Cheap brake upgrades?

gregh

From ploughing through the archives, it appears the cheapest way to upgrade my MY00 brakes is the Bremsport grooved disks and Mintex pads, that Gary raves on about in virtually every thread.

He reckons this cost him £160 for new pads and discs.

Now being the sceptic that I am, I have some questions.

Have others tried this upgrade?
How is the longevity?

I'm worried that one day they may go fatally wrong, so would perhaps consider spending more for added safety.

Or maybe I'm worring unnecessarily, but brakes are a thing you want to rely on 100%.

cheers,

Greg

[This message has been edited by gregh (edited 26-06-2000).]

Andrew Dixon

I decide to follow this upgrade path myself as the brakes on my MY97 Turbo needed replacing. The Mintex M1155 pads had been recommended to me by a couple of friends, and the Bremsport discs seemed to be the 'real thing' from a motorsport supplier.

Things worked out quite a bit more expensive however. Hardly anywhere had the Mintex pads in stock, and I finally managed to get a set from Demon Tweeks for just short of £100 (delivered the next day).

The discs worked out at something like £180 for the pair from TAS (£150 after I negotiated a discount), but unfortunately due to supplier problems they were repeatedly unable to supply me with them on the promised delivery dates and I cancelled my order after 3 weeks of waiting and promises that they were 'lost in the post'.

I finally bought a pair of grooved Black Diamond discs from Demon Tweeks for £150 the pair.

The pads have transformed the brakes totally. While they're never going to be as good as a kit from Brembo/AP/Alcon/etc., I now feel the brakes are up to the performance of the car. The retardation and pedal feel are excellent from cold, brake dust is minimal, and the fade resistance is transformed. They stood up a whole day of track use with no bother ... although I wasn't hammering them at 100%!

I'd definitely follow the Mintex bedding in procedure, as this seems to have set them up nicely. My advice is to try the pads, and go for the discs too if you feel you need to.

Don't worry about using the Mintex M1155 pads ... they are the ones that Prodrive use in the official Driving Enhancement package. An official seal of approval I suppose.

Andrew.

sasim

I went for the same option, The Mintex pads were about £80.00 from Falklands, the Bremsport disks were £180.00 from TAS, the pads arrived next day, the disks took nearly 4 weeks, and they were the wrong size.

So the long wait starts for the correct ones to be delivered, heres hoping I get them before I have to stop using the car altogether.

Stuart

Andrew Dixon

Good luck with the disks Stuart. Might be worth asking for a bit of money back considering how you've been messed about, and that they offered me the same disks for ~£150 all in.

Maybe I was unlucky, but I remain decidedly unimpressed with that particular supplier's customer service.

Andrew

gregh

BTW Scoobymania seem to do various uprated discs, from their web page Brembos Group N MY99> are £142, and there are others for £92.

Still investigating so would welcome any other comments.

Greg



[This message has been edited by gregh (edited 27-06-2000).]

gregh

What have dealers/Subaru said about the upgrades that people have done?

If I change pads and the discs give up, I guess I'm not covered unless I use the ProDrive uprated pads?

What about if I change the discs and pads, how does that affect my warranty?

cheers,

Greg

Dave Coulshaw

For the price of the 'Prodrive Pads' you could replace Pads and discs with other suppliers.

New pads are worth doing, discs as well if you get fade or want even stronger stopping power. Any thing more than that is pointless (IMO) unless you do serious track time.

Big Bear

go for Black Diamond discs and EBC pads , I`ve had them on both of my Imprezas and found them to be far better than the original setup .I have just put EBC pads in and they are alot better than mintex that were previously used .
Dave

gregh

Bigbear,

How much did each cost you, fitted, and from where?

Ta.

Greg

Big Bear

The cost was a little bit more than £160 can`t remember the exact cost was , a while ago that I bought the parts although I`ve only recently fitted the pads (only just released). I fitted the parts myself as it only took 1/2 hour to do the whole job . the discs I bought when I got a second hand set of callipers , the pads I got from Hoopers motorsport in Bristol , but I would think that any respectable shop could get them .
Dave

gregh

Dave,

Do you rememember where you got the discs from?

Cheers,

Greg

Big Bear

Greg
Hoopers can also get the discs , if you are going to get disc and pads then I would also get braided lines (also adds to the feel).
Dave
P.S. did you e-mail me ? if so an answer is on its way

Steve Howat

I too have just gone through the uprated discs/pads route. I eventually went for the Black Diamond/Mintex 1155 set up from Falkland Performance because I needed a quick response (over running the original pads and discs ). The Bremsport discs (my original choice) seem a bit too long a lead time and after reading this thread looked like too much hassle.

It is too early for me to assess the benefits etc but for £180 + vat for the lot it was one of the cheapest and the service was as good as it gets, they were delivered from Scotland to Southampton in less than 20 hours!! Top marks to Falkland, I'd recommend them to anybody!

Steve

Dark

Steve,

What model is your car? I have a MY98 with Mintex 1155's and was considering the Black Diamond disks from Falkland. How big was the improvement in terms of feel, pedal travel, etc?

Mark

Steve Howat

Hi Mark.

Mine's a my95 uk spec. It is a bit early to tell about the feel etc because I only fitted them yesterday morning and am still bedding them in. However the ones I removed were a bit far gone so when I do give the new discs and pads a hammering I'm expecting them to be amazing!!

I will let you know when I've tried them in anger. The Black Diamond discs do seem to get good reviews, but give Falkland a ring anyway, they are very helpful.

Steve

gregh

I have heard stories of Black Diamonds warping/cracking under track use, anyone any experiences good or bad?

greg

sasim

Further to my previous post above, TAS have now informed me that I can not get Bremsport disks for my car, so they are sending me a set of EBC grooved disks instead.

Has anyone used the EBC disks?, are they any good?.

Stuart

Fullonloon

Am using the Black Diamond/Mintex configuration as well.
Have had no problems, even under heavy breaking, they give good feedback and feel safe to me.