Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Brake Upgrade Questions

I did read all the posts and they were informative. I have the 98 CSVT and it brakes pretty good now, 64k miles. I have no idea how many miles are on the brakes since I just bought the car but they are over 10k I know.

I see where BAT has a 4 rotor and shoe kit for like around $250.

My question is - has anyone any experience with this particular item? Was it worth it, did you see any improvement?

If not have you experience with the sho package or some other vender?

thanks

As long as it's not the econo-rotors it's a good deal! Talk with Stazi about his Autospecialty and Bindex Titaniums. Hard to beat in the value department!

-Andy

The Mintex AF brake lining is pretty close to factory equilivant. It is better, but not by a lot. You probably will not see much improvement.

You may go through brakes faster than I do, but I didn't need front brakes until 150,000 miles. I don't think I would bother to stock up for the future since you will probably be able to find a good buy closer to when you actually need them. Thats my $.02

I have the BAT brake package deal. The rotors are their premium version, which means it's either EBC or AP Lockheed.

Also, according to "Eric at BAT," Mintex uses a different compound for their A/F (or "redbox") pads for each application, depending on intended use. In other words, the redbox pads for the Corvette wouldn't be the same as for the Corolla. For the Contour, Mintex might offer the public a fairly plain-vanilla OEM pad, but BAT worked a deal to get the "Corvette" pad compound on a Contour backing plate, or something like that.

At any rate, I would put these slightly better than OEM pads. My own experience is that I replaced the rear pads first because they were "critical" (metal on metal). I did Baer's rotor seasoning/pad bedding procedure, with the original pads still on the front, and towards the end of the procedure I was getting enough fade that I was getting a bit nervous. About 6 months later, I finally got around to doing the front end. This time, I really enjoyed watching the smoke coming out of the front, but I never detected any fade.

Now, this isn't scientific, because the two other factors that changed were my rotor thickness and pad thickness. So some improvement could be chalked up to these things. But overall I'm very happy with this setup, and its price.

My rears wore out at around 55k, and I replaced the fronts at around 60k, but they had some life left in them.

I ran Mintex AF for about a month (bought some from a fellow CEGr) and I was not that impressed with them from a step up from stock. I then ordered Stazi's pads, and really like them. I can't offer any performance #s, but I can say that the pedal had a lot more feel. And better modulating.

My $.02

Oh...and next week installing his new Bendix Ceramics...