Current Brake Pad Options

[TheHelixx]

I’m looking for some input on some different pads for my 818c. I’ve got a set of 05 STI Brembos 4/2 front and rear with stock replacement pads and rotors from Brembo. As old threads have mentioned, my brake effort is high. I downshift a lot and didn’t really lag into them much for the first 100 miles. When I let a friend try it out he flat out told me your brakes scare the $hlt out of me. Now that I’m working through the remaining quirks I have noticed I really can’t even lock up the tires. I do have ABS and a non boosted 05 WRX master with the relocated cleavis per the manual. Both Wilwood proportioning valves to keep the rear brakes balanced are cranked all the way clockwise. Ive read a few complaints about the stock Brembo pads, but assumed with the lighter curb weight it would be at least acceptable.

Older threads mentions Hawk HPS and Stoptech streets. Now that years have past, have any of you found a pad and or rotor combo that you found made the difference I’m looking for?

[taco20]

Hey take it from someone that had the same setup. It isn’t the pads it’s the pedal ratio. You need to drill another hole further up and the pedal will feel better. I contacted Wilwood about the issue and they told me the ratio was off which caused the firm pedal.

I tried different pads and it makes no difference to how the pedal feels. I ran stock pads up front and DTC30s in the rear since I only do track events. With the pedal ratio fixed the feel is great. It is worth the effort to try it since cost nothing and if you don’t like it just move it back.

All I did was double the distance FFR said to drill the hole and your done. Now the pedal has more leverage so the pedal feels better. The pedal will move further in its travel. Take it from me who runs 140+ in my car all the time and can drag the front splitter under braking.

Anyway give it a try, it’s free so have nothing to lose.

[TheHelixx]

Hey take it from someone that had the same setup. It isn’t the pads it’s the pedal ratio. You need to drill another hole further up and the pedal will feel better. I contacted Wilwood about the issue and they told me the ratio was off which caused the firm pedal.

I tried different pads and it makes no difference to how the pedal feels. I ran stock pads up front and DTC30s in the rear since I only do track events. With the pedal ratio fixed the feel is great. It is worth the effort to try it since cost nothing and if you don’t like it just move it back.

All I did was double the distance FFR said to drill the hole and your done. Now the pedal has more leverage so the pedal feels better. The pedal will move further in its travel. Take it from me who runs 140+ in my car all the time and can drag the front splitter under braking.

Anyway give it a try, it’s free so have nothing to lose.

Awesome, thank you very much. I’ll try that out before I make any other changes.

[Ajzride]

My EBC Yellow will lock up the car no problem. I do not know if the previous owner adjusted the pedal ratio or not. I have 2006 WRX calipers up front and 2006 VW Passat calipers in the back.

[TheHelixx]

My EBC Yellow will lock up the car no problem. I do not know if the previous owner adjusted the pedal ratio or not. I have 2006 WRX calipers up front and 2006 VW Passat calipers in the back.

Thanks, I drilled another hole a 1/2 inch further last night making 1" total higher than stock. It was almost midnight though so I didn’t test it out. I’ll try and get it out for a spin tonight to see if it was all that was needed.

If this does, it’s definitely something that should be done before the pedal box is installed. Drilling that upside down in these tight foot wells was brutal. I had to use a right angle drill and cut an inch and a half off a 5/16 bit just to fit it up there. Then there’s the fun blood drained arms and over filled head from being upside down for a while. I felt like I had to do it while being smuggled onto a plane in a suitcase or something lol.. Hopefully it was worth the effort

[carnutdave]

FWIW, I have ABS, EBC yellow pads and the pedal hole is drilled as far up as possible and pedal feel and stopping power is great as far as I'm concerned. I've only put ~400 street miles on the car so far and haven't quite locked the brakes up yet but I'm confident they would if I needed to.

[TheHelixx]

Happy to say that the brakes definitely improved moving it higher. I kinda wish I went even further actually, but that’s all I can do with the pedal box in the car. Removing it would be a 2 man job now to hold the fasteners under the hood. I’m at 1” away from stock mounting, which like Taco20 said is about double FFR spec.

2 votes for Yellows, that may be my next purchase. They are really not that bad, but I would like to consider the braking “high performance” not just “acceptable”.

[idf]

Had the same issue of high pedal pressure as described above with 06 WRX calipers and Hawk Street pads. Decided this solution made sense. It is every bit as big a pain as The Helix said (see attached image of my son in the necessary position brake mod.jpg ). The most we were able to move the the clevis hole was just over 1/2 inch, but this made a significant difference in the effort needed for braking. Would move it higher if possible and definitely recommend this approach to anyone still in the build process.

[taco20]

Hey glad to see my suggestion worked. I do believe I removed the pedal box then took apart the pedal assembly so I could put the pedal in the drill press then reassembled it all.
I have upgraded my front pads front stock Sti pads to Hawk 5.0 pads to help the car slow down from big speed and balance out the DTC 30’s in the rear. One thing I would caution is don’t go to aggressive with front pads. Since there is no wait on the nose I have locked the fronts up many times and slid off track because I am not running slicks. I have turned down the fronts a little to help but with Sti calipers you have more stopping power the car weight.
Switching to Cadillac calipers in the rear made the biggest change to stopping the car. Now finally had enough caliper and rotor to handle the weight in the rear. Funny thing is with the bigger calipers in the rear I had to go back to the first hole drilled because the pedal was to soft. Best part is now the pads front and rear are the same so I can switch around to see what works best.
All the work will be worth it in the end. The car will stop on a dime once you get the balance right.