Time for brakes

[WormGod]

After 51k miles, the brakes are finally giving me the squeal and whine. Look slike my passenger side pads are both living on borrowed time. Did some price comparisons this weekend and decided to just go ahead and give it the ghost. I had previously been talking to some local tuner shops about any interest in fitting a Brembo kit on my VX, but none wanted to try to tackle it. Can't say I blame them really, heh.

In any case, I just ordered up the following:

Goodridge G-Stop stainless brake lines



EBC Green Stuff pads



Power Slot slotted rotors



Considered ceramic pads, but I never had issues with stopping power, noise, or dust so I am good in that dept. My STI is a different story. Can't wait to put some ceramics on there. Those wheels are HELL with dust, no thanks to the Brembos.

Should be a fun weekend coming up here shortly. Looks like another day spent in the garage. That is, if I don't find myself lazy as usual and have my trusty shop do it.

[vt_maverick]

So what was the shop's concern about Brembo's? Was it a fitment issue behind the wheel? I'm going to have to replace the brakes probably in the next 15K miles or so and I'm looking to upgrade to handle the additional weight of the tires + Borbets + two cargo carrier "tanks" ( JAMAS) but I don't know a lot about big brake packages, etc.

Looks like you've got a good option there though!

[rowhard]

Brake lines are nice, but we have 5. 4 Calipers and one on the rear axle.

[WormGod]

That pic is just a stock I dug up. The VX kit has 5 lines. It's all good.

Brembo rotors are not a big deal as they have an OEM fitment for the VX. The calipers however are VERY wheel specific. With the limited doo-doo wheels available to us (just my opinion), I hate to have to get spacers just to clear the brakes. Face it, some wheels manufacturers actually tell you if teh wheel clears Brembos and if not, what size spacer is needed. Sadly, I have yet to see a truck/SUV wheel state that info. I am not a trial and error kinda person.

My RT6s are quite flush to the OEM calipers and having personal experience with Brembos, they have more volume than the OEM. The 2 shops I spoke with agreed and didn't wanna tear down and rebuild just to have to tell me that my wheels won't work. Plus, and sadly, my trusted tuner shops here are all extremely backed up for a couple of months with engine rebuilds/issues. Not much $$ in a brake job compared to that. It is weird, it's like suddenly a ton of engines are going around here. Post insane winter blues???? Besides, I don't want to make an appt for August.

In the end, it also comes down to cost. Brembos are considerably more expensive and for a vehicle I drive on the weekends for, on average, 20 or so miles.... naaaaaah.

[vt_maverick]

I think the Brembo's would probably fit behind my Borbets as I gained 40mm in offset over stock. (Or is it backspacing that you need? I can't remember.)

Yah I had factory Brembo's on my G35 and while they were ridiculously grabby and great to look at, they were expensive as **** - the rotors were $900+ A PAIR, and the pads were like $200 each.

[blacksambo]

You know, there is nothing wrong with stock Isuzu brakes. If handled with care, they can go many miles. I have 65K+ on mine, and showing minimal wear. I even heard of one guy going 145K on a VX set!

[WormGod]

The VX already has some pretty big brakes on it, just nothing you would phone home to mom about in the "visual" dept. Upgrading to Brembos was just the over-achiever in me wishing for more, heh.

Brembo fitment is a tricky problem. Mounting them on any car is pretty trivial, but getting the right wheel and/or spacer is the trivial part that not all cars have info on regarding fitment. Unless someone else has tackled the task on your vehicle make already, there is little to go by.

[WormGod]

Good times. The STi is stripped down with parts in the paint booth so I am having to drive the VX as my temp DD around the DC Metro area. Always fun (at about 11mpg in this god forsaken traffic!). The REALLY sad part is, I am riding on a just-starting-to-grind rotor. Still waiting for the last bits of my brake kit to come in so I sound like a cement truck rolling down the highway, heh. Trying to rock that extra distance between me and everyone else, if not for braking power, for embarrassment.

Hoping my paint gang gets done QUICK!

[RamAirZ]

I wish we had the 12" rotors up front like we have on the rear, with at least 2 piston calipers up front, that would be nice. Would be nice if someone could make an upgrade kit. If Brembo makes larger rotors for the VX I could get someone to work on making a bracket for a new caliper. A buddy of mine produces brake kits for 3rd gen F-Bodies to run C5/C6 corvette brakes on them.

[vt_maverick]

You would think somebody would already have a BBK out there for same generation Troopers...

[RamAirZ]

Ya but as much as we all love our Zu's, there isn't a big performance market for that kind of stuff. I'm sure all of us here would love it, but in the big scheme of things, it's not something worth the time/resources/money to a big company The rotors are the big hang up (larger diameter ones). If someone made a larger rotor I'm sure we could figure out a caliper bracket to use say a 98+ F-body or C5 Corvette caliper up front (dual pistons). If I can find one in the junkyard maybe I'll grab it to see how hard it would be to modify it to fit the VX.

[RamAirZ]

Just looked up the rotors, the Camaro rotor is about a 1/4" wider than ours. Could you measure the thickness of your new EBC pads?

[WormGod]

Just looked up the rotors, the Camaro rotor is about a 1/4" wider than ours. Could you measure the thickness of your new EBC pads?

Can do.... once that crap arrives. Dunno what's up with the shipping world lately, but just about everything I have had delivered this spring/summer has been 1-3 days late. All things considered, my brake lines haven't even shipped yet. I am in a bad mood already today so it's probably the best time to get on the phone and "start talking".

[etlsport]

Gary, you have any more info on those brembo brakes you tried? I would love to fit them to my VX if it will help stopping power. My wheels are 0 offset but the face of the rim is only like 1 inch from the outer lip, so theres a good 3" space between the face of the rotor and the back of the wheel.. seems like tons of space for a nice big caliper..

[Lizardmen3477]

You know, there is nothing wrong with stock Isuzu brakes. If handled with care, they can go many miles. I have 65K+ on mine, and showing minimal wear. I even heard of one guy going 145K on a VX set!

I got about 130k on My stocks and they are finally giving out