emissman

Does anyone local have experience with brake upgrade kits for the xB? I am looking at getting some better brakes and want to know what people went with. Seems like the only good option is Wilwood fronts. Is there a rear disc conversion available that anyone knows of? If so, is it time consuming? Would it even be worth it?

kkawana

think there was/is a DIY rear coversion in the tech/how to section...
took some fabrication so not a direct bolt on...

emissman

Thanks. Do you know what the proper forum is for brake discussions? It doesn't seem to fit into any existing category (interior, suspension/handling, etc).

Kanchi

iTrader: (4)

I would check suspension/handling! BTW Hawk Brake pads rule!

emissman

I guess I'll stear clear of a rear disc conversion, but that being said, are there any shoe upgrades for the rear?

kkawana

lol... that i dont know

several companies i've heard keep saying they are workingon a conversion for us... 1-2 years later and still waiting

UBOW

Who uses brakes?

ilikemyxa

in all honesty the best upgrade you can do is slotted and/or drilled rotors, performance brake pads, stainless steel lines, and DOT 4 fluid. i mean, a big brake kit with all due respect to my fellow 95% scion owners is just overkill because 1) 95% of scion owners who get it are just wasting there money on a brake kit they wont even REMOTELY use 1/2 of it's full potential and just are there to be pretty and 2) .... uhh....nevermind. I mean even for scion owners who drive the ____ out of their cars (read:mountain passes, track days, autocross) it's still a bit overkill...mainly due to the lightweight of our cars and it's lack of horsepower...the before mentioned upgrades are well suitable.

DarkBoxJr

Slotted/drilled rotors won't make any difference.

ilikemyxa

um...ooookkkkkaaayyy. whatever you say...i guess gas dissapation doesnt ring a bell to you? i guess race cars are wasting their time aswell? better call up the NASA and SCCA heads to let them know that slotted/drill rotors don't make any difference!

DarkBoxJr

I guess you're still running asbestos brake pads too. Your brake pads aren't gassing.

ilikemyxa

ok...HEAT dissapation...i guess that doesnt ring a bell? and actually yes, hard, constant braking does actually create gas in between the pad and rotor face which is why there are slots and drills. also during hard, constant braking (which by your replies obviously is foreign to you) there is heat build up with the pads and rotors, without proper dissapation of that heat brake fade occurs, when fade occurs you're up for one hell of an experience (but again, i highly doubt you've even come close to the start of fade or ever will) also fade occurs when the brake fluid has a low boiling point, thats fluid fade (again probably is and ever will be foreign to you) and then pad fade and green fade etc. etc. read up on it, maybe you'll learn something other than which springs give you the lowest drop and what exhaust is the most bomb sounding.

DarkBoxJr

Maybe you should tell all those race engineers that they should switch to cross-drilled rotors instead of the solid rotors that almost all modern race cars use. Anyone who knows anything about brakes will tell you that cross-drilled rotors are purely aesthetic. Occasionally, cross-drilling is used for weight saving, but not too often. They're also more prone to stress fractures around the holes, and even rotors that are cast with holes can't avoid this. Slots can be used to refresh the pad surface, which is the main reason why they're used in racing applications, but it won't make too much of a difference on the street.

Modern pads don't use asbestos, and the bonding agents in any decent pad won't produce gas.

ilikemyxa

ok well firstly i'd jsut like to point out that both of us are coming from ENTIRELY different worlds...your world being that of street driven cars that don't see alot of hard driving/braking....in that sense i can completely agree with you that anything but a stock solid rotor doesn't do anything...i can also agree with you about cross-drilling, purely asthetic, with very little performance gain. but from my view him asking about rear disc conversions and big brakes i'm thinking that he is a bt more on the hard driving side. which is why i recommended what i recommended (i do take back the cross-drilled thing, bad idea!) because as you said slots help in refreshing the pad surface along with getting rid of dust build up between two surfaces, and most importantly heat dissapation as i've said before. you're right about green fade though, decent pads have good agents thus making green fade one of the lesser fade experienced. its funny though because you contradicted yourself saying that modern race cars use solid rotors yet agree that slotted rotors are widely used in racing applications? a solid rotor is what the OEM rotors are. anyway like i said you and i are coming from two entirely different worlds. one being the normal street driven car in which unless you want to look pretty solid rotors are the best bet. and the second one being mine which is the lets beat the ____ out of my car on mountain passes and as many track days as possible...anyway it's late and i hate arguing really, nobody's wrong though. we all have our valid points and i'm quite sure that you and i can meet somewhere in the middle.

wanachat15

dudes. you peeps are hella funny. to me it's common sense. more holes more cooling. less heat means better performance. it's the same concept as more heatsinks on an engine or bigger radiator/aluminum mean more heat and gas dissapation and better cooling. i heard some where that our internal combustion engine is 95% heat and 5% power. to me thats a little extreme. but yea heat does take a alot of our performance away. so go right ahead, upgrade the pads and the disc. forget the rear, it's not like ur drifting or anything.


brakes are over rated. five speed baby.

YourNameHere

more holes less surface area. less friction. less stopping power.

you want to know the best way to do brakes...go yank some off a porsche boxster or just about any porsche for that matter. they know how to do brakes. this is a very popular upgrade in the VW world. to bad it ownt fit ours.

i dont think an xB will ever need more then the stock rotors. MAYBE slotted if you have a serious track car. if you want to upgrade stuff get stainless steel brakelines, brake fluid and pads. that should keep you happy.

DarkBoxJr

Did you even read anything that I wrote? Removing mass from the rotors is going to cause them to be HOTTER than if there weren't any holes in them at all. It DOESN'T act as a heatsink.

This guy wants sound advice, and it's posts like these that will cause problems for people.

wanachat15

i guess you guys looked at it a different way. i didn't mean like holes all over the darn thing. just here and there to dissapate gas build up. yea of course more holes less surface mean less grabbing power. also i think you twisted my words around. i didn't say anything about brakes and engines having the same funtional concepts. i just stated and gave and example of how heat robs power. slotted is good enough for me and better pads. it's only a grocery getter. i would know this since i work on airplanes as a career. thats what you call brakes, but i'm not saying i'm a goorue and you peeps are wrong.


and no i didn't read everything that was posted. i just stopped by to put my two cents. pretty much thats what i think this site is about. putting down two cents.



---tom

DarkBoxJr

There isn't any gas build up! Holes and slots aren't there to dissipate heat, and never were.

MJVsTC

Praise the Lordah. He spelled "brake" correctly.