best bang for your buck brakes under $200

[Enjin]

I am almost finished with this s13 and I am pretty excited to find that my brakes are screwwwed... SO!! I get to upgrade.

I've got about $200 to spend on rotors and pads, maybe a little more if the buy is very good.

I've searched and checked out a few of the things on ebay, including one of the sponsors on here.

any suggestions?

[nixad]

take your 200, go to the casino and come back with some real money :bow:

[nissandr1ft]

If your doing just the fronts... Q45 Rotors/calipers, good pads, and bleed with new fluid. If you have to do all around I personally just got some autozone blanks all the way around, hawk HPS pads, and bleed with new fluid. Either way will keep you around $200, and get you stopped better than stock.

[Ben G]

just 200? good luck go to a junk yard and try and get something off of a fucked up car... and you dont want to just do the fronts you will want to upgrade front and rear at the same time

[projectRDM]

just 200? good luck go to a junk yard and try and get something off of a fucked up car... and you dont want to just do the fronts you will want to upgrade front and rear at the same time

Explain your thinking on this. A front Q45 upgrade is fine for light duty braking. The majority of braking force comes from the front anyway, upgrading the rears doesn't serve near as much purpose. That's like saying when go to a lightweight bucket seat in the front you have to reupholster the rear seat to match.

[MrChow]

there should be a ad 88rotor or something like that. good look in our makertplace. Good deals for brakes.
Don't unless bigger brakes unless you spent the money on good pads and tires.

[FRpilot]

get some hawk pads or whatever domestic pads in japan are good and reasonably priced.

[Ben G]

from what i understand upgrading just the front may throw the braking off correct me if i am wrong im no expert or anything

[MrChow]

from what i understand upgrading just the front may throw the braking off correct me if i am wrong im no expert or anything

Maybe your brake balance but not really. Go look up brake bias in a thread name 240sx bible. Would throw a link up but i'm on my cell.

[Ben G]

dont worry i found it im just looking for the brakes link now

[Om1kron]

how the hell do you upgrade your brakes for 200 bucks? buy stainless lines for 80 bucks, new pads for 80 bucks and 32 bucks to machine your old rotors?

you can refresh them, but upgrade I think not.

[slider2828]

Yah 300zx no way... Just pads and replace the 240sx stock with some like S14's or something... That would probably keep you under 2 billz

[wgJoY]

eBay Store – 88 Rotors Performance Brakes: Search results for 240sx. (http://search.stores.ebay.com/88-Rotors-Performance-Brakes_240sx_W0QQfciZQ2d1QQfclZ3QQfsnZ88Q20RotorsQ 20PerformanceQ20BrakesQQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsaselZ1114 25334QQsofpZ0)

hope that helps.

[timtiminy]

good pads, ss lines, new fluid.

[LongGrain]

you can get Q45 calipers from the J/Y for $20

rebuild them yourself (if needed), its easy with floating calipers

nice new pads.

new rotors, or resurface the j/y ones if they are in ok condition

good brake upgrade, and you could probably afford to do the rears also for around $200

[FaLKoN240]

Get to the yard, buy some Q45 brakes.

That's the best bang for your buck IMO.

I love my Q45 brakes even at the track.

[ericcastro]

from what i understand upgrading just the front may throw the braking off correct me if i am wrong im no expert or anything
If you dont know then dont reply.
thats why forums are full of useless and wrong knowledge.

Anyways

i went with hawk pads and brembo slotted for just over $200 when I got my s13. (fronts only). Works so good. Brakes so much better than other 240's that I have driven.

[Enjin]

I've got a friend that may be hooking me up with the q45 brakes, but I have 4 lug. he said they may be able to be redrilled for 4 lug?

other than that, how are the 88 rotors quality? obviously the brembro rotors are going to be top notch, but how about the pads?

anybody had experience with them?

[irax]

no, just get brembo blanks or slotted and bet PBR ceramic (if you get slotted) or PBR metal masters if you go blanks

PBR stuff is pretty cheap but really fucking good you can order it at my old job BuyAutoParts.com 1-888-907-7225 ask for Scott

Brembo blanks for 40 each, and PBR brake pads are like 50 for the set, and free ground shipping anywhere in the continental US and sorta cheap shipping to APO/AE shipping. And you will still have money to get front and rear stainless steel braided lines, or ATE Super Blue brake fluid (i use it for clutch fluid as well).

[S13shaka]

I completed a transaction w/ 88rotors, I would never do buisness with them again.

[Enjin]

I completed a transaction w/ 88rotors, I would never do buisness with them again.

why?

to the previous poster: thanks, I will check that out for sure.

