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Brake options/upgrade


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I know a good number of folks have changed out from stock rotors/pads. I'm looking for some feedback on how you like them over stock/Napa brake set

 

I'm looking at

Power Stop Z23 Evolution Sport Brake Upgrade Kits K7357 Which is ~$300 bucks for rotors and pads at all 4 corners

 

EBC red stuff pads which are ~$100 bucks for the rear set. They don't show having either rotors or front pads for the H4

 

The full set of OEMs from Subaru is $550. So I was leaning towards the Z23 evolution kit.

 

1. How much noisier does it get with the Z23s being cross drilled?

2. Are you happy with the upgrade or do you think it may not have been the right choice?

3. Any other options to consider?

 

If I want to keep cost low, I am also contemplating a swapparoo between the legacy and OB rear pads. Move the Legacy's rear pads (~15000 mi) over to the OB which has 3mm left; upgrade the legacy rear pads to the power stop now; and do the full brake job on the OB once the front's are toast as well (5mm left) and upgrade the rotors and pads on the legacy at a later time.

 

Am I over thinking this? Is there an obvious downside to moving a set of pads from one set of rotors to another which I'm overlooking, other that the wear pattern on the pad being different and eating up a little more pad in the beginning before it sets to the other rotor?

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I did the cross drilled/slotted when I did the fronts. Never again. Noisy. I could feel the difference when pressing the paddle.

 

I did like the red stuff and will be using the red stuff again for my current car.

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As far as practical performance, the OEM set up is perfectly suited to do its job. Max brake pressure often results in ABS turning on which means the tires are the limiting factor for stopping performance. From what I have read(but have not verified myself), Akebono seems to be the manufacture of the OEM pads. You can get these pads from RockAuto for ~$40 for each the front and back set. I'm completely happy with OEM as I have well over half of the pads remaining (about 2mm of wear on the front and back) at 53,000 miles.

 

As far as rotors, drilled/slotted can sometimes increase brake pad temperature if they are not designed properly. For the price premium, you probably won't see any daily driving improvement. If you want them more for the looks, then that's a valid enough excuse for me lol. Good luck on your choice!

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As far as practical performance, the OEM set up is perfectly suited to do its job. Max brake pressure often results in ABS turning on which means the tires are the limiting factor for stopping performance. [emphasis added]

Quoted for truth. Heat capacity of the rotors can also be a limiting factor during "spirited" driving or in mountainous areas, but that can be mitigated by intelligent driving technique. The OE brake components are fully adequate for normal street/highway use.

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." ~ The Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)

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Thanks for the replies. Wasn't really looking for a performance improvement. I know I got a Legacy and not a wrx :) The reason I was looking outside factory was to have less brake dust and a cheaper option.

 

Even the POWER STOP CRK7357 Evolution Geomet® Coated Kit for both axles was $199 at rockauto (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10467928&jsn=2793) vs the subaru parts store price of ~$550

If I was doing the job myself, I get new rotors and pads for 200 bucks. I'm going to take measurements of the rotors tomorrow, but at 200 bucks and having everything open, I'm thinking I'll just change the rotors too...

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Took measurements of the rotors and they read 30.6/30mm on the fronts and 17.2mm on the rears. The usable range is 30-28 and 17-15. Debating if I should hand sand them (just to remove old wear patterns), slap on a set of powerstop ceramic pads for under 70 bucks and call it a day!
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I would just leave them alone and put the new pads on. No point in changing a perfectly good OEM rotor if you haven't been having issues with it.

 

Just take note of the proper procedure for dealing with the rears/parking brake assuming you have to retract the rotor piston in order to get the pads to fit. Otherwise it should be a 30 minute job for the whole car and you're done! If you're feeling ambitious, grease the caliper slide pins and bleed the brakes to get some fresh fluid in there while you have the wheels off.

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I'll try these Rear Rotors out and let you know..3f0c006c0bc213d64bcb3554b3d94507.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

That's a cool looking rotor :)

 

Just ordered the POWER STOP CRK7357 Z17 Evolution Geomet® Coated Brake Kit from Rockauto. Should show up next week and probably install it in the beginning of November to match the switch over to winters.

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Couple of noobie doing a brake job for the first time questions;

 

Assuming that I slide the flat plate from the back and stick the adapter on the front. The little sheet that came in the box said #7 adapter for subaru, I'll confirm this after I take the caliper out.

 

And as confirmed by ammcinnis, turn clockwise to get the plunger back in; I'd use the RH.

 

Also, the POWER STOP CRK7357 kit came with front pads PN:161521 (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4293483&jsn=__GIP__4) Looking at the details, it shows the pad thickness to be 17.30mm

Does anyone know if this is the right pad for the MY15Legacy 2.5 Limited?

 

Reason I ask is because I ordered pads for my MY16 Outback 3.6R Ltd as well, and those pads were PN: POWER STOP 171078 and their site shows these to be 16.40 mm thick (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4292643&cc=3338258&jsn=40)

And the shape and size of both sets of pads are the same.

