Brakes

I have a jspec sup and need some discs and pads, i just have a few qusetions,

What do you guys use?

Should i just use standard replacement parts?

This would be the time to upgrade the braking system, what do you guys normally do? just go for UK brakes?

I dont know much about it so dont get technical i just wondered what other people have done, my mate has offered me some 4pot calipers at a good price etc but not sure if i need 4pot or 6pot?? i havent got a clue

Cheers james

I sell uprated pads for the J-Spec and UK spec calipers, they work very well and produce no more dust or noise than the stock ones, yet give a lot more bite and fade resistance. I can also do a race compound pad, but they ARE dusty and nosiy, as well as expensive. Stock type discs are as good as it gets in stock sizes. If you have over 1500 quid to spend you could look at the AP and Brembo kits. Unless you intend doing lots of track days my fast road pads, good condition discs, a set of braided brake lines and decent fluid should be more than adequate. I sell all this stuff, and you should get independent feedback from others as many here have my pads and other bits and bobs. E-mail me direct if you want to have prices or more info. My phone number should be in my sig below, too.

Can you check your email please Chris. Should be at least one from me.

I'll give you a phone tomorrow.

Cheers Chris ill send u an email

Any one using chris's uprated pads??

Nope, but a question for Chris, can you get uprated pads for Brembo 4 pot fitment?

How many pot are standard j-spec brakes? i been offered some second hand brembo calipers for £300 fitted is this good? i think the previous owner had them on a pulsar but not sure

LOL yeah, they'd fit a treat.... to a pulsar!

You'd need to get someone to find what the part no's for the supra kit were and then make sure that all the part numbers for whatever kit this guy has tally up. If they don't then it's no good.

The stock J-spec pads are twin pot, but they're not opposing.

Hope that helps,

Nope, but a question for Chris, can you get uprated pads for Brembo 4 pot fitment?

yes, but I need a pad outline and thickness faxing to me. Cheers. E-mail me direct if you want to have my fax number. [email protected]

I have CW fast road pads awaiting fitting (saturday actually) after my brake refurbishment is completed. I shall be posting pictures and will add comments regarding the pads (and indeed whole setup) when I get a chance to use them - which should be this sunday. However I also have Goodridge lines, DOT 5.1 and Rotora slotted discs (only cos they were cheaper than the stock ones) to fit at the same time.

James

Are the Rotora ones a direct replacement for the jspec ones...ie, no size worries? Any comments from anyone on these Rotora's ?

Use stock OE discs. You neither need,nor probably want, grooves, holes, funny surface treatments or colourful packaging from obscure parts of the globe. A plain, quality grey cast iron disc is best, spend the money on pads and fluid. The ridiculous star shaped discs that look like some sort of Oriental weapon are just so technically BAD as to defy comment

UK spec 4 pot caplipers and discs should suit you down to the ground.

You may have problems with wheel clearance if you go down this road though. Do your research first

I moved from stock/green stuff pads to CW fast road pads -it made a huge difference to the stopping power and pedal feel. They work fine from highly illegal speeds and I've not experienced fade yet at all, though I have not been on any track days! That said they didn't feel as strong as the UK brakes Matt Harwood demonstrated to me last year!

There's actually less dust generated than the green stuffs and it doesn't stick to the wheels as much.

I also changed the fluid to Motul 5.1 and the lines to braided ones, so maybe this helped too...

If you have £1200+ spare to spend on the full UK setup then go for it (From some previous posts of Chris and others you should not just upgrade the front as that can unbalance the car during braking). But, if (like me) your budget is a bit more limited a new set of CW pads, braided lines and new fluid should make a world of difference

I dont have huge amounts of money for this so im looking for my "best spent/value" option. So im probably looking at a set of CW pads, braided lines and new fluid. I also need discs.

Terawua - Where did you get your discs from? are they better than stock ones??

Thanks Chris, yet again, it feels like god has come down and slapped me for asking a silly question

I see you dont like grooves on road cars that much, so why do they use them on race cars? Or is it just a whole different genre when you discuss race cars?

