Upgraded My Brakes!

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro) 11/23/2016 at 09:00 • Filed to: brakes, mustang, sn95, wrenching, blog

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Early SN95 Mustangs of the V6 and GT varieties came with single-piston calipers from the factory. Fortunately, upgrading to the Cobra-spec PBR dual piston calipers is more or less a bolt-on affair.

Last year, in anticipation of upgrading the front brakes, I converted the rears to the Cobra setup. It wasn’t much of an upgrade, especially since the calipers and pads remain the same. But the Cobra rears allow for better cooling, thanks to larger rotors, which are also vented (V6/GT ones are solid). This also gave me an opportunity to go through the whole axle and overhaul it since the axle-shafts had to be pulled to complete the swap.

As for the front, there are many options out there. You can go all-out and get the big guns, like the Cobra R’s Brembos or one of the aftermarket kits (Wilwood, Baer, etc.), but I decided that the regular Cobra setup would be plenty for my daily-driven ’95 GT.

I went to the local parts store to round up all the individual parts, gathering Cobra brake hoses, calipers+brackets, pads (Akebono), and rotors. To my delight, the total cost was around $400, less than any of the big brake kits at online Mustang parts retailers.

Once I had the parts home, I was tempted to put them on the car right away, but resisted the urge so that I could apply high-temperature paint to the calipers and brackets. The brackets, as you can see in the picture, were different colors right out of the box anyway, so I covered them both up with black high-temp spray paint. For the calipers, I used Rust-Oleum’s red caliper paint kit.

I’m kinda glad that I ended up with the plain ones, instead of ones with “COBRA” or the running horse logo. It’s nice to keep badging to a minimum.

After patiently waiting for the paint to dry (7 day cure time recommended), I got to work disassembling the old brakes.

The last time I did brakes on this car, I was in a bit of a hurry and just used stock parts instead of putting the money towards what I really wanted. After that, I vowed that the next penny I spent on brakes would be for the upgrade. I must have done something right, because the GT brakes have been holding up great, and even after 4 years, they are nowhere near needing replacement.

Spurring this upgrade is a vibration under braking, which could probably be fixed by simply resurfacing the rotors. But I made myself a promise, and I’m sticking to it. This upgrade has been on my mind for a while, and I’m not spending any more cash on stock brakes. So here goes.

I knew that this was going to be an easy swap, thanks in no small part to the previous owner’s decision to fit the car with 17" S197 wheels. But as I poked around, I decided that I didn’t like the look of some of the steel brake lines (even though they probably would have held up for another couple years of Michigan roads), and immediately got to work replacing them with NiCopp. After unbolting the lines, I weaseled them out intact to make sure that I would be able to maneuver the new ones into place in one piece.

Not perfect, but close enough.

I unrolled some fresh tubing, taped it to the old line, and started bending, using the old line as a template. The closer you follow the old shape, the better chance you have of re-using the old retainer clips.

Fortunately, I was able to re-use the old nuts after a little cleaning, and managed to remember to slide them on before flaring the tubing.

I maneuvered the new lines in place and tightened them down. Not to the old brake hoses, but to the new ones. Now I could have gone with braided steel here, but I really don’t like how hard it is to inspect them. Rubber hoses are much easier to keep an eye on for developing cracks.

Lots of life left in these. I count about 6-7mm of friction material on all pads, and about 26mm of rotor thickness, with hardly any lip on the outer edge. Not bad for 4 years of use.

I unbolted the old calipers fully loaded with their brackets, hoses, and pads. The old rotors came off too. Everything looks like it has LOTS of life left in it, so I have it all set aside just in case somebody wants them. (I even verified that the bleeders do in fact open without snapping off.)

Double the pistons, and a little more pad surface area. Lighter, too!

13" vs 10.8"

Before mounting the caliper bracket, I chased and cleaned the caliper bolts so that they would thread nicely into the new brackets with no fuss. But before clipping the pads into the calipers, I had to figure out which way they go, since all 4 pads are different. Of course, I didn’t have old parts to refer to for proper orientation, so I consulted the manual, paying close attention to the tabs on the pads:

With that sorted, I could continue assembly. Almost there...

Before & after:

The dust shield is still back there, hiding.

After applying some grease and installing the pins, I torqued all parts to spec. Then it was just a matter of bleeding the air out of the lines, and putting the wheels back on. Ready to roll! Here’s one more pic that makes me wish that I had taken a “before” pic with the wheel on:

I’m not going to be able to fit the head of my wash-brush between the wheel and the rotor anymore. Boo-hoo.

Another thing I like about these PBRs is that I won’t have to special-order any fancy pads. I can walk into any parts store and ask for Cobra parts. All that’s left now is to break them in, and the local pedestrians can breathe a little easier.

vondon302 > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 09:30

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Nice job. Good tips on bending the brake lines to the old one and not being able to inspect the braided line. Never thought of that second one. Never much cared for the sn 95 design when they came out but in the last few years I’ve come around and like them a lot.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 09:38

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Mustangs have brakes?

Urambo Tauro > vondon302 11/23/2016 at 09:42

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Part of me still likes the aggressive styling of the New Edge SN95s better, but I gotta admit, the sleek lines make the earlier ones kinda sexy!

Future next gen S2000 owner > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 09:59

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Serious question. If your brakes held up fine for a number of years, and you mostly DD it, why upgrade the brakes? It doesn’t seem that you were using the full performance of the stock setup.

I would understand if you were autocrossing/tracking it but as a DD I’m struggling to understand the motivation.

Also related, why go cobra over an upgraded pad/rotor in the regular GT size?