[OptionZero]

buy $200 in used tires in a good compound with good tread left

u'll brake better

as for the brakes themselves
if ur aren't doing any sort of track duty, just get fresh set of blank rotors and a new set of pads and ur done
stock pads are fine if ur drivin around the highway or whatever

if ur tracking
porterfield R4-S

[lizmo]

i'd say brembo, but those are a little over 200 for rotors and pads

[importdude]

I completed a transaction w/ 88rotors, I would never do buisness with them again.

i [email protected][email protected]!


took them 3 weeks for me to get my pads
keep saying its shiped shiped


i did
j30+rebuild kits=$75
rotors [email protected]=$ 46
PBR ultimates= $36

[projectRDM]

i'd say brembo, but those are a little over 200 for rotors and pads

Waste of money. A Brembo blank rotor for a 4lug 240SX is pointless, any decent OTC auto parts store will carry a Ferodo, Raybestos, or similar replacement for way, way cheaper. As long as it's true when cut you really can't fuck up a rotor. $20 each beats the hell out of anything else. I track my car hard and run $30 NAPA rotors.

As far as what else, do the brakes lock up now? If so, get better tires. You're already exceeding the tires traction limits with the brakes you have now, better brakes aren't go to do anything for you except allow you to slide into another car easier.

[Prok0]

You can get a pair of loaded rebuilt Z32 calipers (all hardware/pins/ and pads) for 93.99$ from autozone.
Then just buy some cheap rotors and conversion lines, bam upgraded brakes for under 200$.

Or you can buy them from a junkyard for probably 20$ each, and buy another 20$ in rebuild kits and do it yourself..

Or you can buy lines for the stock calipers, new pads, and rotors..

[Tearlessj]

Sup David, I got my Q45 brakes from the JY for $30. Used the rotors and pads that came with it. I redrilled the rotors at home. Easy as pie.

[cdlong]

i can't believe we've gotten this far without asking the OP what he does with the car and how much power he has. and OptionZero and ProjectRDM already hit on this, if your tires suck, upgrade those first.

[waynehead05]

take your 200, go to the casino and come back with some real money :bow:

You know what... that's honestly not a bad idea in this case.

[silnismo]

only options I suggest is:

a) q45 brake setup

B) rebuilt stock calipers from pepboys w/ good pads and S lines.

[SochBAT]

Junkyard Q45's, rebuild em, some blanks, stainless steel lines, and a Sentra BMC to up the braking ratio.

I think it was the Sentra BMC. Correct me if i'm wrong on that one Russ.

[Enjin]

i can't believe we've gotten this far without asking the OP what he does with the car and how much power he has. and OptionZero and ProjectRDM already hit on this, if your tires suck, upgrade those first.

the car is being built to be tracked.

it doesn't matter how much power I have, though.

basically, the car has been sitting on jackstands for the last 6 months while I work and go to school, and while breaking down the suspension to replace everything, I realized that my brakes look like they are completely through. never really driven THIS car.

judd- you have the equipment to redrill the q45 brakes? I lost your number when I got this new phone... hit me up.

[SochBAT]

How about you drive it first, and seehow it feels?

I think a TON of people just buy parts just to look cool when never really using what they've got in the first place.

Again, test out the brakes you have now, and if needed, upgrade. Otherwise, you're just burning money that could be better spent on new tires.

[Enjin]

I've been around and driven enough setups to know how things feel. these brakes are obviously shot, so I can't use just the stock ones... never used an upgrade, so looking for something to do.

[cdlong]

the car is being built to be tracked.

it doesn't matter how much power I have, though.

since when? if you're tracking the car, the only thing that matters is power.

if you accelerate down a straight, the amount of power you put in dirrectly correlates to the amount of energy you have to dissipate with the brakes at the end. i.e. heavy car w/300hp will be going 110, lighter car with 300hp will be going 140. basically the same momentum

on the street, the weight of the car is what matters because you're going a set speed no matter what.

this is all in relation to heat management, which is what big brakes are for anyway. i'm assuming you're going to use some real tires.

so let me get this straight. you're planning on tracking this car, but considering using the stock brakes? if you're seriously tracking the car, z32 brakes should be the minimum. put some cheap pads on the car so you can drive it and keep saving for some real brakes.

[ZenkiGTS]

take your 200, go to the casino and come back with some real money :bow:
HOP ON A ROULETTE TABLE DOUBLE YUP.... and CASH THE F... OUT

[vvtisupra]

Just because the front does most of the braking work, it doesn't mean you can put a bigger set of calipers in the front and expect the brakes to work better. This is a common misconception.

