Brake Mods in STS?

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:41 am

I thought at one time that STX allowed you to jump up to bigger brakes, but that STS does not. Does anyone know this off the top of their head? Thanks!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:49 am

PhilFausz wrote:

I thought at one time that STX allowed you to jump up to bigger brakes, but that STS does not. Does anyone know this off the top of their head? Thanks!

STS- Stock Brakes

STX- Upgraded brakes

Jeb Brookshire · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:28 pm

Ryan Holton wrote:

PhilFausz wrote:

I thought at one time that STX allowed you to jump up to bigger brakes, but that STS does not. Does anyone know this off the top of their head? Thanks!

STS- Stock Brakes

STX- Upgraded brakes

I do beleive that you can have braided lines drilled or slotted rotors and upgraded pads, just no big brake kits/upgraded calipers.

I may be wrong, just ask my wife...

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:40 pm

Phil,

Just curious. Did you feel you needed to upgrade the brakes on your Civic? I know the Honda is not know for having big brakes, but I always felt my brakes were pretty decent. Especially for autocross. Even for my one and only track day, with good pads I was happy with the stock brakes.

The only thing I ever thought about was doing a rear drum to rotor/caliper conversion.

Richard

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:26 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

Phil,

Just curious. Did you feel you needed to upgrade the brakes on your Civic?

I think the brakes on my 1987 CRX SI were great, but these are no where near the stopping power of that car. The rotors and pads are very close to the same size. I'll take a look at them again this winter to see if I can spot anything.

Now I have had others say that the brakes feel fine from the passenger seat, but I don't get that feeling from the drivers seat.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:19 pm

what type of maintenance work have you done with them? When is hte last time you changed the fluid? What pads are you using?

It would be interesting to look at the parts catalog and see if there is much (if any) difference between the CRX Si brakes and the Civic Si brakes.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:54 pm

Make sure your rear drums are adjusted properly.

I've owned three (sigh) 88-91 CRX Sis over the years, and raced a fourth in endurance races a couple years ago. They pretty much all had crappy feeling brakes, at least compared to something like my S2000 (or to your outgoing M3).

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:18 am

Richard Casto wrote:

It would be interesting to look at the parts catalog and see if there is much (if any) difference between the CRX Si brakes and the Civic Si brakes.

The big difference is that the CRX I had (1st Gen) weighed about 1950 lbs where the civic hatchback I now have weighs nearly 2300 lbs.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:46 am

PhilFausz wrote:

Richard Casto wrote:

It would be interesting to look at the parts catalog and see if there is much (if any) difference between the CRX Si brakes and the Civic Si brakes.

The big difference is that the CRX I had (1st Gen) weighed about 1950 lbs where the civic hatchback I now have weighs nearly 2300 lbs.

WHOA!!!! What year Civic? Those things shouldnt weight THAT much!

Karl is right, adjusting the rear drums helps a TON!

Redshift Motorsports wrote:

These cars are notorious for having bad brakes. But the brakes on my cars are amazing!!! Here's why. You have to make sure the hardware is new. The old worn out brakes will feel horrible. Get good street pads for the front and new OEM style rotors. Get stock rear shoes and new drums. And service the front and rear calipers and cylinders. New hardware will solve a mushy brake pedal, and it's not too expensive. Also, swap out the rubber lines on the car with Stainless Steel lines. And bleed the crap out of it to make sure NO air is in there.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:46 am

One of these will make the work a lot less awful.

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:55 am

Ryan Holton wrote:

WHOA!!!! What year Civic? Those things shouldnt weight THAT much!

Karl is right, adjusting the rear drums helps a TON!

Redshift Motorsports wrote:

These cars are notorious for having bad brakes. But the brakes on my cars are amazing!!! Here's why. You have to make sure the hardware is new. The old worn out brakes will feel horrible. Get good street pads for the front and new OEM style rotors. Get stock rear shoes and new drums. And service the front and rear calipers and cylinders. New hardware will solve a mushy brake pedal, and it's not too expensive. Also, swap out the rubber lines on the car with Stainless Steel lines. And bleed the crap out of it to make sure NO air is in there.

I haven't weighed it, but that's what I've found in multiple places. If it's on the internet, it's got to be true, right?

I remember reading this. There is a good chance that all I did two years ago was replace the pads and rotors. I've got a ton of maintenance work to catch up on this car anyway.

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:57 am

Karl Shultz wrote:

One of these will make the work a lot less awful.

I got one back when I did the M3's brakes, not sure how I did that mess without it now!

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