advice for front brake refresh/upgrade

[pleiadesfella]

hey fellas, long time no see  

after taking a long overseas vacation, I've found myself yet again stuck back in eastern canada. before I went overseas, I put both of my legacies in storage, but my spec b had developed some sticking in the front left caliper right before it was put into storage - after a 15 min freeway drive to the storage warehouse, the front left fender felt like it was on fire and there was lots of heat radiating from the rotor, alongside a nasty burnt smell from the pads. it comes out of storage tomorrow, and I've been weighing my options on what to do for the front brakes. both front calipers are quite rusty, and the front rotors also have lots of rust on the center/hub part as well as some rust on the outer edges.

at first I was going to go the sti brembo route that everyone seems to do, however I'm getting cold feet from that idea as there are no good used brembos for sale in my area. I was going to order a full powerstop caliper + rotor + pad kit for an 04 sti off rockauto, but after doing some research it seems the powerstop calipers are their own castings and not remanned oem brembos as claimed. they still seem fine, but in my research I also came to the conclusion that I likely don't need brembos and that oem calipers with some upgraded pads + rotors would be fine.

so now I'm thinking of ordering new (not reman) lgt calipers off rockauto alongside new rotors and pads. rockauto lists some ultra power (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13714493&cc=1440457&pt=1704) and dynamic friction (https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11729445&cc=1440457&pt=1704) brand calipers as brand new, I don't know which one would be better. it says the ultra power ones are a popular choice, so I'm leaning more towards that. as for rotors and pads, I've come to the conclusion that akebono proact pads + centric blank rotors are the best in terms of bang for buck with daily drivability and performance. but I don't know for sure, which is why I'm asking here. I'm also not fully sure if I do need to replace my rotors because other than the unsightly rust, they seemed fine though I don't know yet if the caliper sticking would have negatively affected the front left rotor to the point where it would need a replacement.

what would the best route for me be? spend the extra $400 cad on the powerstop "brembo" full kit or get a combination of rotors/pads with new lgt calipers? and what would the best rotors/pads be? I do intend to autocross (and maybe track, if I'm lucky enough) the car eventually, but as it currently stands it's my summer daily that I'll occasionally hit backroads with. I look forward to what you guys have to say.

[KZJonny]

Lgt calipers. Whatever brand you like. They’re really quite good, all things considered. Brembos are either for actual (regular) track duty or are just bling on the roads.

I would consider using normal ceramic pads for daily use, then save up for better pads for track/autox days.

Track pads aren’t good on the street and vice versa.

No drilled rotors. Slotted if you must. Good quality blank are all you’ll probably need. Put in fresh ones unless the rust is totally superficial. Like any amount of scoring or a rust ring on the outside is just going to eat your new pads.

Have you taken the brakes apart yet? May be just a stuck slide pin causing the brakes to overheat. You may be finer with just a cleanup and new hardware for a few hours of your time…

[Max Capacity]

Yeah, unless your racing, just a good set of brake parts are fine. I hope you check out the Brakes forum below. Lots of info there.

Also think about flushing the old brake fluid out with a Motive Power bleeder or some other type of bleeder.  You don't need special, I just use the qt bottles of DOT3 from Walmart. 

Your local auto parts store will have good pads and rotors, or rebuilt calipers.

[Pleides]

FWIW, I spent the dough on Brembos and have zero regrets. I went with Hawk HPS 5.0 pads as well as slotted rotors. I believe the rotors were DBA. The way the car looks is dramatically more aggressive and the brake pedal feel is 100% perfect. I was out like 3K for parts, though.

Reman calipers from RockAuto are probably the better way to go about this on a budget. You can get blank rotors from just about any brand and some nice Hawk HPS 5.0 pads on the stock ones and get a similar experience to me. I don't track the car, so I pretty much only did it for the bling factor. They do make some noise.

[pleiadesfella]

update: both legacies are home safe and sound  

the drive back from storage was quite nerve wracking as I had a tire shop in amherst try to unstick the bad caliper just enough that it would survive to drive back to moncton (around a 60km freeway drive home), and they didn't instill much confidence in me for the drive home. they said that the caliper would still be sticking though the tech got the stuck piston to move just a little bit. I was extremely nervous the whole way through and mistook a few creases in the road as the car pulling to one side due to the caliper, and as such I didn't go much faster than 100kmh the whole drive which sucked. but at the end I got home safe, and there was no heat from the front left this time, despite the much longer drive. tire guy must have done a good job, I don't know why they were so hesitant about it.

10 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Lgt calipers. Whatever brand you like. They’re really quite good, all things considered. Brembos are either for actual (regular) track duty or are just bling on the roads.

I would consider using normal ceramic pads for daily use, then save up for better pads for track/autox days.

Track pads aren’t good on the street and vice versa.

No drilled rotors. Slotted if you must. Good quality blank are all you’ll probably need. Put in fresh ones unless the rust is totally superficial. Like any amount of scoring or a rust ring on the outside is just going to eat your new pads.