Urambo Tauro > Future next gen S2000 owner 11/23/2016 at 10:13

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Good question. I think you’re absolutely right that most of my driving is well below the limit of the stock brakes. But I’ve been thinking about getting into autocrossing for a while now, and I didn’t want to jump right in without making some changes first. And I think I’m really close now. The car has some other mods to the chassis, steering, and suspension, but I still haven’t modified the engine at all, just regular maintenance.

My biggest reason for selecting the Cobra PBRs is the simplicity of it being an OEM performance offering. I like that it’s a direct bolt-on, I like being able to pick up new parts off the shelf at a moment’s notice, I like the look and fit... it just pushes all the right buttons for me.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 10:35

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Those are fair points. The unintended consequence is you probably have bumped yourself into a higher class through your mods. I would look heavily at CAM if your local autocross runs that class.

Good luck!

DarrenMR > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 10:47

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Thats going to lower your kill count.

AfromanGTO > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 11:07

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Nice upgrade! Brake upgrades are one of my favorite mods. I hope you cleaned up your hubs, removed any surface rust, and put antisieze on it before putting the new rotors on. That could have been the cause of your vibration. I did something similiar to my GTO with CTS-V/ZL-1 Brembos.

Tires will be your limiting factor now.

Urambo Tauro > AfromanGTO 11/23/2016 at 11:32

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This is one of the most rewarding mods I’ve done to the car yet, especially considering the time spent. I like to take my time, and some projects end up snowballing into bigger projects, especially when rust puts up a fight. But in this case, everything went rather smoothly and was easy to access. Even with my mild OCD with cleaning threads and properly torquing fasteners, it was over in just a few hours.

I was able to determine that the rotors did indeed need resurfacing after all, but that will be a very minor inconvenience for whomever ends up taking my old parts. And there was hardly any rust on the hub, thanks to my replacing the wheel bearings a few years ago. Using anti-seize on the rotor hats is a very good tip; I learned that after having to sledgehammer the wheels off of a Silverado.

AfromanGTO > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 12:12

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I felt the same way. I like to take my time as well, but my brakes took a little longer than yours. I had some trimming to do in the rear, but the fronts were pretty quick.

Hopefully whomever gets your parts will resurface them. I am suprised nobody from a LeMons team has hit you up for the parts.

Anti-seize on the rotor hats should be common knowledge, but sadly it isn’t. I prefer not to whack the rotor to remove it. You may break something or mess up a wheel bearing.

Leonardo DiCabriolet > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 19:15

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How you like the PBR’s so far? I’m in the process of upgrading to Cobra R Brembo’s, just need to finish rebuilding them.

Urambo Tauro > Leonardo DiCabriolet 11/23/2016 at 19:33

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I’m taking it easy for the time being, so that they can break in properly. But even though I haven’t slammed on them yet, I can already feel a difference.

I’m in the process of upgrading to Cobra R Brembo’s, just need to finish rebuilding them.

Is that a used set that you’re rebuilding before installation?

Leonardo DiCabriolet > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 20:08

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Best way to bed in the pads is to slam on them progressively actually. There’s a certain procedure which I can’t remember off the top of my head. Did you switch to stainless steel lines?

Yeah, got them off craigslist for a pretty good price. Need to put in new seals and then repaint. Fun part was finding a decent set of wheels they would fit in.

Urambo Tauro > Leonardo DiCabriolet 11/23/2016 at 20:25

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That’s cool that you were able to find some serviceable ones! Great way to save money.

I remember coming across a bed-in procedure that sounded something like that, but when I went to go look it up again, I happened upon this page , which lists 400-500 miles of “moderate driving” as the recipe for breaking in my Akebonos. Officially, Akebono claims that they don’t even need breaking in, but that’s okay; it won’t take long for me to put that many miles behind me anyway.

As for the hoses, I went with rubber because I really don’t like how hard it is to inspect braided steel. Rubber hoses are much easier to keep an eye on for developing cracks.

Leonardo DiCabriolet > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 21:23

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Yeah I was pretty pleased I was able to get them, got a ton of extras with them too. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them but there’s a company called Fully Torqued Racing that offers an adapter so you can use S197 GT500 brakes on SN95 spindles, that’s what I had been considering before I found the Cobra R’s.

Oh right, I forgot about that. I was thinking in terms of “track ready” pads, not a daily driver type. Looking through their page, hows the brake dust on those so far?

I definitely understand that, I’ve actually had a rubber hose collapse on itself and completely lock up the drivers side front brake before, wasn’t fun. If I had been paying attention to it I probably would’ve caught it happening.

Urambo Tauro > Leonardo DiCabriolet 11/23/2016 at 21:43

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Huh. Never heard of FTR before. Bookmark added!

The pads don’t seem to have produced any dust as of yet, but it’s only been a few days. The manufacturer claims little-to no dust, but I live on an unpaved road, so I’ll probably never notice it anyway.

I see a Fox in your avatar. That yours?

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 22:22

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Nice upgrade! Nice price too.

Leonardo DiCabriolet > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 22:57

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Pretty cool guy owns the company, he tracks Mustang’s, makes some interesting parts as I’m sure you saw.

Gotcha, should be interesting to see how well they last compared to say an Autozone pad.

Nah, I wish it was though. It’s one of the old DTM Mustangs, I’m absolutely in love with the body. I have a 94 Cobra at the moment, kinda crappy gas station pic:

Urambo Tauro > Leonardo DiCabriolet 11/23/2016 at 23:30

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Wow, that looks really nice!

Leonardo DiCabriolet > Urambo Tauro 11/23/2016 at 23:40

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Preciate it! I saw you mention in one of the other comments you’re thinking about autocross, I’m in the same boat, hoping to find some time to go to an event as the year winds down.