Finally got my Stoptech Stage II Kit installed! Thanks to my Scikotics crew (Matt, Ed, Karl, Gary, and the rest) for helping me out with this!

Removing the stock Calipers & Rotors:

Receiving Instructions on the brake lines (Gary, you're a lifesaver):

Some horsing around of course:

Rears are on:

Reattaching the wheels:



And... the finished product:
You can see the SS braided brake line

 

looks great!. i must say this setup is very nice. The stopping is sooo much better.

 

I'm on day 2 of this !%!@%!@# hangover!

It was a pleasure having everyone over

 

A good time was had by all! Next weekend... sway bar!

 

Oh, come now...You know it was my daughter who did all the work!

 

all you guys live pretty close to me! the kit looks great. certainly looks like a fun day.

 

looks good. we need all the stoping power we can get.

 

Give us an update in about a week when everything breaks in. I'm interested in a more firm brake feel myself.

 

How did you powerbleed the brakes?
Did you bed in the pads as you're supposed to?
How's the pedal feel?

 

The brake feel is a lot firmer. The Axxis ultimate pads definitely have a lot more bite than stock.

I already did a bed-in so they're mostly broken in... it's nice and itght.

The bleed process was.... tough.

We had our resident toyota tech work the bleed valve on the calipers themselves.... starting with the furthest from the master cylinder.... lotsa pumping, then hold..... released the fluid..... until no more bubbles came out.

 

Do you think it's a good idea to use non-toyota fluid in our brake system? I don't have any plans to be boiling any brake fluid... This is just my daily driver -I have plans on stepping up to 18" late next yeat after all the supension work is complete. I was looking at big-brake kits and that's a lot of cash and I will not be able to go back to 17" rims after that. I'm hoping that the Stage II kit may be a happy medium.

 

Non toyota fluid is fine... the Motul 600 RBF is DOT4 fluid. It's compatable with the DOT3 fluid that comes stock, so if I somehow had some of the original fluid left over, it's not a problem. It has a higher boiling point (which makes it DOT4).

This is my daily driver, too, and I find it to be a nice step-up with the braking system. It's hundreds cheaper than a Front-only BBK (i don't consider powerslot to be a bbk - it's just larger rotors) and provides you with everything you need - rotors, pads, lines, and fluid.

You can still run 17's with most BBK's. The Wilwood one you definitely can - it only pushes you out a couple mm on the offset. That's all. EddNog runs the Wilwoods both front and back (custom job in the rear).

Get good tires for those 18's, and at least switch the brake pads to ones with a lot better bite than stock. The Stoptech Stage II would be perfect!

 

To properly bleed our brakes (as I understand it) they must be powerbled in order to ensure that no air has gotten into the ABS system. I guess you'll know when the ABS engages on hot fluid for the first time.

 

How do you power bleed the brakes?

One of the guys that was helping me out with it is a toyota tech so I trust his judgement.

 

Power bleeding is not required. Installed my BBK and used it over many track days. Raamaudio will also back me up on that as well as he has a wilwood kit on his car that was bled manually.

 

Kinda hard to get ABS to kick in - i've got good tires!

I did get it to hit once or twice going over a bump while braking (1 wheel on a manhole cover).. seems fine. I'll try to find an empty wet road (it's rainy today) and get them to engage.

 

Did you ever find that empty wet road? How did the car take it?

 

I tried to get the abs to kick in but the road wasn't wet enough.... and my tires are too good... lol.

 

Sounds like you weren't pushing that pedal hard enough. ;)

 

you can get the abs to kick in without it being wet. just find an empty parking lot or back road and slam on the brakes!!!

its really not all that complicated. also your tires wont really effect your abs from kicking in. the fact that you have way better brake pads would make it easier for the brakes to lock up