brake rotors/ drop/rims

karlmk3

New Member
Jul 18, 2009
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thornton
ok so im doing my suspension and my brakes and i my rotor are bad im looking for a good stock replacemnt or mild upgrade i dont have the money to do a big bake convesion.

2/ i like the coilovers mega ones that drift motion has but i will lose tems?
just looking for some ideas
 

hvyman

Dang Dude! No Way Man.
Staff member
Apr 17, 2007
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Fullerton,CA
coilovers>tems. quality shock with springs>tems. tems are nice to go from smooth ride to sportyness with the touch of the button.

you can get drilled rotors that will help dissipate heat better and some quality pads. slotted rotors will wear down the pads faster and iirc same with drilled. also iirc drilled can be machined once if you chamfer(sp) the holes. but both should be replaced rather than machined.

other than that stock brakes suck if you do autox or a lot of racing with hard stops. for every day driving there not half bad with good stock rotors and good pads.
 

kneedragger85

New Member
Sep 9, 2008
363
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Boulder, CO
1) I would just get your stockers turned and save up for a BBK since there's nothing worth getting in between.

2) I believe just about all of Tein's series of coilovers are compatible with their dampening control box which is a box that controls motors on each coilover to adjust the dampening from the drivers seat ect. I know nothing else about them nor have any experience sitting in a car with them.
 

TurboStreetCar

Formerly Nosechunks
Feb 25, 2006
2,776
3
38
Long Island, Ny
As it was said, quality coilovers are better then TEMS.

As far as brakes i would go with a factory solid rotor. Our cars are big heavy pigs, The rotors are not very large in diameter but there very thin for a car like ours.

Going with drilled and slotted rotors will take away from the rotor mass, this mass is what heats up when the brakes are applied. The drilled and slotted stock rotors may work better for easy stops as they allow the heat to dissipate but on hard stops they will overheat quicker and fade/warp faster.
 

bhmsupra

Supramania Contributor
May 29, 2008
529
1
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It's Not Important Bro
My pads were about shot and my rotors were original stock and rusted all to hell. Doing my replacements, I kept evrthing OEM. Went with Stoptech (actually made by pwr slot) slotted rotors, porterfield pads, ss brake line kit from DM and the GB master cylinder brace found here:

http://www.supramania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83131
The GB is over but the part can still be had from Wes.

All fresh brake fluids and even having my calipers powder coated.

If you dont have the jack for a BBK, this is about the best you can do IMO.
 
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Koenigturbo

Active Member
Oct 4, 2006
1,337
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Oxnard CA
hvyman;1503316 said:
coilovers>tems. quality shock with springs>tems. tems are nice to go from smooth ride to sportyness with the touch of the button.

you can get drilled rotors that will help dissipate heat better and some quality pads. slotted rotors will wear down the pads faster and iirc same with drilled. also iirc drilled can be machined once if you chamfer(sp) the holes. but both should be replaced rather than machined.

other than that stock brakes suck if you do autox or a lot of racing with hard stops. for every day driving there not half bad with good stock rotors and good pads.

You can't machine slotted rotors? Why not?
 

MkIIIDK

Nucking Foob
Jan 20, 2010
43
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0
Lake Zurich, IL
Koenigturbo;1503480 said:
You can't machine slotted rotors? Why not?

You'd go through quite a few bits. On top of that you'd reduce the effectiveness of the slots by shallowing the channels where the heat is dissipated, among other things, and most places won't machine drilled either. it can be done but its not very effective.
 

Keros

Canadian Bacon
Mar 16, 2007
825
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Calgary
The slot has a neglegable effect on pad wear characteristics... the slope of the slots and the incompressability of the brake pad material doesn't squeeze any decent amount of pad into the slot to be "cut off" as some would have you think. It's a myth.

Some people say slotted rotors dust more than regular rotors, but I could not find anyone who ran the same pads with both types of rotors and quantified the statement... thus, I will present to you that different pads dust different amounts regardless of what rotor is used.

The advantage of slots over drilled rotors is that the slots allow somewhere for gas build-up to go, but the slots also do not go through the entire disk. This allows the biggest advantage of drilled rotors without their major weakness: cracking.

There are NO cast drilled rotors available for the MkIII Supra. All rotors that are drilled were, at the time of manufacture, blank rotors (i.e. regular rotors). The blanks were then drilled with the hole pattern (hopefully in a manner that keeps all the veins in one peice. Consequently, if you buy drilled rotors, it's entirely possible to get a bum job.

Powerslot plated rotors are prime because they do NOT rust and possess the same characteristics or better of any other rotor available for the MkIII. Since rusty rotors don't shed heat very well, plated is the only way to go, IMHO.

