Brake Pads & Rotors

[cerbomark]

Why do you need calipers ?

 

Just get slotted rotors and good pads. Don't over think this.

 

I agree and would just opt for a good pad. I like the Oem feel and grip. I also have a 911 with Brembos (factory) and to understand what a proper brake feels like and think the Subi is fine for the type of car it is.

As some else stated your stopping power is probably weaker in the tires than the brakes. (Meaning the abs will let off braking power due to the tires before the calipers fade.)

[hkshooter]

I agree and would just opt for a good pad. I like the Oem feel and grip. I also have a 911 with Brembos (factory) and to understand what a proper brake feels like and think the Subi is fine for the type of car it is.

As some else stated your stopping power is probably weaker in the tires than the brakes. (Meaning the abs will let off braking power due to the tires before the calipers fade.)

 

Agreed. Seems some folks look for places to burn money for no practical gain. I'm very happy with the factory brakes. They'll haul the car to a stop hard enough to bug your eyes and if the tires break loose and ABS kicks in then you have more brake than tire to start with, more powerful brakes won't do squat.

My car will never see a track, either, so there would be no purpose in burning money on AM brakes other than to simply burn money.

Similarly, I have the same attitude about changing the rear sway bar. I guess I don't push my car hard enough to realize the factory built a total POS that I can only been seen in without ducking behind the tint if I rebuild it, adding to the $30k I'm already into the car for.

To each their own, however. Watching all this is fun.

[cerbomark]

Agreed. Seems some folks look for places to burn money for no practical gain. I'm very happy with the factory brakes. They'll haul the car to a stop hard enough to bug your eyes and if the tires break loose and ABS kicks in then you have more brake than tire to start with, more powerful brakes won't do squat.

My car will never see a track, either, so there would be no purpose in burning money on AM brakes other than to simply burn money.

Similarly, I have the same attitude about changing the rear sway bar. I guess I don't push my car hard enough to realize the factory built a total POS that I can only been seen in without ducking behind the tint if I rebuild it, adding to the $30k I'm already into the car for.

To each their own, however. Watching all this is fun.

 

Not to hijack but we agree on the brake items here but I did upgrade the sway bar to stop a wandering loose feeling sometime. It was cheap enough DIY job. I think it s better ( or just in my mind). Other than that we are on the same page, LOL.

[zero7404]

Agreed. Seems some folks look for places to burn money for no practical gain. I'm very happy with the factory brakes. They'll haul the car to a stop hard enough to bug your eyes and if the tires break loose and ABS kicks in then you have more brake than tire to start with, more powerful brakes won't do squat.

 

My car will never see a track, either, so there would be no purpose in burning money on AM brakes other than to simply burn money.

 

Similarly, I have the same attitude about changing the rear sway bar. I guess I don't push my car hard enough to realize the factory built a total POS that I can only been seen in without ducking behind the tint if I rebuild it, adding to the $30k I'm already into the car for.

 

To each their own, however. Watching all this is fun.

 

 

i havent isolated my issue to brakes yet, i have noise when i apply the brakes. it is not enough to vibrate the steering wheel or feel it in the pedal. but it is audible.

 

i suspect the brakes may have not been bedded properly or there could be uneven deposits on the disc surfaces or something else causing that.

 

i did have a plug put into one of my tires. im not sure if that is contributing. or if the general quality of the LS2 tires are lending to some out of balance noise.

 

this is not happening on my wife's forester with 4700 miles on it.

 

hence when i go to get new brakes, im interested in other brands that could likely be better quality. i bet a dba 4000 series or ebc street series is as good or better than oem and prices are comparable.

 

still looking for other user's experience with these rotors ....

 

 

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[hkshooter]

i havent isolated my issue to brakes yet, i have noise when i apply the brakes. it is not enough to vibrate the steering wheel or feel it in the pedal. but it is audible.

 

i suspect the brakes may have not been bedded properly or there could be uneven deposits on the disc surfaces or something else causing that.

 

i did have a plug put into one of my tires. im not sure if that is contributing. or if the general quality of the LS2 tires are lending to some out of balance noise.

 

this is not happening on my wife's forester with 4700 miles on it.

 

hence when i go to get new brakes, im interested in other brands that could likely be better quality. i bet a dba 4000 series or ebc street series is as good or better than oem and prices are comparable.

 

still looking for other user's experience with these rotors ....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Not good about the noise. Typically brake related noise only occurs during braking. And tire related noise occurs constantly vs only occurring when the brakes are applied. Usually warped rotors can be felt in the peddle or steering wheel but if the warp is mild maybe not.

