Those of you who have my TC kit know I like to do things and do them right.

I did my brakes this weekend ('03 2.5 Auto) and here's why and what I found.

My brakes felt a little mushy and a little weak. They didn't give me much confidence and once when I had to really get on them they just didn't grab. Plus, the pedal seemed to be a bit low and on long highway trips they seemed to fade a bit.

After much research, I bought a set of EBC Redstuf front and rear pads and a set of four EBC slotted rotors from Jeg's. I also got a can of ATE SL6 brake fluid. (Get the blue fluid, easier to see, same price)

First, my rotors looked pretty good and I was amazed to see that the pads looked almost new! Very little wear! So why were the brakes so crummy?

Anyway, off came the pads & rotors (Use the JTIS Manual you get on CD or download. Just follow the instructions) One tip I have here; break the bleeder's loose to retract he caliper pistons so you don't force fluid backward through the anti-lock breaks. I have an old brake bleeder, basically a one-way valve on a piece of clear tubing, and I used a glass jar to bleed the system Another tip; break the bleeder valves loose with an 11mm socket then use an open end wrench to do the bleeding. Finally, sock them tight again with the socket. That way you won't round off the little buggers.

I cleaned the rotors three times with brake cleaner and paper towels till the paper towels came off the rotor clean.

I sanded the hub lightly where the rotor fits to get off the small amounts of rust and scale and brushed the mating surface LIGHTLY with Never-Seize in case they ever have to come off again.

JTIS says not to reuse the bolts that hold on the calipers and carriers, but my local dealer didn't have new bolts and a service tech at the dealer said he never replaced bolts so, I reused my bolts. I used blue LocTite so they'd stay put and still be removable and torqued them to spec.

I flushed the entire system and reinstalled the road wheels using Never-Seize on the lug nuts and a torque wrench to get them to spec.

Then I took the car to a local industrial park and did the five stops from 40mph with one minute in between for cooling.

The result: they work flawlessly. Absolutely dead silent, high pedal, quick grab, no fading.

If you've heard that Redstuf and/or slotted rotors are noisy, they are not. If you've heard that the slotted rotors can shudder they don't. If you've heard that Redstuf Ceramic pads take a long time to seat or are hard to seat, they don't and aren't.

Bottom line: do the job carefully and pay attention to details (including using a torque wrench whenever there is a torque spec (INCLUDING LUG NUTS!!!!) and you'll find that things work as expected.

And by the way, the most important thing I did was flush the system and replace the fluid. If you have a low pedal or spongy feel or fading or low braking, start with a fluid change. You will be amazed at the difference. Then change your brake fluid at least every two years (I'll do mine every year from now on, cheap insurance and instant brake upgrade) and you will be pleasantly surprised at how good the brakes are on your X-Type. And by the way, never, and I mean NEVER, use Dot5 fluid. In anything.3

Hope this is useful to you guys.

Wild-Bill

 

Thanks, very helpful. I just changed my pads a month ago because I thought breaking was getting kinda weak, and to my surprise it changed almost nothing. I think I could go back to my old pads and wouldn't notice the difference.

 

As Wild Bill notes, draining and refilling the brake fluid is an important aspect of the job that is often overlooked. I use ATE Super Blue and flush every year and a half or so. This keeps you from getting the spongy pedal due to moisture in the brake lines.

I also have the EBC setup and I am quite pleased.

A great tip on using Loc-tite on the caliper bolts. I had one come loose one time and actually fell out and spun the caliper into the inside of the wheel and locked it up, thankfully at very low speed. The dealers usually don't carry the bolts in stock from what I remember. (this was before I ever touched the brakes, so somebody didn't do the job right).

A touch of anti-seize on the hub after you clean them up real good is also a good thing - unless you like to beat the back of your tire with a BFH.

Good stuff Wild Bill.

 

Nice informative post as always Bill

 

I am looking forward to my brake upgrade. I am currently waiting on the big brown truck to show up at my house with 4 new slotted/drilled rotors and ceramic pads. Should complement nicely with the new wider tires (Falken 235/45R17's) I just had installed. Should hopefully be able to get the car to stand up on the front bumper.

Don't worry, pics are coming soon of the new tires.

 

Which Falkens did you get Thermo? I had the Ziex 512's in that same size before and they were terrible. Couldn't get them to balance for crap and after about 4k mi they were extremely noisy and wore out quickly after that. I hope you didn't get those....

I'm much happier with my Hankook Ventus V4's.

 

Chris X, I went with the ZE-912's. Reading the reviews of the tire on Tirerack.com, they have been getting pretty high marks. But, let me get some miles on the car and I will give some feedback. If the rain stops in the area, I am going to going out and converting the side marker lights to LEDs too. That will be an easy project.

 

Cool, I'd be interested to see a little write-up on those marker lights if you get a chance when they are done.

 

Did you get the rubberized fiberglass stick-on pads for the back of the pads and did you apply them? My Redstuf pads came with these stick-on backing pads. They had to be cut down with a razor knife and a hole made in ones for the the rear pads for a small stud on the back of the pad. Those are absolutely necessary.

Also, did your slides work? They are the things that the caliper (not the retainer) bolts fit in. You had to take one out to swing back the caliper and replace the pads.

Did you use new bolts or LocTite? Did you use a torque wrench on the retainer and caliper bolts AND the lug nuts?

Did you use anti-seize (or some other lubricant) on the lug nuts? Did you scrape and clean the area where the back of the rotor sits? A small amount of corosion there will make the pads sit out-of-square to the centerline of the axel causing runout.

Just a few thoughts on why you may have some problems. I hope this helps.

Bill

 

what are the specs on these?

 

Great post. Thanks for all the info