So I need to do the brakes on my car but the weird thing is its only the back ones that need to be done. Not sure why the back brakes are worse than the front. Anyway I think I am going to do rotors and brakes all around. Maybe Hawk pads and not sure about the rotors yet.
Why slotted? You can get the blanks from autozone now on the cheap. If you're not going to purchase something like the DBA brand, then just find something in your budget that's a nice and simple, plain jane sorta blank.
Guess if my rotors are fine then I will just leave them alone. But thanks for the heads up on the rotors part!!
In addition to saving money, think about this: Brakes work by friction. The more surface area of rotor to pad, the more friction (stopping power) you can generate. Slotted and drilled rotors are mostly bling, and are designed to solve braking problems that are really not issues for non-racing cars. Slotted rotors will bite into brake pads more, causing them to wear faster. Thismay be good for the track, but is just a waster for street/DD use. Cross-drilled rotors are for weight-reduction and expulsion of gasses. These are just not issues with street car. In fact, the cross-drilling of rotors can induce weakness into the rotor - small cracks lead to bigger cracks lead to rotor failure. The limitation of braking force is the TIRES. Unless you are using racing tires for daily driving, your stock brakes are more than strong enough to lock up the tires (meaning you can force ABS to kick in). Once you get into ABS, more braking force does you no good, so stronger brakes are pointless is terms of sheer stopping ability. However, better pads (and fluid) will make the brakes feel firmer, which most of us like over the mushy stock feel. I have been using HPS and ATE blue fluid for a while and the brakes do feel WAAAY better than stock. tl;dr: don't waste money on slotted rotors.
Sometimes you cannot get blanks (eg DBA4000) as a lot of the guys that stock them or drop ship them don't have the non-slotted variants. New fluid, decent pads (Hawks work well, but are noisy), upgraded brake lines and quality tires will really improve your stopping prowess on the street.
Ron at DiscoveryParts.com has been doing some testing with Hawk's new pad compounds and likes them so far. Napa Golds are Bendix which equal better material, better castings, and competitive pricing for the better quality. One of the most overlooked parts with the floating caliper design is nobody cleans and lubes the slide pins the caliper rides on. "Wagunz pwn" is well versed in rebuilding calipers now so he might give some tips at the install day if you wish to work on them at that time.
Does anyone have any recommendations on a good place to get the pads? Looked online and see a ton of places.
pretty much any of the local shops can get them for you. When I had my Subaru, I went through either TurninConcepts.com or KNSBrakes.com
I got a pretty good quote from boston motorsports on nasioc. I think I might just order from them. One last question, the front pads have a lot left on them so I am wondering how much of a difference it will make if I put the Hawk HPS on the rear and leave the front alone?
the rears aren't really used much so you won't notice a difference. Actually, I wouldn't bother with Hawk pads on the rear. Advance Auto pads FTW.
I'm probably gonna install my ebrake brake pads that day. So bring yours and I can help install pads and rotors.
The pads are pretty easy to install. Think I'm going to do the rears tomorrow along with an oil change and then go up into the mountains.
can you run the autozone blanks with subaru 4-pot calipers? I would be really leaning towards the subaru 4 pot over the brembos if you can...
that was a yes to the rotor question. Bolts are 17mm http://www.scoobymods.com/subaru-4-pot-brake-install-t349.html?s=&threadid=349
autozone has now given me the wrong rear brakes 3 times. I have to go somewhere else. The good news is I can change rear brakes with my eyes closed.lol any suggestions on a place that would have what I need?
I ended up going to oreilly auto parts for the back pads. In a few months I'll put the hawk HPS on the front.
So did you finally get the right pads? You were probably just dealing with some idiots at advanced or wherever kept selling you the wrong pads, not the store. If I remember correctly the GD wrx brakes changed once midway through the 02 model year, and of course for 06/07 model year. Not sure if they changed from 03-04. Anyone else care to chime in on this?
I finally did the the correct pads but from another place. I got the wrong pads from two different stores.