Is your car still under warranty? Brake linings are under warranty so if there's a related problem maybe the dealer can take care of that too.

 

Not to hijack but we agree on the brake items here but I did upgrade the sway bar to stop a wandering loose feeling sometime. It was cheap enough DIY job. I think it s better ( or just in my mind). Other than that we are on the same page, LOL.

 

I'm sure your sway bar makes a big difference and it's a good mod for very little money. Enjoy.

[zero7404]

Not good about the noise. Typically brake related noise only occurs during braking. And tire related noise occurs constantly vs only occurring when the brakes are applied. Usually warped rotors can be felt in the peddle or steering wheel but if the warp is mild maybe not.

 

Is your car still under warranty? Brake linings are under warranty so if there's a related problem maybe the dealer can take care of that too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure your sway bar makes a big difference and it's a good mod for very little money. Enjoy.

 

 

"warped" rotors are a myth .... unless you've seen with your own eyes a rotor that has deformed to the point where the braking surface is no longer a plane ....

 

to get brake discs to deform they need to be subjected to temperatures much higher than any braking application.

 

my feeling is that uneven liner or uneven wear could be the case. that might occur when there is something causing uneven pressure between inner and outer pads, like rust on caliper components.

 

 

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[hkshooter]

"warped" rotors are a myth .... unless you've seen with your own eyes a rotor that has deformed to the point where the braking surface is no longer a plane ....

 

to get brake discs to deform they need to be subjected to temperatures much higher than any braking application.

 

my feeling is that uneven liner or uneven wear could be the case. that might occur when there is something causing uneven pressure between inner and outer pads, like rust on caliper components.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bullshit. If you've never turned or seen turned rotors on a brake lathe then you not of which you speak.

Indeed, rotors can and do warp from heat. The lessor the quality the more likely they are to warp.

 

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[zero7404]

Bullshit. If you've never turned or seen turned rotors on a brake lathe then you not of which you speak.

Indeed, rotors can and do warp from heat. The lessor the quality the more likely they are to warp.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

 

no need to be blunt dude, please ....

 

if a rotor is manufactured correctly it should not "warp" under normal use or with a system it is designed for.

 

correct me if im wrong ???

 

if this is not the case, you'd expect every make out there to have this issue and i dont think designers let alone manufacturers would leave it at that ....

 

 

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[hkshooter]

no need to be blunt dude, please ....

 

if a rotor is manufactured correctly it should not "warp" under normal use or with a system it is designed for.

 

correct me if im wrong ???

 

if this is not the case, you'd expect every make out there to have this issue and i dont think designers let alone manufacturers would leave it at that ....

 

 

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If you put it like that then I agree with you. Under normal driving conditions for which the system was designed a well manufactured rotor should not warp. That doesn't mean warped rotors are a myth.

I've warped many in the past, driving like a maniac and hauling my car down from speed until the brakes fade. Some OEM rotors will. Some generic replacements will and even under normal conditions. Depends on how cheaply the buyer wanted to go to fill the holes on the shelf.

Many years ago (1998ish?) a buddy of mine went through two sets of new OEM rotors on his new Ram Air Trans Am because of warping. Warranty replaced them twice and admitted they had a bad batch.

Put a rotor on a brake lathe and turn it you can hear the tool cut then not. Then cut again, then not as it turns. Warped. If there's enough material left to stay in spec the rotor can be trued again and made to work but the next hard stop will probably warp it again.

I'm an advocate of quality rotors regardless of the type or quality of pads used. A crappy rotor will make a new brake job short lived and full of rumbles and shakes. A good quality rotor will outlast multiple sets of pads.

 

And you are right, I didn't need to come off so hot. Sorry about that.

 

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[zero7404]

If you put it like that then I agree with you. Under normal driving conditions for which the system was designed a well manufactured rotor should not warp. That doesn't mean warped rotors are a myth.

I've warped many in the past, driving like a maniac and hauling my car down from speed until the brakes fade. Some OEM rotors will. Some generic replacements will and even under normal conditions. Depends on how cheaply the buyer wanted to go to fill the holes on the shelf.

Many years ago (1998ish?) a buddy of mine went through two sets of new OEM rotors on his new Ram Air Trans Am because of warping. Warranty replaced them twice and admitted they had a bad batch.

Put a rotor on a brake lathe and turn it you can hear the tool cut then not. Then cut again, then not as it turns. Warped. If there's enough material left to stay in spec the rotor can be trued again and made to work but the next hard stop will probably warp it again.

