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Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:03 pm
by xyz
My Brembo's F+R and Advan RS wheels are on their way :mrgreen:

What's needed to fit this to a GTB?

Looking for suggestions on everything to make this conversion. Slotted rotors, pads.. do I need new handbrake shoes as well? Brake lines?! Adaptors?!! Colour combo??

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:11 pm
by kiks
If you're not tracking the car.
DBA street series STI fronts
DBS street series conversion rear
Cruisn or kartboy or KNS brakes adaptor dogbones for the rears
A set of QFM HPX pads front and rear.

Greg @ GSL for the rotors/pads will be best price going.

http://www.knsbrakes.com/template20.php To see what I mean about adaptors
www.entra.com.au can supply the KNS stuff. Or Cruisin on these forums makes his own.

Dont be tempted to run stupid pads or harder brake rotors than you need. the minimum you need will be the minimum dust and noise. street series and hpx are silent except on cold mornings and very low dust for what is stellar performance. There is a heap of options for similar stuff that im sure people will recommend and would work just as well.

To install yourself, you need a jack/ basic spanners/sockets, a bleed hose (half a metre of aquarium hose and a 1 way valve works well), 1L of fluid (I recommend beyond anything else Total's ELF HPX 115 dot 5.1, $200 motul performance for $10 a bottle), a drill, 6mm drill bit or so (to drill out spot welds from rear dust shield), and some basic common sense. Not a hard job to swap some brakes over.

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:17 pm
by sheppo9
If your Brembo's don't come with bolts, get them aswell - they are a different thread/pitch to the standard ones.

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 3:53 pm
by HyRax
Whatever you do, DON'T buy Kartboy adapters for the rear calipers - having recently done my own Brembo conversion with Kartboy's, they truely suck for Liberty Brembo conversions, because you have to grind away so much metal off the rear hub to make the Kartboys fit (bolt holes don't line up). They were originally designed for Impreza Brembo conversions only.

Go with Mark's custom adapters - they are properly engineered to fit Liberty's specifically for Brembo conversions. They also fit Impreza's for WRX or Brembo caliper conversions.

And yes, get the Brembo bolts. I ditched the bolts that came with the Kartboys (couldn't use the OEM caliper bolts either) and re-used the bolts that came with my Brembo's because the thread was totally different.

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:36 pm
by cruisn
George picked up a set of my adapters last night. :wink:

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:34 pm
by 3rspecb
kiks wrote:Dont be tempted to run stupid pads or harder brake rotors than you need. the minimum you need will be the minimum dust and noise. street series and hpx are silent except on cold mornings and very low dust for what is stellar performance. There is a heap of options for similar stuff that im sure people will recommend and would work just as well.
To install yourself, you need a jack/ basic spanners/sockets, a bleed hose (half a metre of aquarium hose and a 1 way valve works well), 1L of fluid (I recommend beyond anything else Total's ELF HPX 115 dot 5.1, $200 motul performance for $10 a bottle), a drill, 6mm drill bit or so (to drill out spot welds from rear dust shield), and some basic common sense. Not a hard job to swap some brakes over.


Great advice.

And make sure you have good quality drill bits. Unfortunately I had elcheapo ones when I did my conversion so removing the rear dust shield took a little longer as I kept breaking drill bits. :(

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:30 pm
by xyz
Thanks guys, very useful info!

I'll have them fitted on Saturday so I can't wait :D

Will post pics when they're on!

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:40 pm
by Stu
So do you guys just remove the front and rear shields completely when fitting brembos?? I would have thought a little bending and grinder work would get the calipers in, even if the bigger rotors are hanging over the edge. I keep thinking our unloved 2.5i "needs" brembos too since it's so different to my GT tb STI :D

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:42 pm
by cruisn
Only the rear needs work. Most remove it, but I have also bent it back before and can easily be returned to position if put back to stock.

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:02 am
by HyRax
I removed mine. You can bend them back, but the examples I've seen look like rubbish IMO (OK, not that you'd actually see it once everything has been put back in), and frankly removal of the shield means more air can get in their to blow the dust away rather than capture it all there. ;) If you don't remove the shield, it makes direct physical contact with the larger Brembo-spec disc which of course is a Bad Thing (TM).

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:04 am
by xyz
Looks like I got the wrong DBA rotors for the rear so now I'm waiting on replacement handbrake shoes.

Image
Image
:D

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:47 am
by HyRax
Probably just the photo, but the colour of the caliper and the logo looks a little washed out?

Should have had Mark custom paint them for you too!

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:42 am
by xyz
Haha! I wanted mark to paint them too but he had too many to do, and I just didn't want to wait any longer :D

Those calipers are fine though, definitely not washed out :wink:

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:09 pm
by kiks
DBA 2657

Was the rear rotors you want
DBA 2657SL/SR for slotted left/right

I did say conversion rotor :P Anyone who deals with DBA knows these ones are the sti diametre/offset etc with wrx handbrake hat

Re: Brembo brakes upgrade - parts?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:21 pm
by HyRax
xyz wrote:Haha! I wanted mark to paint them too but he had too many to do, and I just didn't want to wait any longer :D

Yeah, he's in hot demand - I waited two months to get mine done and then they didn't go on the car for another month while I waited for the braided lines group buy! Well worth it, though.

xyz wrote:Those calipers are fine though, definitely not washed out :wink:

Good stuff.

kiks wrote:I did say conversion rotor :P Anyone who deals with DBA knows these ones are the sti diametre/offset etc with wrx handbrake hat

More fun to do the handbrake shoe swapout though, which means you can use any brand STi rotor and it should be a little lighter than DBA's conversion rotor too.