Running bigger brakes increases rotational mass and unsprung weight. Infact you may even stop in a longer distance. Also, it throws off the pedal ratio changing the amount of fluid your master has to displace. This is why people upgrade to 300zx masters when they convert to 300zx brakes to compensate for the different volume required to displace the brake fluid. Also running larger rotors and calipers with larger pistons in the front can throw off your brake bias. Of course there are a lot of variables that can influence this such as tires, tire sizes, weight, weight transfered etc. But generally running larger brake components in the front will increase front bias.

The benefit to running larger brake components is brake torque and heat dissapation(however if your stock brakes create enough torque to lock the wheels then its not an increased advantage).

Anyways if you only have 200 dollars to spend I recommend
running stock rotors, with a high performance pad. Depending on how hard the car is driven will determine the compound you would want to use. It is a lot of trial and error. I recommend starting pretty mild and if you feel the need to increase your heat range, then purhcase pads that are designed for higher heat.

Some pads that i have come across that work well for dual purpase (sport and street) would be axxis ultimates, hawk HP+, Porterfield RS4, and project mu NS. There are a lot more variaties but these are the pads that I have tried myself and found decent and can be purchased for around 200 dollars. Your rotors may still be good. Places like kragen, midas and autozone and resurface your rotors for a good price.

Also remember to always use fresh brake fluid DOT3 &4 and non silicone based DOT 5 will all do the job. Make sure to do a good job bleeding the brakes and breaking and bedding in the pads properly. I go to www.Stoptech.com (http://www.stoptech.com)and use the break in procedures described in their white papers, and have always came out with good results. Remember it is very important to break and bed in the brakes properly. The burninsh and bedding of the pads is what outgasses the pads and also creates a friction material layer for your pads to do work.

Later as money permits, i'd look into stainless brake lines, better tires and or a complete upgrade.

[noshow]

i spent 200$ on my z32 front calipers.
heres the breakdown
spend 100$ on the seats while in the junkyard, put the calipers in the toolbox
and spent 100$ on rotors from heavythrottle back in the day.
just be careful never to go there again or theyll want your thumbs.

[Enjin]

since when? if you're tracking the car, the only thing that matters is power.

if you accelerate down a straight, the amount of power you put in dirrectly correlates to the amount of energy you have to dissipate with the brakes at the end. i.e. heavy car w/300hp will be going 110, lighter car with 300hp will be going 140. basically the same momentum

on the street, the weight of the car is what matters because you're going a set speed no matter what.

this is all in relation to heat management, which is what big brakes are for anyway. i'm assuming you're going to use some real tires.

so let me get this straight. you're planning on tracking this car, but considering using the stock brakes? if you're seriously tracking the car, z32 brakes should be the minimum. put some cheap pads on the car so you can drive it and keep saving for some real brakes.

good point, however, speed obviously directly correlates to the force required to stop the car, so what you are saying is that a car that is going faster (achieved by higher levels of power) will need more force to stop. DEFINITELY SO, SIR!

the question that I have is, given that, does the rate at which you achieve such a high speed affect the optimum velocity for a corner? If I put everything together correctly, the optimum cornering velocity is brake and suspension rate limited, rather than speed.

HOWEVER, I can see your point about having a car that will be going much faster at a given point along the track needing stronger brakes at that point than a weaker accelerating car, but would not that weaker accelerating car be able to brake LATER, considering the relative LOSS in linear velocity due to the lack of power?

the big question I am trying to present here is: theory and concept aside, since I have only driven 240's with stock brakes, and then again with upgraded pads, I am wondering the real EFFICACY of dropping big money on your brakes. can you actually tell a SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE or is it just money that I could allot to other things, like this big ass comfy oversized chair I am buying tonight... mmmmmmm sooo comfy. I'm serious.

[Enjin]

i spent 200$ on my z32 front calipers.
heres the breakdown
spend 100$ on the seats while in the junkyard, put the calipers in the toolbox
and spent 100$ on rotors from heavythrottle back in the day.
just be careful never to go there again or theyll want your thumbs.

hahahaha GENIUS!!

[Enjin]

Just because the front does most of the braking work, it doesn't mean you can put a bigger set of calipers in the front and expect the brakes to work better. This is a common misconception.

Running bigger brakes increases rotational mass and unsprung weight. Infact you may even stop in a longer distance. Also, it throws off the pedal ratio changing the amount of fluid your master has to displace. This is why people upgrade to 300zx masters when they convert to 300zx brakes to compensate for the different volume required to displace the brake fluid. Also running larger rotors and calipers with larger pistons in the front can throw off your brake bias. Of course there are a lot of variables that can influence this such as tires, tire sizes, weight, weight transfered etc. But generally running larger brake components in the front will increase front bias.

The benefit to running larger brake components is brake torque and heat dissapation(however if your stock brakes create enough torque to lock the wheels then its not an increased advantage).