I'm an advocate of quality rotors regardless of the type or quality of pads used. A crappy rotor will make a new brake job short lived and full of rumbles and shakes. A good quality rotor will outlast multiple sets of pads.

 

And you are right, I didn't need to come off so hot. Sorry about that.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

 

i was coming from the pov of aged and heat treated rotors should not do that ...

 

unfortunately the market is flooded with garbage .... i need to sit up pay attention and accurately determine whats causing this noise before i head to the dealer again.

 

just couple hundred miles ago i got my wheels rotated and this noise is still present in the front as i apply brake, so im certain its brakes.

 

this is why i am contemplating about a replacement set, how ebc and dba rate in the food chain .... they both claim to make h/t'd rotors. their designs seem to look durable, but are they really ....

 

 

 

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[hkshooter]

Can't say. Have used EBC with good luck but that's not a good enough sample to say.

My experience has been the majority of the time, for normal driving conditions nothing beats OEM rotors.

Years ago I looked into a company that cryogenically treated cadmium plated rotors for my Mustang. Wish I could remember the company. They were said to be thermally stable for high performance applications and the cadmium kept them clean looking and rust free.

 

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[zero7404]

good to hear about ebc rotors experience ...

 

i think there are still on the market cryo treated rotors although i didnt look into that yet ...

 

when i decide what it is exactly thats wrong, that will tell me if its a warranty issue or not ...

 

anyone out there thats tried dba as well ?

 

 

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[tigger73]

I just bought some second-hand 316mm brake calipers off a gen4 3.0. I'll clean them up, paint them and then I'll be looking for some new rotors and pads to suit.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/e4cbb0154d341ce59abdc14b3c4e871d.jpg

[2_From_NH]

Little bit of thread revival, but has anyone with eyesight replaced the OE pads and lines with more aggressive options?

 

I love having eyesight, but I would also love a firmer pedal with more bite. My biggest fear would be that doing any pad swap from OE would result in jerking every time the car applies the brakes.

[Max Capacity]

Was doing some checking on http://brakeperformance.com/brake-rotors/slotted-brake-kits-black-zinc-coating.php

 

to see the 2015 STI rotors were the same as a 2015 Legacy 3.6R, they are listed as a different part number.

 

I didn't try other year STi's.

[tigger73]

Little bit of thread revival, but has anyone with eyesight replaced the OE pads and lines with more aggressive options?

 

I love having eyesight, but I would also love a firmer pedal with more bite. My biggest fear would be that doing any pad swap from OE would result in jerking every time the car applies the brakes.

 

I've got eyesight and have upgraded front pads/rotors/calipers on my 2.5 to match 3.6R specs. The system still operates the same. I think it works out/remembers how efficient your braking is and applies the brakes accordingly.

 

There's a range of things that will effect your stopping distance including road conditions, tire condition/inflation, etc. The eyesight system has to take all of this into account.

 

So when you upgrade your brakes/change tires it doesn't suddenly become more aggressive and pull you up short. The system still operates like it always did.

 

 

Was doing some checking on http://brakeperformance.com/brake-rotors/slotted-brake-kits-black-zinc-coating.php

 

to see the 2015 STI rotors were the same as a 2015 Legacy 3.6R, they are listed as a different part number.

 

I didn't try other year STi's.

 

Yes the 316mm front rotors on the WRX are same as the 316mm rotors on the 3.6R and Outback. Here in Oz the Levorg also comes fitted with the same brake set-up as the 3.6R whereas the STI gets fitted with Brembos which are 326mm.

 

The rears, however are different with the 3.6R and WRX. The Legacy/Outback getting 300mm compared to WRX which is 286mm.

[surmiser]

I've upgraded the brakes on my 2.5 and thought I'd share my results and discoveries.

