boostaddict

Ok, I recently got a 2001 2door ex as a daily driver, but as everyone knows, stuff doesnt stay stock for long. I used to have a serious track prepped BMW e30 325is, so I do have some experience in this, just not with these 7th gens. SO, my question is about brakes. I have noticed some brake fade on mountain roads, but not too much, but again, I cant really push it out there. The plan for the car includes Tien Flex's F&R, probably some ST sway bars and such, and wheels and tires. I have a set of lighweight 15's that will fit on this with victoracers already on them, so will any good brake options fit under 15's? I have all the parts to go disc in back and a porportioning valve, so my main question boils down to rotors. Which brands are good and wont warp/crack excessivley? Are the AEM and the like big brake kits that use stock calipers worth it for heat dissipation, or should I go full on brembo? or is there a cheaper way? Any thoughs would be nice. Sorry about how long that ended up being. Thanks, AJ

Boilermaker1

iTrader: (16)

I assume you still have a fully stock braking system, in which case ditch the stock rotors, pads and switch over to a higher temp fluid. Pads from Axxis or Hawk seem to work well, Cobalt Friction and Porterfield also have available pads. Brembo blank rotors tolerate heat real well and for fluid switch to something like superblue. To keep 15s theres not much you can use and go bigger. If you can find an 11" ITR rotor conversion (I'm not aware of one for a 7th gen), those will fit. You can also use the Spoon Monoblock calipers ($1500) on small rotors, but you'll be making your own hardware to mount them. I've not been able to overrun my new brakes on the track (Axxis Ultimates, Brembo Blanks and Superblue) at all, even after a few sessions with little down time between.

Civic_RedLine

iTrader: (18)

u cant use aems big brake kit. You need to get yourself some 16s in order to use them but if you do get them, you dont really need to switch rears to discs. but in yoursituation with 15s, I would switch the rears to discs from an si or so. Fronts you cant do much except for what boiler said unless you switch to 16s. The better ones will require 17 inch minimum like the wilwood big brakes which costs well over a G.

BTW aems discontinued so good luck finding them.

boostaddict

Ok, thanks for the info. Keeping the 15s wasnt really critical, I have LOTS of crap in the garage, and I have a set of 17's and 18's for this car. Just wondering. I was going to do just the stock sized si rear rotor conversion. I know about brake fluid, too ( I have 4 quarts of superblue in the garage also!). Sounds like you guys are reinforcing what I already thought, which is a good thing and by the way, thanks for the honest answers, not GO TO 18" ROTORS MAN! Haha. So it sounds like a good set of rotors all the way around (stock civic up front, si in back), some superblue fluid, the proportioning valve, and a good set of pads are the way to go. Thanks, AJ Just as a side note, I realize that the "bigger" brake upgrades that use the stock rotors are not usually worth it, but has anyone tried it on these civics? just wondering.

Boilermaker1

iTrader: (16)

I don't know of anyone who's done just a caliper upgrade, mostly because they're not available for this car. You can go with something like the Wilwood setup, but with a stockish motor, the stock size brakes are more than adequate to keep the car under control with upgraded friction surfaces. The bigger brakes just seem to add more weight, you need bigger wheels, bigger rotors all which add inertia where its not really needed. You could look into what fast brakes or SSBC has available that fits under a 15" wheel. I know for a short while someone made a kit that was a 10.9" rotor (vs a 10.2" stock) for the EP3 (it'll fit the coupes too) that also came with a 2 piston caliper. I don't think it was around for too long and I can't remember who made it. From what I remember about brake rotor part numbers, we may share front rotors with the GS-R, for which there are lots of upgrades for (cross check part numbers for Brembo replacements, I'm not 100% sure, but they're the same diameter).

I'd honestly just change the stock pads and rotors, maybe the shoes (I don't mind stock shoes, the bias feels fine to me now, but changing the rear shoes for something grippier will change the feel of the braking distribution too) and dump some superblue in and see if it solves the fade problem.