I believe the disc is cooled quicker due to the groves and holes.. thus helping frequent heavy braking (ie for race conditions), the groves cut up the pad more revealing fresh pad to bite.

Flat disc (stock) will provide you better braking performance for emergencies/ normal road use for a heavy car.

Grooves, slots and/or cross drilling is a feature used on race disks to release gas created from pad material being heated under hard braking. The gas can lift the pad and reduce braking efficiency. Cross drilled rotors (disks) are weaker and are subject to cracking. Slotted rotors will not crack but wear faster due to less surface area and will wear pads faster. These features are mostly show (bling) with little real benefit to the typical Supra owner. Stock disks (UK spec) are excellent for anything other than full road racing and as an added benefit are also pretty cheap. The Supra TT with stock brakes is still one of the best stopping machines ever tested by the auto mags. BTW Green Stuff pads suck. AMHIK Stock TT pads are pretty damn good and Hawk HPS Pads are a decent upgrade. Better response with about the same dust.

The rotora discs are an OEM copy with about 5 or 6 slots per disc... nothing OTT. Yes they look better, but then again, so do my newly cleaned and powder coated calipers (see pic!), and the discs were about 220 pounds for a set of 4, hence my purchase. However I do have a very lovely girlfriend who carried them in her hand luggage(!) on a flight back from the US, hence avoiding carriage and import woes. I purchased them from these people http://www.hopupracing.com and as you will see they are cheap, but their service is not as impeccable as Dusty's at MVP and I had to wait a while for delivery while the front discs were cut. The discs should only be on the car for a *short* while until I upgrade to 18" wheels, and change to 355mm discs at that time. Performance Friction have some interesting two piece rotor options, and are based in Brackley, just up the road from Jordan where my friend works and is knocking up some CAD drawings as we speak to custom machine some bells for the performance friction rotors. As Chris Wilson says however, get decent pads, very good fluid, and goodridge lines - I have his fast road pads (after much recommendation on here) and a set of goodridge lines which are going on this very afternoon. If you want stock parts, Jay Marks Toyota keenly price their parts and I know people have ordered and taken delivery in the UK no problem - the only thing is the stock discs weight 33kg.... a lot to pay for freight.

If anyone tells you green stuff pads are suitable for a MKIV, take anything else they tell you about cars as total bollox. Use stock or hi quality pads. Chris Wilson's road pad worked wonders on JDM brakes as a very good upgrade.

After the recomendations i think ill be going for some CW pads, Braided lines, and new discs. i like the sound of the rotora discs any other recomendations?

Also i like the look of drilled/vented discs but are they really not worth having? do they really cause more wear on the pads?

Don't forget that drilled and/or slotted discs will have to be declared as another modification to your insurance company.

Ditto what Jake says - Sky insurance didnt care about the slotted discs, but said thanks for telling them!

Anyway - am all done now with my caliper refurb, new discs fitting, and CW fast road pads... I am still gingerly touching the brakes, but what a difference in brake pedal feel - it feels so much more solid now, and the bite is also greatly improved! I cant wait to give them a proper try in a couple of hundred miles time....

Oh and supracharged - I only have the Rotoras because I could get hold of them cheaper than the OEM discs. If I could have got OEM as cheap I probably would have gone with them - however my new setup looks quite nice!

Sorry to hijack this thread but I'm very interested in the answer as I need a new pair of front disks too. Where's the cheapest place to buy Jap OE disks from?

I just returned from the U.S. with a set of U.S. spec front rotors/calipers/pads. Duty and shipping free I might add. Being in the Air Force does have its perks. Some questions:

CW - I'll e-mail you about fluid, braided lines, and pads.

Terawua - can you PM me with an itemized list of what you paid for your set up? Would just like to compare.

Anyone who knows for a fact - As far as a "full U.K. setup" goes, is it the same as the U.S. setup and does this include only Calipers, Rotors, and pads?

Can anybody recommend a type/class of brake fluid that's recommended that I'd be able to find here in Germany?

Thanks as always people. You're all welcome to come visit anytime.