 

The loot pile:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160905/fbe477d618f9ebcf4c1a8afcaf1cf2f9.jpg

 

AP Racing CP9040 6-pot front calipers (https://www.apracing.com/product_details/performance_upgrades/road_and_aftermarket_brake_calipers/6_piston_calipers/cp9040_forged_family-suits_%C3%B8362_x_32mm-16.8mm_thick_pad.aspx), AP Racing CP4542 355mm (14-inch) slotted rotors (https://www.apracing.com/product_details/race_car/brake_discs/ventilated_discs/%C3%B8355mm/32mm_thickness/215.9mm_p.c.d.-bolted-cp4542-106/107.aspx), AP Racing APF404 street pads (https://www.apracing.com/products/race_car/brake_pads/ap_racing_brake_pad_materials.aspx), Goodridge steel brake hoses, 25mm hubcentric spacers:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160905/d3406188719960302027f08e30fb5fb0.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160905/80c5e8dcc1cf6f3dc6b05c3eec7a2811.jpg

 

Dixcel SD stock-sized slotted rear rotors (http://www.dixcel.co.jp/en/rotor/rotor_sd.html), stock rear calipers (required for electronic parking brake) and pads, Goodridge steel brake hoses, 20mm hubcentric spacers:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160912/87e5ee1a86d877c087ad1ff7e03e564a.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160905/1e44fa0c0198a1d5399de7dc75574d06.jpg

 

All with stock 2.5i-S (equivalent to Limited in the US) wheels and suspension:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160905/b1194ff7617e6ba577a175d6c9c6ea9d.jpg

 

I'm well aware that many folks here are completely happy with the stock brakes on the 2.5 (and even the 3.6, with its larger front rotors). That's great, and there's nothing cheaper and simpler than being happy with what you've got. I wasn't.

 

My main goals were greater initial bite and improved modulation, at any speed.

 

Some say that the fact that stock brakes can engage ABS means that they are good enough, and that the focus should be on stickier tyres and/or suspension. This argument only applies to ultimate stopping power, not brake feel. Others feel that big brakes are overkill because the FB25 engine makes less than 200 horses, even after tuning. Again, that's got nothing to do with brake feel. More predictable braking means a more enjoyable and relaxed drive. And when you have braking headroom to spare and can brake late with serene confidence, it actually translates into being able to drive a lot faster, safely.

 

Pads and rotors are effective upgrades. By themselves, however, they can't really improve feel and modulation much. For that, I needed better (stiffer, etc) calipers than the stock sliding-piston setup on the 6th-gen Legacy. So while I did initially consider slapping stock-sized Dixcel SD rotors on all four wheels and matching them with grippier pads, I realized it probably wouldn't achieve my goals.

 

Similar reservations applied to what @tigger73 did - swapping 3.6 front calipers and rotors into a 2.5 - because I was worried it wouldn't address my modulation goals. But I must say that his setup's probably the best bang for buck upgrade, especially since it upgrades every component.

 

So what did I end up with? Good bite at relatively light pedal pressure, without being too grabby. The ability to finely vary braking power with foot pressure. The ability to easily compensate for incorrect initial pedal pressure (eg, poor distance judgement, vehicles suddenly cutting in, etc) without having to resort to stomping. Pedal feel reminds me a bit of BMW 3-Series and 7-series stock brakes, with just a little more of everything, especially at higher speeds. Improved ultimate stopping distance/power was a useful (and expected) bonus. Pads don't need to warm up. Overall, night and day improvement. Goals all met. Completely satisfied. Worth every cent.

 

Alternatives I considered:

- Why not STI Brembo? More expensive than equivalent non-STI Brembo kits.

- Why not regular Brembo? More expensive than AP (FYI, Brembo owns AP), didn't have the exact caliper-disc combo I wanted (genuine Brembo only comes as a matched set; you can't mix and match) and, perhaps most importantly, Brembo calipers are bulkier than AP, and I was worried about clearance.

- Why 6 pots and not 4, especially since 4 pots are lighter? Because the bigger pads on 6 pots (and therefore larger swept area) mean lower pad wear, and more pots means greater modulation potential, all other things remaining equal.

- Why not one one of the many Taiwanese calipers littering the market, much cheaper than the big names, and touting superior specs on paper? Titanium pistons! Well, heard too many horror stories about jammed pistons and poor performance. I drive my family around, so I wasn't about to take any chances on brands with no track record. Not dissing them. Just my personal risk threshold.

 

Noise:

- Slotted rotors are quieter than cross-drilled ones but because they still prevent pads from sweeping a flat surface, that essential unevenness produces some noise. It quietens significantly after the first 500km or so, but it's still there and probably won't ever go away completely. Under heavy braking, there's a whooshing noise that decreases in frequency. Kinda like 80s-era jumbo jet engines shortly before beginning their take-off run. Or like the sound the Death Star's tractor beam generators made when Obi-wan Kenobi shut them down in Star Wars Episode IV. As you might gather, it's not an altogether unpleasant sound and I hardly notice it anymore, but it's still more intrusive than stock, so heads up.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160912/9d2e619deba690ea580add851f94f8fb.jpg

 

Weight:

- Even with my relatively heavy 6-pots (4-pot calipers would've been a third lighter), I still have net weight savings of at least 6kg per wheel vs stock. That's total savings of at least 24kg in unsprung weight.