Have you taken the brakes apart yet? May be just a stuck slide pin causing the b rakes to overheat. You may be finer with just a cleanup and new hardware for a few hours of your time…

yeah, I definitely did want the brembos for the bling factor too, but considering my current budget its definitely not worth it just for the bling. at this point I'm considering getting the usual lgt setup for the front and calling it a day. probably gonna go for the akebono ceramic pads I mentioned, I know they're a quality company and I've read good things about their pads both in terms of performance and drivability.

the current rotors on the car are actually slotted and drilled all around lol, last owner put them on. I didn't take a picture of the brakes today as I was tired after the whole ordeal, but I have a picture from last year clearly showing the front right brake condition. you can see the rust on both the rotor and caliper, though its much worse on the left side where the caliper is completely brown. I'll take a better pic tomorrow or the day after.

the tire shop in amherst said that one piston on the front left caliper was seized and didn't like to move, so I'm sure it's more than just a slide pin at this point. I'm just thankful they freed it enough to get home without overheating and compromising my brakes.

9 hours ago, Max Capacity said:

Yeah, unless your racing, just a good set of brake parts are fine. I hope you check out the Brakes forum below. Lots of info there.

Also think about flushing the old brake fluid out with a Motive Power bleeder or some other type of bleeder.  You don't need special, I just use the qt bottles of DOT3 from Walmart. 

Your local auto parts store will have good pads and rotors, or rebuilt calipers.

I'll take a look at the brakes forum, thanks. the fluid was somewhat recently flushed with DOT4 fluid before the car went into storage, so I think its fine on that front unless the sticking caliper boiled it bad, which I doubt since the car was braking fine today. I'll check my local napa and canadian tire stores to see if they have anything, but I think I'll only find pads and maybe rotors from them. I think I'll just have to order the calipers from rockauto regardless. and they have good prices (even factoring in shipping + customs from the us), so I may as well just order everything from them is what I was thinking.

4 hours ago, Pleides said:

FWIW, I spent the dough on Brembos and have zero regrets. I went with Hawk HPS 5.0 pads as well as slotted rotors. I believe the rotors were DBA. The way the car looks is dramatically more aggressive and the brake pedal feel is 100% perfect. I was out like 3K for parts, though.

Reman calipers from RockAuto are probably the better way to go about this on a budget. You can get blank rotors from just about any brand and some nice Hawk HPS 5.0 pads on the stock ones and get a similar experience to me. I don't track the car, so I pretty much only did it for the bling factor. They do make some noise.

it seems you went with what I originally wanted to do except you had the cash to do it . sounds like a great setup, though 3k is an insane price for me right now as I only have $1.5k cad set aside for my brake repairs lol.

would there be a big difference in getting a reman caliper vs. a claimed "new" caliper from rockauto? I was thinking of going new simply because I've read some stories about remans prematurely seizing, which is something I don't want to deal with again.

I don't think I can justify the premium for the hawk pads right now as I won't be immediately autocrossing the car, but I'll consider them down the line. would also prefer some quieter brakes for now, especially after hearing what my stuck caliper sounded like when I was driving down to the tire shop  

thanks for all your input guys, I'm also going to discuss with my mechanic to see what they think about the rotors needing a replacement and I'll order new parts from there.

Edited April 15 by pleiadesfella

[Pleides]

19 hours ago, pleiadesfella said:

it seems you went with what I originally wanted to do except you had the cash to do it . sounds like a great setup, though 3k is an insane price for me right now as I only have $1.5k cad set aside for my brake repairs lol.

would there be a big difference in getting a reman caliper vs. a claimed "new" caliper from rockauto? I was thinking of going new simply because I've read some stories about remans prematurely seizing, which is something I don't want to deal with again.

I don't think I can justify the premium for the hawk pads right now as I won't be immediately autocrossing the car, but I'll consider them down the line. would also prefer some quieter brakes for now, especially after hearing what my stuck caliper sounded like when I was driving down to the tire shop  

thanks for all your input guys, I'm also going to discuss with my mechanic to see what they think about the rotors needing a replacement and I'll order new parts from there.

Yes, I did have the cash and I believe my calipers may actually be reman'd ones off Rockauto. No issues here after 3 years. We've only very recently (like last winter) started salting the roads in the winter here in Portland, so that could be part of it.

[pleiadesfella]

took some better pictures of my front left brakes today. after seeing the rust, I decided to get new rotors anyway as it would be better in the long run, instead of having to send the car back to the mechanic again in the future for new rotors.

I followed max's advice and checked my local canadian tire, and they somehow had lgt brembo ceramic pads + blank rotors in stock for a good price, so I got them instead of ordering off rockauto. I asked about how their core returns worked and they made it sound simple enough, so I'm also going to be ordering centric remanned calipers from canadian tire too as I get a better price that way compared to rockauto.

 

4 hours ago, Pleides said:

Yes, I did have the cash and I believe my calipers may actually be reman'd ones off Rockauto. No issues here after 3 years. We've only very recently (like last winter) started salting the roads in the winter here in Portland, so that could be part of it.

I'm glad to hear they're working well for being remans since that's the route I'm going now. I live in salt hell but I store my spec b over the winters so thankfully that's not a worry for me. really sucks to hear they started salting the roads though, hope you get a thorough undercoat and rustproof the doors on your lgt before winter. I've rotted one lgt out due to salt and my ignorance when it came to rust, would hate for the same to happen to anyone else