthinkable, 100-0 in a 5th gen maxima, try that with your stock rotors and hope your near a nissan dealer cus they will be done, car schreaches to a halt BF Goodrich G-Force T/A KD's fighting for traction the whole way and bamn the car is stopped. unbelievalbe braking force with no fade. i wouldn't hesisate to say 30 if not 50 feet saved off teh braking again with no fade.

everyone that i have taken in the car and shown these too have just been absolutely amazed.

PROS:
-immensely improved brake pedal feel and high speed braking
-virtually undetectable brake fade
-the totally kewl look of those massive rotors behind my 18's.
-the confidence that i know my brakes will always be there for me and not warp and fade like the $hitty stock brakes
-The brakes actually shoot off a STREAM of sparks under heavy higher speed braking, this is due to their high metal compound. and when i saw sparks i don't mean like a couple i'm talking a stream like a sparkler.

Any questions about these Emax will confirm, he's seen and felt them and driven the car with them. the tires literally smoke from the braking force, i can't describe how smooth and linear and hard these brakes work.


CONS:
-pedal feel isn't as good at the top but once they start gripping it's fine(just takes some adjusting)
-my first set of pads is well already gone, granted i did test them out SEVERAL times and from some higher speeds ~100(only late at night on out of the way highways with no cars coming) i talked to nigel and they have like 24546 different style of pad compounds and i'm gonna try some HAWK pads this time that should last longer and i'm not gonna brake as hard
-BOTH-BOTH of my front rotors are cracked, one very bad, other starting to get there. i bedded them properly and didn't spray water on them or anything. nigel at precision brakes says that RARELY happens, he was almost in shock and immediatly sent me replacements free of charge, i requested slotted this time only for my own piece of mind.
-ridiculous amount of brake dust, completely ridiculous

Now, i know the group deal fell through and there are some guys that still want them, from what i understand the initial price break on these kits is over(was 899) and now they cost 999. still worth every penny in my opinion. But i can get them to you guys for the 899 price plus shipping of about 30 bucks. check or paypal accepted. the wait is about 3 weeks as they piece together the kits on demand. anyone who is interested please email me and i will contact nigel and get the kit on the way to your door. also if you need any other brake parts that they carry i might also be able to help with that but as of right now i've only looking into helping them distribute this brake kit.

also for the record they have front brake kits for 1995-2003 nissan maximas and you can get other pad compounds and only slotted rotors if you desire

precision brakes gets a thumbs up, way up for this brake kit and for their friendly attitude and great service.

 

Excellent write-up!! Thanks Steve! I'll be looking into these very soon. I'm in need of a good brake setup.

 

Wow, very nice. Sounds like a much better deal than the Brembo kit I've seen around. That's some serious coin less. Maybe if I just drive like an old man my brakes will last forever

 

got pics?

 

no problem let me know if you need a set.

and yes the brembo kit is way over priced, no pics yet though.

 

Correction: That's 1989-2003 maxima's

 

the brakes look nice. For all "performance" rotors, they tend to catch a little "later" in the pedal, but work much better.

 

website?

 

DO NOT USE HAWK PADS!!!!!!!!


A few comments.... I've been running the Dynalites with Skyline rotors for over a year now, and have been through about 8 sets of brake pads.

1. Hawk HB-100 Black. THEY SUCK! they were like sticking a brick inside my caliper. They wore more iron off the rotors than material off the pads. had to replace a set of Skyline rotors in less than two weeks. it wore almost 1/4" of iron off, and have ruined my wheels. the iron is now plated on the polished clearcoat on my wheels and won't come off. I'm going to have to sandblast them down and completely refinish a pair of gourgeous 3- piece wheels because of them.
When the hawk pads were on the car, they ALWAYS sounded like I was running metal-on-metal, and the rotors actually turned blue from the heat!

next.

2. Wilwood "D" Compound. They were great.. Exactly as you have commented on performance, dust, and longevity. I recently bought a second set for use as Auto X pads. They lasted about 5 weeks on HEAVY highway driving (with several 130-0 mph tests on the highway, and a couple passes through the Ozark mountains. About as close to road course use as you can get without going to jail or paying for track time) Rotor wear is very minimal. left almost a mirror smooth surface on the rotors. I've never seen a pad that easy on rotors.

3. Porterfield R4-S. I wasn't too impressed. They lasted about 4 weeks, but dusted horribly and faded after a few hard 60-0 stops. They would begin to smell after just two hard stops or so, and fade completely out after about 5 60-0 stops. two or thrww 100-30 stops were about all they could take on the highway. definitely not suited for much more than light use.
I used them at Auto X and had no problems though. Initial feel and performance were the same as the Wilwood "D" compound though. I would choose the "D" compound over these, as they're cheaper, dust less, fade less, and last longer. rotor wear was a little more on them than the Wilwood "D" also.

4. wilwood "Q" series. Made by Raybestos- it's actually stamped on the metal backing plate of the pad. (This is a guess here, but I believe this is the same compound as everyone else can buy in the "quiet Stop" series of OEM spec brake pads). Anyway, these pads have almost zero dust and are pretty easy on rotors. Fade isn't the greatest, but they can withstand stoplight drags very well. A couple nights ago, I did about ten zero to 60/70/80 then back to a stop runs in a row against a Stage IV TTZ. My brakes were just beginning to fade, but the Z guy (running Axxis MM pads on OEM rotors, with 18" Moda wheels) Was having a trouble hauling the beast to a stop. Now the scary part was I was actually doing a decent job of keeping up with him. In order for him to get ahead of me, he had to dump the clutch off the line and slam 2nd gear pretty hard. I was surprised I could keep up that well.

back to the point....