- The only weight gain is in the front rotors. AP 14-inch rotors weigh exactly 9kg. Stock 11.6-inch rotors are 8.5kg. Not much weight difference for much bigger rotor area.

- AP front calipers are 3.7kg. Stock front calipers are 11.7kg including pads and rubber hose (forgot to remove them and too lazy to re-weigh) so stock calipers alone should be no lighter than 10kg. Massive weight loss here, as you'd expect from going from steel (presumably) to forged aluminum alloy.

- Rear Dixcel rotors are noticeably lighter than stock too but I forgot to weigh them.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160912/d6cb5a86f0505faa4da39547ca3c1b98.jpg

 

Clearance:

- Key issue here is whether or not you're using aftermarket wheels, or planning to switch.

- Since most 18-inch aftermarket rims have less negative offset than stock, clearance won't be an issue. If you're running 19s or larger, you're clear for sure.

- But if you're sticking with stock 18-inchers, then it's difficult to get even small aftermarket calipers to fit. With 25mm hubcentric spacers, I have 9mm horizontal clearance from calipers to inner spoke surface. Minimum AP-recommended clearance is 3mm, so I could probably have gotten away with 20mm spacers. My vertical clearance is tighter though, and wheel-balancing weights rubbed my calipers and made clicking noises until my workshop repositioned the weights. So, remember to spin your wheels for at least one round after installing new calipers to check for vertical clearance, even if horizontal clearance is obviously fine.

- With net front offset of 30mm, my front tyres are poking about 3-5mm (didn't measure). I can live with that.

- Rears didn't actually need spacers but I didn't want front and rear offsets to be too different, for both handling and aesthetic reasons.

- 25mm rear spacers caused rubbing so I had to use 20mm instead. I'm okay with the staggered offset because it should make my handling a bit more neutral. My understanding is that a wider front track increases oversteer.

 

Caveats:

• Eyesight isn't available here so I don't know how my brake upgrades would affect it.
  
• Ambient temperatures 3 degrees from the equator are high. It's summer year round here. YMMV when it comes to warming brakes up wherever you are.

 

Update: I'm now using Prodrive GC-010E 18" 8J ET43 wheels without spacers, and the 43mm offset - combined with the spacious cut of the wheel spokes - gives me sufficient caliper clearance all round:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/64f7799c750ebf88cdf5ed23f2bea024.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161101/0802f17fdadbba83bab4f1b9b9b6600a.jpg

[tigger73]

I thought I'd posted up here, but must have only put pics of my brake upgrade up in my build thread.

 

Anyway so if you don't have a $2k budget like surmise and want to upgrade the brakes on your 2.5, here's the cheaper brake upgrade option to bring them up to 3.6R spec. All up this cost me ~US$500.

 

First you need to source some second-hand brake calipers to suit 316mm rotors. These were off a gen4 3.0 B spec.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/e4cbb0154d341ce59abdc14b3c4e871d.jpg

 

Cleaned them up, taped up and then painted:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160325/4e18e0d9694118c90c4f3d2235f9d06f.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160326/fdef897f8592cf60f814d1cdf0b41c85.jpg

 

Reassembled ready for installation:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/c705c673d10a28322dbf3eaf040aac50.jpg

 

Painted the stock rears en-situ:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/e10001de2005110b09a900466ff017de.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/8ccf51ff70e6683c805a21225d4b849c.jpg

 

Rears completed:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/91ec1f47a8e55a083f2e0f16bb84f40d.jpg

 

 

Fitted up front calipers with new 3.6R 316mm rotors and Intima SS pads.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160716/cf946c2c4df086f95a32cd4918be248a.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160716/0a1935f9c663440ac4c853fe1fd8d041.jpg

 

 

Initial feedback from first drives is that there is definitely an improvement in braking. They pull the car up quite a bit better than the stock brakes. It's not like you're hitting the tensioners on the seatbelts but it does feel like you're getting pulled up quicker.

 

Sorry no quantitative data on it but you could calculate the improvement in braking efficiency if you had the coefficient of friction of the brake pads, surface area and rotor size... I'll leave that to someone with more time

 

If I was to put a number on it, the butt dyno says it's something like a 15-20% improvement. It's definitely a noticeable/good change but not massive.

