brake upgade?????

donk · rice boy Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 29

has anyone upgraded their brakes with dba006x drilled/slotted rotors. do these things go straight on as a replacement or do you have to modify. can you use the original calipers and pads or do you need to upgrade.the one's i am talking about are in the shop section. any help will be appreciated. thanks..

Gold TX Sleeper · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Feb 2002 Posts: 509

No other mods should be necesarry, other than a simple upgrade in the pad department as the slots chew at the pads a little more eg. Bendix premium or Ultimate or Performax (they keep changing the name for reasons i cant be bothered getting into). I personally see no point in getting the cross-drilled rotors unless of course you plan on curcuit racing each weekend, or you engage in a fair bit of street racing (like, every day and night). They're pretty much going to be cosmetic if you drive like a typical Gem driver, i'd more recommend the slotted rotors with above said pads and a DOT 4 or 5 fluid.
Cheers,
Jasyn...
P.S I personally haven't fitted the DBA rotors yet, but i have talked to many a brake specialst over the last 3 months about my options in this department.

donk · rice boy Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 29

thanks for the info. the car in question is to be used for rallying, autocross, that sort of thing. it does a lot of hard k's most of the time and was thinking of upgradeing due to bad brake performance. i'll look in to it. thanks.

Adam · Site Admin Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 682

Hiya donk,

Okay, the DBA slotted rotors will make a small improvement, but if you are going to be competing, gemini brakes are just physically too small.

First questions first... your brakes at the moment, what is performing badly? Do they fade (pedal hard, but the car won't stop)? Boil (pedal goes soft and drops to the floor)? Is the feel bad or does one end lock up too soon?

If you are going to compete in speed events, you'll want bigger brakes, there are a couple of options, one mob does 10.5 inch rotors with volvo 4 spots, Mark from this forum does 10.5 inch rotors with commodore calipers.

macca · tinkerer Joined: 17 Oct 2001 Posts: 179

Hey Donk

I have got DBA Golds they stop better than standard
but I will have to upgrade when I turbo my Gem I am
going to go with commodore rotors and calipers

cheers

Macca

TXcoupe · petrol head Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 1675

yeah im circut racing i have to sets of brakes im choosing from atm

i have the dba s;otted ( havent tried them yet) and i have the kit for the vented front discs that progem or to tuff runs.
and i have another option to run full commodore setu[p for a complete price of $650

donk · rice boy Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 29

thanks for info, firstly i'm using ferodo excel pads on standard rotors at the moment. the first set lasted for roughly 7-8 thousand km although they are meant to be good for 20k. the booster just croaked it but has been replaced. i also replaced the proportioning vavle as that was getting stuck and only feeding the rear brakes. the pedal gets a lot of fade fairly quickly. secondly, i realise that the standard rotors are probably too small but was looking for options rather than a full transplant. trying to run on a shoe string budget (like most people). are the x/drilled the way to go or will i have to go the whole hog so to speak?. just a note on the p valve, the rear brakes are fine and were only affected for a short time until it was replaced.

cheers.

Ben Wight · backyard mechanic Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 946

I had good sucess with completely standard everything (but in good condition), but with Bendix ultimates on the front. I could do several hot laps of calder and about 3 of winton before fade set in. The last time I raced at Calder, after they faded, I inspected the ultimates and it appeard I had pretty much melted the edges, so the solid front disks are not that good for continual circulation of a track.

If you currently have bad brake performance whilst driving normally, then something is wrong, usually the rear brakes aren't adjusted correctly, often just air in the lines somewhere.

The standard brakes are actually pretty good, but I spose that also depends on how hard you can comfortably step on the pedal. I would not go past the standard brakes for rallying, or short events such as hillclimbs.

I have since converted to ventilated front disks with bigger comodore single pistons calipers, due to the fade issues, but have not raced yet, so cant really recommend the setup.

Ben Wight

Ben Wight · backyard mechanic Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 946

The DBA rotors are virtually identical dimensions to the standard rotor, they are made as a bolt on replacement item.

donk · rice boy Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 29

i have yet to put in the new pads,(ferodos). i'll bleed the lot and take it for a run. hopefully the new booster will make a difference. will keep you posted, thanks for the help. i'll try to get it done tomorrow and see how i go..