Big Brakes

DeeDubya · 09-26-2005, 10:33 AM

I just ordered Brake Pros 14" big brakes along with the cross drilled rear rotors/pads from Stillen. Does anyone else have these and how do you like them? Did you replace them yourself?
I'm beginning to feel the judders and thought I might as well go ahead and do this upgrade now instead of having the dealer correct the judder problem.
Thanks for any input on this upgrade.

rjspitz · 09-26-2005, 10:47 AM

I got them. Have had them on for about 6 months. Everthing about them is good, except for the painted finish on them. It looks like they just sprayed them with some Krylon. You are bound to spill some brake fluid on them, and when you do the paint will peel off very easily. I'd recommend that you paint them with a high quality caliper paint before installing them to make it easier. I didn't, so I had to clean off the rust and contort my body to get paint on the whole caliper. It's up to you, you can paint them when it's easy, or wait 'till they're installed and do it the hard way, but you'll definitely need to paint them.
Other than that, install was a breeze. The only other problem you might find is trying to take the caliper torque member bolts off the original calipers. I broke a socket trying to get mine off.
If you got the recommended pads (don't remember the name) you'll be very happy with the brake dust, or lack of. And the braking power is much, much, much better.

Did you get the braided lines too?

bestatchess · 09-26-2005, 10:49 AM

I have the OEM size Stillen drilled rotors & metal matrix pads. I put them on myself and I am quite happy. I would imagine you will be very happy. I see you already have big wheels so you should be set for the big rotors. The Stillen rotors seem to be alot harder than the stock rotors. There are some big bolts on the front brakes (holding the pad holders or torque members as I think they call them) that are soaked in thread lock and present a bit of a challenge. I think I used a 23 mm (something big around that) socket and a breaker bar, although an air impact wrench would probably work better. I have SS lines and DOT 4 fluid and also speedbleeders. www.speedbleeder.com make it a one-man operation to bleed the brakes. I also used CRC Brake Quiet. If you change the stock brake lines be careful on the angle of the connection to the calipers so that the lines are not stretched and don't rub anything when you turn. The stock lines have a locating pin that controls the angle, while the SS lines I put on didn't have those locating pins. I just tried to match the stock brake line connection angle and I didn't have any problems.

Be careful so as not to spill any brake fluid on the paint or overflow the master cylinder under the hood as brake fluid is bad for paint.

DeeDubya · 09-26-2005, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjspitz

I got them. Have had them on for about 6 months. Everthing about them is good, except for the painted finish on them. It looks like they just sprayed them with some Krylon. You are bound to spill some brake fluid on them, and when you do the paint will peel off very easily. I'd recommend that you paint them with a high quality caliper paint before installing them to make it easier. I didn't, so I had to clean off the rust and contort my body to get paint on the whole caliper. It's up to you, you can paint them when it's easy, or wait 'till they're installed and do it the hard way, but you'll definitely need to paint them.
Other than that, install was a breeze. The only other problem you might find is trying to take the caliper torque member bolts off the original calipers. I broke a socket trying to get mine off.
If you got the recommended pads (don't remember the name) you'll be very happy with the brake dust, or lack of. And the braking power is much, much, much better.

Did you get the braided lines too?

I think the SS braided lines are supposed to come with the kit. Thanks for the hint on the paint. I bought some extra epoxy paint for the rears so I will just throw an extra coat on the fronts too.

DeeDubya · 09-26-2005, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bestatchess

I have the OEM size Stillen drilled rotors & metal matrix pads. I put them on myself and I am quite happy. I would imagine you will be very happy. I see you already have big wheels so you should be set for the big rotors. The Stillen rotors seem to be alot harder than the stock rotors. There are some big bolts on the front brakes (holding the pad holders or torque members as I think they call them) that are soaked in thread lock and present a bit of a challenge. I think I used a 23 mm (something big around that) socket and a breaker bar, although an air impact wrench would probably work better. I have SS lines and DOT 4 fluid and also speedbleeders. www.speedbleeder.com make it a one-man operation to bleed the brakes. I also used CRC Brake Quiet. If you change the stock brake lines be careful on the angle of the connection to the calipers so that the lines are not stretched and don't rub anything when you turn. The stock lines have a locating pin that controls the angle, while the SS lines I put on didn't have those locating pins. I just tried to match the stock brake line connection angle and I didn't have any problems.

Be careful so as not to spill any brake fluid on the paint or overflow the master cylinder under the hood as brake fluid is bad for paint.

Thanks, this all helps a lot. I need to get some speedbleeders. Although it's good to see when the bubbles stop it sure can't hurt to pump a little extra fluid through the lines just to be safe. I think I'll stay with the Dot 3 however, supposedly the Dot 4 is more hydroscopic and needs to be changed more often.

rjspitz · 09-26-2005, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeeDubya

I think the SS braided lines are supposed to come with the kit. Thanks for the hint on the paint. I bought some extra epoxy paint for the rears so I will just throw an extra coat on the fronts too.

If you have the time and patience, I'd strip the paint that comes on them. I was able to easily brush it off with a stainless steel brush, which means little adhesion of the original paint. Then clean them with acetone or the like.

