Does anyone elses brakes suck?
 

I upgraded my brakes to ceramic hawk pads and slotted powerslot rotors front and rear.
It still has that slight spongy feel to brake pedal and same average stopping power.

Anyone else experience this with their upgrades or even stock system?
I bleeded my brakes twice in one day and still no stiffness to the brake pedal.

How did you bleed them? IIRC, people claim better results with a vacuum bleeder over gravity.

did you bed the pads in properly? FWIW hawk ceramic pads are nothing special and i wonldnt expect much better than stock.

bled the brakes or flushed? and with what fluid?

Pads won't fix the LGT's spongy brake pedal. You'll need to upgrade the master cylinder and/or brake booster for that, and maybe the calipers as well. And those Hawks aren't much of a pad upgrade.

^ what this guy said.

With hawk ceramics you wont see much upgrade over stock. They do need to be bedded in following the hawk procedure. The cooldown aspect is very important.

As for "spongy" feel this is a debate that has been going on as long as there have been subies. Ss lines, brake flush, and good pads will all contribute to a better brake experience.

On my LGT when i was road racing it, i wore both brembos as well as stock calipers in the front and the pedal feel and braking abilities with all other factorsbeing equal, was very close to each other.

Hawk HPS or Hawk HP+ pads are Our street pads of choice.

-mike

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Ok, i dont know why this isnt more common knowledge. I also dont know why everyone in this thread didnt immediately say this.

But, THE problem first and foremost for the spunginess of OEM LGT brakes is the oem master cylinder and booster. Change to STI units, dont change anything else, and you will have a completely new brakeing system. The pedal is firm, take up is minimal, modulation go from below poor to excellent.

Regardless of what you may read, there are only 3 things you need turn your brakes from shit to great.
1) Swap to an sti master and booster.
2) Change Oem pads to a decent set of street pads
3) A good bleed just to be sure. Fancy fluid/fancy bleeding techniques NOT required.

SS lines, fancy rotors, 1 billion degree boiling point fluid...for a track car sure, for a street car dont waste your time.

all you need is #2 and #3

#1 changes the feel and mush by a multiple of 20 of #2 and #3, i wouldnt listen to white in this case.(as the OP found out, and anyone else who goes down this path will find out to)

Pads and fluid simply doesnt cut it for the LGT. Sub par.

lue - Have you changed the brake fluid since '05? I changed my fluid and upgraded to SS brake lines last year and made a nice noticeable difference in pressure. As everyone else mention, the HPS will grip better over the ceramics.

Make sure you keep your brake ducts unblocked..............








:hide:

HA!^

Well played, you should be just fine if you do though. ;)

So you're saying what a multiple time race winner says about brakes is wrong? And that everyone else who has the OEM booster and master but upgraded lines, pads and rotors is doing it wrong?:spin:

i want to make sure we are on the same page bolk, but i am refering to pedal feel, removing the intial mush, pedal pressure, and modulation, not braking performance(what white suggested WILL improve performance, you can do more laps with better brake performance as things start to heat up).


Exactly what im saying, no offense to white, but he wouldnt be the first time race winner that may have been behind the ball on a certain subject. What he suggested will provide the performance benefit you want, but not the pedal pressure, feel, and modulation that you know you are lacking.



Look im sure you respect whites opinion, and for good reason. But in this case hes wrong.

Or hey, if you think im wrong, prove how upgradeing to the sti units doesnt improve the feel and pedal. Im all ears.

Ill be glad to explain why a pad change and fluid flush has negligable gains when it comes to improving "mush".