I've been looking into improving the braking and braking "feel" of my s2k. I have approximately 25k on the car now and the brakes are getting to the point of replacement.

What I would like to know is, by replacing the brake fluid with say ATE/Motul, swapping the lines for steel braided, and replacing the pads(most likely OEM pads); will the car show any improvement? Or, is it just a waste if you don't update the entire system with a big brake kit? Specifically, I'm not looking to drop like 15 feet on my stops, I'm just looking for some better performance if there is some to be found in this application.

Thanks for reading.

 

In general if you can get your tires to lock up, you don't need bigger brakes. You could slightly improve the feel though with a couple changes. Lot's of people run Super Blue Brake Fluid that will prevent it from overheating after a couple hard runs at the track/Dragon. Diff pad may give a little different feel as well. Some have a little more noise, some won't overheat/fade as easily, and many just produce more brake dust and wear out quicker.

Edit: I changed my brake pads(OEM) and went to the Super Blue fluid around 28K miles and I've been happy with it, feels like new.

 

You won't likely improve your stopping distance unless you improve your tires, but you can increase the "grabbiness" of the brake pads by switching to a compound with a higher coefficient of friction, like Cobalt GT-Sports. They dust a lot more however.

 

ATE/Motul/etc fluid (DOT 4 or 5) and steel braided lines would help in racing/track events where you are a lot harder on the system due to heavy, repeated braking from higher speeds. they help keep the fluid at lower temperatures and more constant pressure so the brake feel/performance does not change as much over race distances. for normal driving on the street, i doubt if you will notice any difference.

if you want to stop quicker, you need better pads or bigger brakes. the pads are a less expensive way to go. a street/track pad will stop better, but a tradeoff may be it could be a little dirtier or squeal when cold. big brake kits work wonders, they use the mechanical advantage of the leverage of a larger diameter disc as well as usually larger pads and more pistons (better clamping force) to haul down the speed.

i wonder if you need to be careful since doing only fronts could upset balance, i.e. stock brake balance is say 70 front, 30 rear. with bigger fronts it changes to 80 front, 20 rear, meaning it could get tail happy quicker than you are used to. inever thought much about it when i had the wilwood front kit on my '00, also had carbotech p+ on the oem rear set.

 

Thanks for all the great information. The three above replies answered my questions completely. I'll go the route of brake flush with some ATE or Motul and swap in some new pads. New tires are on the way also. Thanks for the help guys.

 

You might be interested in the Stoptech Stage 1 upgrade as a possible alternative: http://www.gofastlab.com/s2ki/product.php?...6&cat=31&page=1 It's been designed for applications such as yours.

Different pads/fluids/lines will have varying impacts on brake feel alhough none of these is going to shorten stopping distances for the street. The only way to shorten braking distances, if you can already lockup the tires with the stock system, is by going to stickier tires. The only thing a kit with more clamping force will do is make the brakes lock up that much sooner which extends braking distances. The primary use of larger brake kits is to dissipate the extra heat built up under track conditions; the secondary use is bling bling for the street

 

project mu titan kai brake pads...nuff said...

 

OK

 

Just so no one takes this comment seriously, the co-eff. of friction on those pads are probably less than stock pads or about the same. So basically it's a waste of money and you can probably suffer from increased braking distances...nuff said...

 

They state their cf all over the map so who really knows what it is but more important it's marketed as a full-race pad. Even if it was any good as such, it's not better than other offerings at 1/2 the price....and certainly not the right choice for a street car under any conditions.