Wilwood "Q" series are the best I've seen for daily driving and moderate performance driving. Heat Fade is a non-issue unless you're really beating on the car. If so, you're definitely not driving within the constraints of the law. Also, your tires will wear out before a set of these brake pads will. They have been on my car for 4-5 months and still have over 1/3 of the material left. They've lasted MUCH MUCH longer than any of the other pads I tried.
I ordered a second set of these for daily driving whenever these wear through.

In Summary:
In the year I've had the system, I've used Wilwood D, Q pads, Porterfield R4-S, and a couple sets of Hawk pads.

I DO NOT Recommend the Hawk pads. If you must use these, have a second set of rotors and another set of pads ready, as they will be ruined in less than three weeks. Only reason I used them was I burned through a set of other pads and had to pick up the Hawks at a local performance shop and drive on those until my new wilwood pads came in.

For daily driving, I HIGHLY recommend the Wilwood "Q" series pads.
Use the Wilwood "D" series for drag, auto X and easy road course use.
Use the "C" pads for heavy roadcourse use.
the "Q" series will be fine for auto X or drag use and daily driving, but I recommend having a set of the "D" lying around for auto X days.


DISCLAIMER Do not try to repeat the above mentioned events on public roads, for obvious reasons. If you go to jail or kill yourself or someone else, it's not my fault. don't blame me.

So there's my $0.02 (times 1000).

 

Very nice write up. I have a question about your big brakes kit. Does the 13" brake rotors and the wilwood dynalite 4 piston calipers fit on a 2000 SE with the stock 17" rims. I've been researching on big brake upgrades and was wondering if this particular kit needs aftermarket 17+" rims in order to fit. Thank you.

 

thanks for the brake pad write up, i think this thread deserves a stickie, moderators????

i dont' even know what kind of pads they are now but i talked ot nigel and he recommended hawk HPX's i think, street high performance pads. i actually asked about the Q pads and he said he didn't think i would be happy with the performance of them but he did say that they didn't dust much at all. i also noticed the D's were VERY VERY easy on the rotors. i'd rather have pads that wear mopre then the rotors too. guess i might try some of the Q's, 8 sets of pads a year is a lot.

www.precisionbrakes.com

 

Just trying to help you out so you don't go through the HELL I have with pads and rotors!
My recommendations are the Q series for daily driving, and the D compound for track or auto X. both of them are very rotor friendly, and a couple bucks more than the Hawks. I wouldn't evern try the Hawk HPS (hi perf street) pads because of my experiences with the Black compound. I spoke on the phone to an Afco rep for quite a while about pad selection, and he told me the Hawk Black and the HPS were very nearly the same thing. (afco is a reseller of Hawk products, btw)..

Anyway, after trying the hawks, I'm just afraid to put them on anything else. Funny part is that my boss uses them exclusively on his forumla ford race cars with no problems.

 

I'm still surprised at your R4-S impressions. Mine have been the opposite, but I granny drive my cars.....


Raybestos Quiet Stops (Wilwood "Q" compound pad) will be my next set of pads. They seem to have a real good rep here.

 

i prolly get a set of Compound Q's also just to have. I told nigel what you said and he totally agreed he said that those are a full out race pad, and the the HPS would be much easier on the rotors. i'll run then for a week and check the wear and have a set of Q's ready to go. i'm actually working with him to find the perfect pad for the maxima cus he said that a lot of people complain about the short life and high dust but love how easy they are on the rotors and they grip good. they also squeall a lot. hopefully i find the perfect blend of performance with some dust, less noise and slightly longer life and Nigel will pass all that on to our future customers. i'll let you guys know.

 

try the HPS, but I'm sure you'll like the Q series too.

The Qs squeak a bit for me now, but I've glazed the rotors pretty bad the past few weeks between stoplights and some panic stops at "mid 100s" speeds when I see flashy lights.
Anyway, they're not bad. make less noise than my old Axxis MM on stock rotors and such.
I'm happy.

Let me know what you find out with the HPS. they're worth a shot, but don't say I didn't warn you.

 

i'll try them, if i seee the rotors starting to wear i'll order some Q's for now.

 

There is nothing wrong with Hawk pads if you use the right ones for the right application. You used the Black compound which is a race only compound, no wonder you hate them.

I use now sue the HP+ and they work great and dusting is ok to me. But noise I don't like. I'll be switching to the HPS for winter since there won't be any track days and then back to HP+ in spring.

 

You definitely need to get us some pics of these on your car. It's great to see a good brake kit that doesn't cost $2500 bucks!

 

I want to hear his opinion after he has gone to the track (road course), the street is one thing but the track is another.

He has already warped them on the street what happens on the track?

 

i beat them worse then you prolly could on a track when i first got them, 120-0 over and over just to show off to my friends. nigel said that it's VERY uncommon for that to happen even with abuse. igot just slotted this time though to be safe. also the hawk HPS pads are nice, they don't grip like the compound D's but they don't dust and with enought disk brake quiet they don't squeal.

i will get pics of them on my car soon i'm just not motivated to do anything but make intakes lately. i'm also gonna keep one kit in stock and the price will be 899 a 100 savings over retail. so if anyone is interested now let me know and i'll order it. if not i will in a few weeks.

 

You'll never abuse your brakes on the street like you can on a track. Go to a track day and lap it for 30 minutes straight and you will see, if you or your car last.

After that day you will never look at the street or people who think they are fast on the steet the same way again.