**gr8titan** · 09-30-2005, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeeDubya

I just ordered Brake Pros 14" big brakes along with the cross drilled rear rotors/pads from Stillen. Does anyone else have these and how do you like them? Did you replace them yourself?
I'm beginning to feel the judders and thought I might as well go ahead and do this upgrade now instead of having the dealer correct the judder problem.
Thanks for any input on this upgrade.

I have the exact front Big Brake "kit" you are talking about. It "kit" includes already powder coated (red or black - your choice, no need to repaint) calipers, compatible brake pads, stainless steel braided lines and cross drilled/slotted rotors. I have mine since February and the original powder coated calipers look new as the day it was installed. The rotors have micro minimal wear, minimal dust and super aggressive stopping power. Click on my "brake mod" link below for the install pics and further info. It was a free two (one per side) hour job by my Nissan dealer's service department due to my 2nd visit to complain of "brake judders".

The argument that won me a free install was this: Nissan will shoulder the labor expense eitherway to fix/or replace my brake assembly. If I provide the part to solve the problem once and for all, they (Nissan) should provide the free install and be thankful that I won't be coming back for the 3rd or 4th time or even a 5th time to keep fixing my brakes.

First pic is the OEM rotor (gouged) and OE caliper. The rest are of the Stillen Big brake kit.

rjspitz · 09-30-2005, 05:40 PM

Wierd, mine weren't powder coated. Just hope that yours are, DeeDubya.

DeeDubya · 10-03-2005, 11:56 AM

Yup, got em on Friday, they're powder coated. I did the rears on Sat with the Stillen drilled sport rotors and matrix pads. Painted the rear calipers with high temp red. Sunday I jumped on the big brakes. Everything went fine except for removing the front caliper bolts. They must have overdone the thread locker. It was a struggle even with an 18" breaker bar.
I bled the fronts twice but the pedal still feels spongy. I think I will bleed them again in a day or so.
I especially like the looks of the 2 piece rotors. Strange though that they didn't use wider pads. They appear to cover only the outer 2/3 of the rotor. Seems that wider pads would = greater braking force?
Thanks again everyone for your help and input.

bestatchess · 10-03-2005, 12:08 PM

Funny, I bet you thought it would be a piece of cake after doing the back rotors first. Did you put on the SS lines? If so, the pedal definitely should not be spongy. Mine is quite firm.

On the partial rotor coverage, yes, more pad engagement, assuming constant PSI pad force would cause more braking force, but due to Torque = Force X Radius, the most braking force is generating on the outer edge portion of the rotor. The "Radius" component of the equation is of course increased by the use of bigger rotors. The limiting factor would probably be traction of tires to the ground as I would assume that if you mash the brakes, your ABS will be engaging. In other words, I would assume that your big brakes will generate enough force to lock the wheels, absent the ABS system.

DeeDubya · 10-04-2005, 07:21 AM

Well, as per Brake Pros instructions, I'm going easy on them for a few miles. I don't want to risk any hard spots on the rotors that would put me right back in judder land.
They didn't say anything about putting thread locker on the caliper bolts when re-installing. So I didn't, just torqued them to 135ft/lbs like they say. Now I'm wondering if I should have used thread locker?

"What's that dangling under your truck? Oh, those are my brake calipers. I'll get around to bolting them on one of these days!"

bestatchess · 10-04-2005, 08:07 AM

I didn't put any new thread lock either. I check them when I rotate they tires. They are still tight after about 10,000 miles.

gchu · 10-11-2005, 12:56 PM

Does the Big Brake kit fit with the stock 18" SE Wheels (I have an 05 KC)?

If not, does the Stillen Kit fit?

I have 2300 miles on my KC and I have the judder. I really don't want to waste time with the knuckleheads at my dealership so I'm contemplating just upgrading.

Where is the best (cheapest) place to get the kits?

DeeDubya · 10-11-2005, 03:11 PM

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Stillen's big brakes are supposed to fit factory wheels. They're really not that much bigger (14" rotor compared to 12.6"). That's only 3/4" on a radius.

I've got a couple hundred miles on mine now and they feel real good. This AM on the way to the office I put them to the ultimate test. It's dark, it's raining and I'm in the middle of a line of about 8 or 10 cars. An '06 Mustang in front of me suddenly decides that he/she needs to turn left into a parking lot without first giving a signal. Of course oncoming traffic forced them to come to a complete stop. Here I am barely awake, possibly still asleep, when all of a sudden all I could see was red. My entire wet windshield was red. I slammed that brake pedal and let the ABS do the rest. It performed flawlessly. I could feel every pulse, every time a wheel would lock up and release. I was impressed. I had at least 18 to 20 inches to spare between our bumpers. Evidently the person behind me had ABS too. He was a little closer, maybe 6 or 8 inches. It was awesome, who needs a wreck at 6:30am, in the rain?

92TripleBlack · 10-11-2005, 03:17 PM

Whoops, I'm too late. I was going to suggest you get the new brakes from Nissan first, and then put the big brakes on after. This way you can go back to stock when you sell and sell off the brakes to recoup some of your investment.