 

Thought the 3.6s came with bigger front brakes than the 2.5 and I found it odd that the pad thickness on the 2.5 would be larger than the 3.6.

 

Trying to make sure I got the right parts before I take things apart and they don't all fit.

 

Will be calling RockAuto tomorrow to confirm, would appreciate if someone here has some insights :)

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... turn clockwise to get the plunger back in ...

You rotate and push the rear caliper pistons to retract them; you just push the front caliper pistons straight back in.

 

I don't know about the front pads. Seems like there was a difference between 2.5 vs. 3.6 variants. You might want to check to see if the OE Subaru part numbers are the same or different.

 

N.B. Don't expect the thread pitch on your tool to match the pitch of the rear caliper piston.

Edited by ammcinnis

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." ~ The Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)

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Finally got around to installing the rotors and pads this past weekend. What I thought was going to take me a day ended up taking me two and a little.

 

Posting this write up here, so it'll hopefully help the next person.

 

Friday:

Took a quick peek behind the front brake to check the socket sizes. Made the run to home depot to pick up the final things I thought I needed - Vinil tube for bleeding the brakes, 8 thru 12 mm wrenches

Prepare my fancy one person brake fluid bleeder kit with an old milk can.

Later in the evening, after getting off work ~4, I decided I was going to start with the passenger rear side. I knew I was going to have surprises (to me) once I took things apart; that way I could make the second store run at night if I needed to.

Bleeding worked out great with the 10 mm wrench. The fluid didn't look too bad.

Took me a little but to figure out how to get the dust cover off to access the caliper slider pins. Once that came out, I found that the caliper pins on the rears use a hex key. Luckily I had a hex socket set from my ducati days :)

Once the caliper was out and hung to the side, started with the caliper bracket which were 14 mm bolts, and the little 3/8" to 1/4" adapter for my socket wrench snapped. Those bolts were on pretty solid.

At this point I was a couple of hours in and it was getting dark, so I called it a night.

 

Saturday ~10 am:

Make myself some coffee and go for the planned home depot run. Return the wrenches I didn't need and picked up the 14 mm 3/8" and 1/2" sockets.

Was able to get my long 1/2" wrench in there and get the bolts to turn. The rest was pretty straight forward. Cleaned up the rust on the brackets and hub. applied anti-seize lube on the hub and put everything back together.

Now that I got one done; I felt confident the other 3 will go faster.

 

After lunch, I get the driver side rear done; easy-peezy this time :) Took me probably an hour ish to bleed, clean and put it back together.

 

Move to the fronts now, and there was my next set of surprises. The caliper bracket was not a 14 mm bolt! And the 17-1521 pads that came in the kit were not the right ones (even after confirming with powerstop customer care earlier in the week); Luckily I had the 17-1078 I got for the OB and those did fit. Get the calipers out on both sides, bleed the lines and called it a night; the pistons were really rusty :spin:

Out for drinks after a long day :)

 

Sunday ~11 am:

Start off with the regular homedepot run. Pick up 15 thru 18 sockets and get going. Another surprise awaited :eek: There was another bolt in the way and I needed a 17 mm deep socket :eek:

Second homedepot run; returned the other sizes and picked up the deep socket and a 3" extension bar just in case.

The deep socket worked and I got the bracket off, cleaned it all up and started putting the driver side together. I couldn't for the life of me get the stainless steel hardware that came to fit, so I left them out.

In between all of this I did the oil change and changed the engine and cabin air filters.

 

At about 4 I was all done and set for the break in process. The rotors did get pretty hot and smelly after.

 

All in all ~20 miles and 2 days in, they feel good and I still feel sore from sitting on the concrete garage floor on my shins and knees.

 

Stuff I forgot or left out:

loctite on the caliper bracket bolts. Will need to check on them when I pull the wheels off for the winter set switch. But they were on pretty solid, don't think its a big deal.

Stainless steel hardware on the fronts. didn't have the patience at the time. Will need to figure out what real purpose they serve and if I need to put them back in.

 

What would I do differently: Get a freaking yoga mat for the garage :)

 

Rockauto confirmed that they had the wrong part for the legacy front pads on their site and will be sending those back.

 

For reference future reference, the power stop 1521 style pads don't fit either the 15 Legacy 2.5 Limited or the 16 3.6 R Outback.

Thought the fronts were different between the 2.5 and 3.6 models, but I couldn't really narrow down what that is. Subaru parts have different part numbers for the front rotors and pads between the two, but power stop says they are interchangeable...

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After reading up a bit on the stainless steel hardware; apparently they are there to allow the pads to easily spring away from the rotor when brake pressure is not applied which prevents over heating and the pads from wearing too soon. Don't know the factual basis of this, but there were quiet a few articles that popped up when I did a quick search. Thinking of the rust gunk that was all over the caliper brackets that I had cleaned away and the surface of the bracket itself being rough, I figured it could very well be the case a few thousand miles down the road.

 

Put the stuff in during lunch and breaks between meetings today. Needed a bit of patience, but its all done now :)

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