Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes Need New Rotors & Pads whats the best?

I need to get so new rotors and pads for my car. What is the best rotor/pad combo for a 98 SE. Im thinking about slotted rotors . And i have drums on the back but i dont know if im going to do a conversion yet so what brake shoes should i get.

Contact Stazi for his brake kit - it is relatively inexpensive and high quality. Why on earth would you want slotted rotors? Before you get flamed big time, read the stickies at the top of this forum.

If you're not tracking the car extensively, there's no reason to upgrade the brakes. The rear drums should work fine, but discs are easier to work on, and have better feel. Stazi's kit is good quality and a great price. Slotted rotors are completely unecessary - they'll just eat your pads in no time, and unless you get very high quality ones, they'll crack much easier. The best brake job I'd reccommend as being worth the money is Stazis kit (including rear discs), speedbleeders for the calipers, and some good fluid. Anything more is bling, really. One note: SVT front rotors are a cheap upgrade that will give you a little more fade resistance,and look a little bigger behind custom wheels, but I have no personal experience with them, so I won't say they're worth it - others here will, however.

I think it's a common misconception, around this forum, that you don't need to upgrade brakes unless you're tracking your car frequently. I have never taken my car to the track, but there has been many times that having upgraded brakes has come in handy. Who here doesn't drive "agressively" and need to stop quickly from time to time. Not that my brakes are way better than anybody else's, but I like them a lot more than I did the stock brakes. The sticky thread about slotted rotors states arguments from people who like and dislike them. I certainly don't think anybody would get flamed for saying they might get slotted rotors, as if it's an open-shut argument. My powerslots are fantastic, and have shown great wear without extra wear on my pads. They also give great perfomance in wet weather, where regular rotors may lack. I had Stazi's brakes for a while, and they were fine. But I think if you make your car faster with mods, you should make your car able to stop faster as well. Makes perfect sense to me.

You won't stop faster with different brakes. You'll get more initial torque, and perhaps easier modulation, with high-performance pads. A very agressive pad like the Hawk HP+ will give much grabbier brakes than stock, if you like that feeling. However, in a flat-out panic stop, Stazi's kit will keep you on the ABS just as well as your brakes. You just won't stop faster with bigger rotors unless you are fading your stock pads.

A lot of people upgrade the whole system and claim something made a huge difference when it was really something else. People go to slotted rotors and Hawk pads and claim it was the slots: it wasn't. People get SS hoses and say they make a huge difference: they don't. It was flushing the fluid for the installation that made the biggest difference. If you want to be glued to the windshield when you tap the pedal, highly agressive pads on non-slotted rotors are just as torquey as slotted. But they won't stop your car faster under street conditions.

Slotted rotors do heat up your pads faster in the wet, but that's because they wear them faster. I've always brushed the brake occassionally when driving in the wet, and it's safer and cheaper than slotted rotors.

So it's fine to like a very agressive pedal feel that makes it easy to brake hard, quickly - but it's a lot of money to pay for not really improving your stopping disatance. And what kind of pads did you use when you went slotted?

Here's what tirerack says about rotors like PowerSlots:

http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=87

Yeah, I didn't like that. That is why cross-drilled rotors came about, but it's not why slotted rotors are still used. Anyway, the part about slotted street rotors being weaker is true, and that's what I was pointing at.

I see no problem with upgrading brakes. It's just that it's not worth it for a street car. The argument that adding power means you need to add breaking is flawed. You should not go any faster on the street just because you have more power. A Zetec automatic will go too fast for the street.

If you do insist on spending the money on bakes just because you want to, then do whatever you want. If you're not actually going to use them, it doesn't matter if you buy crap. If you really want to be able to stop fade-free with good modulation and torque in all safe street conditions, then stock brakes are sufficient and much cheaper than the bling ones.

Once more: You can do whatever you want to your car. But saying "I personally think brakes should be upgraded no matter what." is assinine. A car will not stop shorter with slotted rotors, and won't see any real difference from bigger rotors. So telling everyone that they need to "upgrade" is simply inane. This person said he needed new brakes and wanted to know what was good. Without specifically stating he wanted something to look fancy, the assumption is that he wants something that will stop his car. That's what stock brakes do: they stop the car, and do it well.