 

I'd done 30,000 miles on my stock 2.5i pads/rotors and still had quite a bit left on them - probably another 20-30,000 miles. If you're heading towards needing to change your brake pads/rotors I'd suggest it's a good thing to hunt down some calipers and change these at the same time as the pads/rotors.

 

Plus it's a good chance to paint the calipers while they're off the car

[Too40gawlf]

Excellent stuff. This is precisely the type of technical content this forum desperately needs.

[Too40gawlf]

Can you go into more detail as to why the 25mm spacers are necessary?

[surmiser]

Can you go into more detail as to why the 25mm spacers are necessary?

 

 

I needed 25mm spacers in order to create enough room for my new calipers to fit inside my stock wheels.

 

The stock 18-inch wheels (like most stock wheels) are designed with just enough room to fit the stock calipers.

 

Part of this is because Subaru (like most manufacturers) wants to maximise negative offset in order minimise wheel bearing load, among other reasons.

 

But a key reason is also that fixed-piston calipers - which encompass practically all aftermarket calipers - require, by design, far more clearance on the outer side of the rotor than our stock sliding-piston calipers. Since sliding-piston calipers only have pistons on one side of the caliper, and typically locate the pistons on the inner side of the rotor, they don't require much clearance on the outer side of the rotor.

 

This view shows you how my AP CP9040 front calipers are equally bulky on both sides of the rotor:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160914/459352fbe86a508b206117be9cbc6503.jpg

 

And this view shows you how much skinnier my stock rear calipers are on the outer side of the rotor, compared to the inner side:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160914/e3402b490309bad1cd86bff9102c2cf8.jpg

 

Many folks don't run into clearance problems because they upgrade their wheels before their brakes. Aftermarket wheel designs tend to have more caliper clearance built in, and it helps that they typically also have far less negative offset than stock wheels. However, I decided to stick with stock wheels and therefore had to use spacers create the required caliper clearance.

 

Caliper clearance issues are yet another argument in favour of tigger's 3.6-to-2.5 brake upgrade. Since he stuck with sliding-piston calipers, he likely never had to worry about clearance, although his STI wheels are probably roomier than stock, what with STI Brembo calipers being fixed-piston affairs.

[tigger73]

Excellent stuff. This is precisely the type of technical content this forum desperately needs.

 

Yes exactly!!! I've upgraded my brakes, installed a custom full exhaust, tuned my car, changed out the rear sway bar for a 20mm plus fitted STI wheels and Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 2 tyres... and I haven't even touched my headlight or interior light globes

[surmiser]

and I haven't even touched my headlight or interior light globes

 

 

I've upgraded my brakes and tuned my car too, while keeping the exterior essentially stock. So, I obviously have a special interest in performance upgrades and technical threads.

 

But I've also spent an inordinate amount of time making my interior prettier with dirt-cheap stick-on stuff I bought from Chinese shopping site Taobao. Relatively frivolous.

 

I guess I'm just saying that it doesn't have to be either one extreme or the other. I do think that we've got a shortage of technical threads in this 6th-Gen forum, but the growth in those needn't come at the expense of more casual topics. Hardcore nuts need downtime too.

 

Due to the relatively high cost of performance upgrades, there will also inevitably be a smaller pool of users interested in them vs more accessible goodies like decals or lighting. And I think there are few enough 6th-Gen folks around without shrinking the pool further by rolling eyes at yet another lighting thread. Where I am, the 6th-Gen Legacy is the rarest current Subaru model. And it's probably the least popular Legacy here ever. So I'll put up with the lighting threads if it means a larger community to participate in. Heck, if I weren't so darn pleased with my stock LED low beams, I'd probably fiddle with them too.

[tigger73]

Yeah I just haven't got around to working out what lighting upgrade to go with yet. Tossing up whether to just change out the Halogens for a set of HID's or to pull the headlights apart and put in proper DRL "C" lights.

 

We need a few more brake set-ups in this thread.... Grnlantern1 we need some more pics!!!

[surmiser]

We need a few more brake set-ups in this thread.... Grnlantern1 we need some more pics!!!

 

 

I'm tempted to do proper DRL "C" lights, but probably won't ever bother.

 

I second your call for Grnlantern1 brake pics! In general, I think we'd all benefit from more STI brake info and pics, especially since a few guys have done it. I was tempted too because I like the idea of Brembo's stiff monoblock calipers. I was only put off by the high brand-new prices and the inability to find a dealer who was willing to guarantee fit on my car with stock wheels.