All ready for this weekend

"Decay buys too many beaters" (decay) 10/31/2013 at 23:31 • Filed to: FR-S, Brakes, Harbor Freight

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Finally, all of the parts I have been waiting for are here and will be installed this weekend. Here is a list of things that will be installed

- front + rear stainless steel brake lines (Stoptech)

- pads (Project Mu)

- rotors (DBA)

- speedbleeders

- ATE Superblue brake fluid (in gold, because apparently the blue stuff is illegal now?!?)

- transmission spring kit (Mtec)

- correctly sized hub centric rings for my wheels (they came with 2 each of 2 different sizes)

And hopefully I can find a nice quiet place to bed in the aggressive pads without attracting too much attention.

All of this should at long last, reduce the number of parts sitting on my living room floor
(and not on my car) to zero! It will also firm up the brakes and make for a much better bite (hot and cold) than my current set up. It should also give me quite a bit of braking headroom for next summer's tire upgrade. The transmission springs should nicely complement the short shifter I installed last week, and finish off my transmission work until it is time to flush the fluids (which I will do at 10K miles)

On a side note upon realizing that I did not have a properly sized torque wrench for brakes (have 1/4" and 1/2" drives), I decided to go against most of the advice I'd read on the internet and purchased a Harbor Freight 3/8" drive click type torque wrench. Expecting it to be garbage, I brought it in to work and checked it against our (recalibrated bi-annually) Snap-On digital torque wrench. It was dead on (or at least as far as I can judge with a click type torque wrench) at every setting up to around 75 ft-lbs where it tapered off slightly.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Decay buys too many beaters 10/31/2013 at 23:32

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Super jelly of the DBA rotors

YSI-what can brown do for you > Decay buys too many beaters 10/31/2013 at 23:35

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Once the semesters over, and I have a job again, I will be getting a brace, some pads, and better brake fluid. Rotors would be nice, but that will probably be in the summer.

Decay buys too many beaters > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 10/31/2013 at 23:35

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You have no idea how much shit I had to go through to get the proper US spec rear rotors (it took 2 months)

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Decay buys too many beaters 10/31/2013 at 23:38

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They don't even make anything for my MR2, which sucks because they'd be my #1 choice. Kangaroo paw design is super awesome.

Decay buys too many beaters > YSI-what can brown do for you 10/31/2013 at 23:39

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Only reason I'm getting rotors is because my OEM ones are pretty chewed up at this point.

Don't forget speedbleeders! They seem kinda silly until you give them a try, they make bleeding brakes solo really easy.

Decay buys too many beaters > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 10/31/2013 at 23:47

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Yeah, from my research, they did a really good job with the design of the ventilation. That is why I was so upset when I first got them 2 months ago, and the rear rotors were solid rather than vented (solid is standard for Jp/Aus 86s)

To be fair, you have much more affordable full brake kits available for the MR-2. That's the route I would have gone if they did not start at $2-3K per axle for the 86

YSI-what can brown do for you > Decay buys too many beaters 11/01/2013 at 01:24

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Was it because of the track day? Mine seem fine, haven't done a track day but I have been to a lot of autocrosses plus I do a lot of spirited driving.

Decay buys too many beaters > YSI-what can brown do for you 11/01/2013 at 02:04

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I didn't see much deterioration during my track day, but the previous owner (I bought it used) took it to at least one track day as well. This combined with about 7k street miles on some pretty aggressive pads (I'm not sure what kind, they look like project Mu but I'll know for sure this weekend) put some definite grooving into the stock rotors.

I could probably get them resurfaced, but I'd rather throw in some stuff designed for elevated temperatures and better convective cooling.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Decay buys too many beaters 11/01/2013 at 02:13

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Alright then, I guess when I get pads I will have to look out for that. I also don't want dust everywhere, noise is alright as long as they work well and don't have dust. . . I hate brake dust.

Decay buys too many beaters > YSI-what can brown do for you 11/01/2013 at 03:07

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I've got lots of dust, but I never bothered to clean the OEM wheels (even though I wash the car weekly).

I'll have a better report of the dusting after a few weeks with the new pads. Right now my RPF1s are SPOTLESS, so I'll be able to tell pretty quick what level of dusting I'm dealing with.

Not a dealbreaker for me though if they dust a lot, everything I've heard about these pads indicate that they are the best combination street/track pad on sale today.

OtherBarry > Decay buys too many beaters 11/01/2013 at 08:11

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Don't fret the HF torque wrenches. Hot Rod or Car Craft tested them against a bunch of high end ones are were right there with the Snap-On and Matco ones.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Decay buys too many beaters 11/01/2013 at 09:52

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I haven't seen any full kits for the AW11, just the SW20.

Decay buys too many beaters > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 11/01/2013 at 10:51

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hmm, yeah I'm only seeing front kits for the AW11.

YSI-what can brown do for you > Decay buys too many beaters 11/01/2013 at 13:10

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What pads do you have? If they are infant that good I might get a set as well. Brake dust isn't too big of a deal now but if I get Gram Lights I do want to keep them clean. . . They aren't exactly cheap.

Decay buys too many beaters > YSI-what can brown do for you 11/01/2013 at 13:24

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Currently, not sure, but they look like Project Mu (light green in color). I'll know for sure once I take them off. I have been quite pleased with the performance of them. Note that I never drove my car with the stock pads as these were already installed when I purchased it, and the only reason they are being replaced is that the front pads are worn pretty thin. My only experience with the stock brakes was on a test drive, and I remember them being much more squishy than my current set up (and probably like a pillow compared to what my set up will feel like after this weekend) and they required a lot more pedal force to achieve a similar braking force.

I'll be putting on a set of Project Mu HC+800. They are supposed to be similar to the Hawk HP+ but better in just about every measurable area.