As for this crap about the MkIII brakes sucking, they suck by reputation because people put cheap components on, don't bed in the brakes, don't change the fluid often enough, leaky master cylinder, or all of the above. Simply bedding in the brakes can net 20% more stopping power... probably the same amount one would gain putting on a BBK. And guess what! It's FREE.

Unless you have 500hp and track race it, the stock brake component sizes are quite enough to get the job done. I cannot fade my stock sized brakes on the street, as that by the time I've gotten up to speed to start braking again the brakes have cooled enough to handle that stop... and the next... and the next... ect. I've tried... It's impossible to fade my pad/rotor combo, as that the rest of the system will break down from heat and fail before the pads fade. The fluid will boil and the seals will melt, and I'm sure that the pad backing plate would probably melt too, possibly followed by the pad welding itself to the rotor if I were to come to a complete stop with the brakes at that temperature. But they wouldn't fade!

Even if someone was going to track race the car, I would tell them to put on some good pads and rotors and get out there. Replace them with a BBK when they aren't enough anymore. Tires and suspension will get better lap times than enormous brakes.
 

bhmsupra

Supramania Contributor
May 29, 2008
529
1
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It's Not Important Bro
Bedding??? Care to elaborate more on your methods.

I just installed Rotora rotors (made by powerslot) and Porterfield pads. Just been waiting on some dry weather to do the bedding. The information I used was found here:

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/tech_white_papers.shtml

I think the data on this site pertains mostly to their BBK's.

Any tips would be appreciated.
Hope I did not thread jack too bad.
 

Keros

Canadian Bacon
Mar 16, 2007
825
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0
Calgary
bhmsupra, I had a quick glance over that article, it pretty much hits the nail on the head. The best advice I can give you is how cruicial it is to not come to a complete stop until you've done all of your hard stops (the 60-10 stops that get closer and closer together) and you've really cooked 'em good and are confident that they're ready.

Also, tripping the ABS is just as bad as stopping, the disk will stop momentarily, the tires skid, and the ABS will take over and release the brakes. This is all VERY bad. What will happen is the brake pad will leave a stamped imprint of itself on the rotor, this spot will forever be a slightly harder metal with different heat characteristics than the rest of the rotor, this is called "ghosting". A slight ghost isn't a big disaster... but could one day lead to brake vibrations. Note that this may sound like an invitation to screwing up new brakes, but it's much easier to ghost a pad/rotor that hasn't been bedded. All those people who complain about 'warped rotors', guess why they have them? Yes, they ghosted their rotors. The imprint is not always visible to the naked eye, it depends on the pad composition.

Anyway, that said stop signs and traffic lights are your enemy. You'll have to get out to a long highway without stopping once the brand new pads/rotors are on. I recommend not stopping at all once you're going, you could use your ebrake if you really have to stay put at a stop sign. Perhaps do it at night so there's less traffic. I came to a town unintentionally when I was bedding mine and had to turn around... leaving a very slight ghost in my driver's side rotor. No big deal, but was teh sux.

The process itself is pretty straightfoward... it's actually getting (to) a place to do it that's not easy.
 

bhmsupra

Supramania Contributor
May 29, 2008
529
1
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It's Not Important Bro
thnx keros. That is a good tip regarding the e-brake that I had not thought of nor did Stop-Tech mention. Ghosting is a fitting term as well... All makes sense sir.

I get to break in my brakes and new ACT stage II clutch tonight maybe yeaaa. I just did not have the "jack" or the "need" for a BBK.
 
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Keros

Canadian Bacon
Mar 16, 2007
825
0
0
Calgary
Don't use the e-brake to slow down, just to stop from rolling at a stop sign. Drive real easy and slow until you get the bedding done. You don't want to warm the brakes at all until you're ready. Obviously, do what you have to do to be safe.

Before you get to bedding the brakes, try to avoid A) getting the brakes warm (just using them does this, so use your engine to slow you down as much as possible) and B) having the pads touch the rotor if the rotor isn't turning. Use the e-brake, as I said... but don't let it get hot by using it to actually slow you down.

Sorry for the thread jack, but I hope this info helps someone else.
 

TurboStreetCar

Formerly Nosechunks
Feb 25, 2006
2,776
3
38
Long Island, Ny
Keros: What you speak of the stop brakes is true, though they still suck. I have properly bed in new pads on brand new rotors. The car stops just fine, and will do it in a hurry but, and this is the but, the brake rotors are too thin to handle the heat generated by stopping this car. In one moderate slowdown from 80-90mph my brakes are groaning/steering wheel shaking from the heat. As I keep driving it completely goes away as they have ab opportunity to cool.

The benifit of a big brake kit isn't so much the extra stopping force but it's the larger thicker rotor can hold more heat and dissapate it faster.