Anyways if you only have 200 dollars to spend I recommend
running stock rotors, with a high performance pad. Depending on how hard the car is driven will determine the compound you would want to use. It is a lot of trial and error. I recommend starting pretty mild and if you feel the need to increase your heat range, then purhcase pads that are designed for higher heat.

Some pads that i have come across that work well for dual purpase (sport and street) would be axxis ultimates, hawk HP+, Porterfield RS4, and project mu NS. There are a lot more variaties but these are the pads that I have tried myself and found decent and can be purchased for around 200 dollars. Your rotors may still be good. Places like kragen, midas and autozone and resurface your rotors for a good price.

Also remember to always use fresh brake fluid DOT3 &4 and non silicone based DOT 5 will all do the job. Make sure to do a good job bleeding the brakes and breaking and bedding in the pads properly. I go to www.Stoptech.com (http://www.stoptech.com)and use the break in procedures described in their white papers, and have always came out with good results. Remember it is very important to break and bed in the brakes properly. The burninsh and bedding of the pads is what outgasses the pads and also creates a friction material layer for your pads to do work.

Later as money permits, i'd look into stainless brake lines, better tires and or a complete upgrade.

baller, thanks

[SoguRacing]

it's 40 bucks from the junk yard for any set of calipers (2). dont be cheap.

[SochBAT]

Big brakes means decreasing brake fade. Its your enemy. Cooling fins directed to the brakes help, ducting helps a ton.

Big brakes do NOT mean stopping faster. its stopping more efficiently.

[ILoveMyRHS13]

I found Q45 calipers in a junkyard.

Q45 Calipers: $20
Black Caliper Paint: $4
Brand new rotors: $80
Brand new pads: $60

Do I win?

[SilviaSR20DET]

q45 caliper upgrade indeed is a great way to decrease brake fade! i remember the first time i put on the calipers and stopped really hard on the freeway (no ones around), it scared me cause i wasn't use to the amount of force it produced to stop. Mine costed me under 200 which included the caliper, rotor, and pads/hardware.

[Nikeboy355]

Just get new pads and change the fluid...

I personally track with stock calipers, Autozone rotors, and Carbotech XP10 race pads...

[cdlong]

q45 caliper upgrade indeed is a great way to decrease brake fade! i remember the first time i put on the calipers and stopped really hard on the freeway (no ones around), it scared me cause i wasn't use to the amount of force it produced to stop. Mine costed me under 200 which included the caliper, rotor, and pads/hardware.

if you were getting brake fade in one stop before, you had other problems.

Big brakes do NOT mean stopping faster. its stopping more efficiently.

exactly. good tires means stopping faster. well, not exactly. big brrakes means stoping repeatedly.

good point, however, speed obviously directly correlates to the force required to stop the car,

you're assuming two different cars with the same power but different weight can achieve the same speed on a straightaway. you have to take mass of the car into consideration too. i'll post up some calculations after dinner.

big brakes are about heat dissipation. heat, like momentum is just energy. your brakes transfer one to the other. your engine puts in a certain amount of energy along the straight away that has to be dissipated at the end.

[MrChow]

Just get new pads and change the fluid...

I personally track with stock calipers, Autozone rotors, and Carbotech XP10 race pads...
^^ Ditto. I auto-x more then the track.
I stop faster then my friend that as a SR power S13 with Z32 brakes. He went cheap on his pads. I run stock brakes with blanks and portfields RS-4 with SS and clean fluid.

Brembo Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.buybrakes.com/brembo/faq.html)
Read up.

[zeroskater1028]

i went with 180sx calipers. About $100 and 1" bigger than stock. plus rotors and pads should be about 200 or so.

[wangan_cruiser]

can you still use your ss lines from stock caliper by swapping it with a q45 caliper?

[Tearlessj]

judd- you have the equipment to redrill the q45 brakes? I lost your number when I got this new phone... hit me up.

Yea, its just a 1/2" drill bit. I still have the brakes off my parts car if you want them for $10 or food. I'll PM you my number. (No homo)

[noshow]

with z32's size is a bitch lol, i ordered the wrong size rotors the first time around come to find out i had 26mm alum calipers, bastards sent me the same ones i sent them back, then finally shipped mine out, took me like 3 weeks.

[MrChow]

can you still use your ss lines from stock caliper by swapping it with a q45 caliper?
Yes. They use the same line.

[projectRDM]

Yea, its just a 1/2" drill bit. I still have the brakes off my parts car if you want them for $10 or food. I'll PM you my number. (No homo)

I always go up to a 9/16" to make sure, you have a little more room for error on the holes that way. Since the rotor is hubcentric you're not hurting it by going bigger on three of the holes and you're guaranteed correct alignment.

[SilviaSR20DET]

I had brake fad problems with my stock calipers but it mightve been a leak in the system.