Brake upgrade?

[Nick260890]

as im sure your all awear that toyota starlet brakes a pretty shite lol so i was wondering if there was an easy fix to this?

is it possible that you can simply bolt on different callipers and discs off another car? such as a toyota celica GT4 or something else maybe?

cus this would help me out and save me some cash so i dont go spending hundreds on a brake upgrade??

thanks

 

[azerty]

yes, there are quite few options and tons of info on the forum
ST185 brakes, Levin superstruts...
Have a search on the forum with those at first, you find few post wich we lead you to all options available

 

[dark_knight]

brake failure?

while on this topic, has anyone ever had total stock brake failure on a general daily drive, not when thrashing the car on the track..? i have on OEM brakes but each time people bring up this topic, i get jitters since i would not like to loose my brakes at any point..

i do the occasional sprint around twisty and windy roads but have never had brake fade..

 

[dac69er]

stock brakes arent shite. give them a good overhaul/service and fit some decent discs and pads and replace the brake fluid for some decent spec stuff and they will be fine.

alot of starlets have knackered half siezed brakes so when owners upgrade to something else the difference is amazing.

 

[dark_knight]

OEM brakes

@dac69er: how true. i can only speak for myself and have never had brake issues however hard i push the car for however long.. but again, i am meticulous with my tune-up and service. running mintex pads (front only) on stock rotors all round with dot 4 fluid. i do all the granny driving habits of braking sooner rather than later too.. lol

 

[azerty]

I have broken 2 pair of standard discs, and one pair of 3G slotted
So I can confirm standard brake are the wickest part of the starbo. (especialy cause rotors are way too thin)
Also after 3 strong brake, they are faded and very unsafe, even with performance pads... (I have tried pagid, Mintex, TRD...)
Bigger brake would be the first thing I would uprade if I had to buy a new starbo

 

[dark_knight]

carbon ceramic brake comparison

@azerty: you must be;
a) a super mad performance driver with an elephant brake foot
or
b) you've had lots of bad luck..

i do agree with you that the brakes are not aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall that (performance-wise), but they do work. i have to admit though, we buy the starbo and expect supercar performance from it.. .. if you plan to be pushing the car that hard then please go ahead and get a brake transplant. best to be safer than sorry..

 

[dac69er]

i have been in a mates 300bhp starlet. he runs stock rotors with uprated pads and he gets no fade on the track and never had trouble with discs.

 

[dark_knight]

minimum rotor thickness

i think a good point to remember and add to this conversation would be, when shopping for your starbo, brake rotor thickness would be one of the things on the check-list that should not be overlooked. given that these cars are often in their late teens when they get to us, it is a little expected for them to have run down brake rotors. always worth checking the thickness. not sure what the minimum thickness in mm is but someone may shed light on that..

 

[azerty]

i have been in a mates 300bhp starlet. he runs stock rotors with uprated pads and he gets no fade on the track and never had trouble with discs.

this must be a very slow track I would certainly not go in a modified starlet which still has standard brake.

extra info, when I broke my standard rotors, my starlet was still fully standard (133 hp)
and this was just road use. (now my starlet has become a racecar but brakes have been uprated a long time before I started to do any race event)
I have seen may other starlets with same cracking prob on standard rotors. In mauritius loads of starlet have uprated their brake cause they were tired to brake rotors failure aswell.
Weather might be one of the factors, I don't really know

about minimum thinkness, I beleive this is the main problem yes, but IMO, standard thickness is already too thin. starlet would have needed to come with 22mm discs from factory (instead of standard 18mm)

 

[dark_knight]

upgrade mandatory

@azerty: we totally agree with you.. well, at least i do. no argument there. just saying that we tend to expect supercar performance from these pocket rockets.. & most times push them way past their safety and performance envelopes. worse still, most people focus so much on the engine and power! power! power.. but not many remember that suspension and brakes also play a part in the overall performance..

 

[azerty]

^ I do heavily agrea with your last statement
(BTW, there is no arguments, only sharing our experience. this is what the forum is all about, each one will have different experience to share )

 

[dark_knight]

rotor failure

@azerty: tru tru..
i'm curious. when your rotors broke/shattered, did it damage anything else as it went out..?

 

[azerty]

I changed them just before they colapsed in few parts. Let's say I have been lucky, as on two of them, only the part where studs fit were not cracked. I realy don't want to imagine what would have happen if a part of the disc would have gone of !

 

[dark_knight]

angels

very close call you lucky bastard.. your angels must have been scalding their bottoms sitting on your hood protecting you from the failing brake rotors..

 

[Turbobell]

I'd like some input on here too, there's so many different write ups on do's and dont's of brake conversions! I considered levins, then st185s, now GT4 callipers, but I don't know if its me being thick nobody really seems 100% on THE way to do it........ So much so I may hold out for some second hand willwoods??

 

[aidan]

easiest way to put the levin brakes on is to use the levin disks aswell but shave a few mm off the diameter of the disk

 

[Turbobell]

that's exactly what i mean though aidan..... a few mm?

 

[aidan]

best way is to take a few mm off then check it if more is needed to come off take another few mm i think its 5 or 6 mm

 

[Paul_JJ]

@dac69er: how true. i can only speak for myself and have never had brake issues however hard i push the car for however long.. but again, i am meticulous with my tune-up and service. running mintex pads (front only) on stock rotors all round with dot 4 fluid. i do all the granny driving habits of braking sooner rather than later too.. lol

Get DOT 5.1 - so much better then DOT 4 and doesn't absorb any water!

If you want to look at brake fluids from a chemical standpoint DOT 3 fluids are based on glycol and glycol esters. DOT 4 fluids are much like DOT 3 fluids, but also contain borate esters. There is another rating called DOT 5.1 that consists of borate esters.