i am looking at upgrading my brakes on my 2000 LGT wagon,, i called morries bp subaru and they quoted me at 300 a piece for 2002 WRX calipers,, is this the right way to go, or is there more cost effictive ways to get better brakes? i have stock 16'' LGT wheels, so im not doing a big brake yet. any advice would be alot of help.
That sounds a little expensive to me. Why do you feel the need to replace your brakes, do you have issues with them, or are you doing it as a modification because other people have done it. If it is the latter, I dont think you need to do it at all. But that is just personal opinion. If you have taken it to the track and notice brake fade, then by all means replace them. I think you could find cheaper calipers on here or nasioc. I wouldnt pay 300 a piece, thats brembo prices.
Good pads is the key. Don't even care about rotors unless you are seriously tracking the car and repeatedly braking from triple digit speeds. Go for some grippy sport pads with a highish friction coefficient. The hard part is finding ones will good cold bite as many sport pads are a step above just street use and don't really grab aggressively till some heat gets into them. However, most will grab as well as stock cold but just won't be linear from cold to hot. For example, I run Carbotech AX6 pads or previously known as Pather Plus/Panther +. They were developed for auto-x use and offer a comparatively high friction level near 0.6. The downside is they are a step above street use. What I mean by this is that for street use, they remain "cold" and don't have as high a friction level as "hot." Rather, braking is around stock cold and after some heavy braking, grip ramps up and the pads get sticking and start to really bite. The non-linearity makes for a less than predictable response due to the non-linear behavior based on temp. Until you get used to the pad and addapt your braking style, it's a little bit of guess work. A more linear pad is more predictable and easy to use both cold and hot. The linear pad probably will offer better cold bite but probably also a little less hot bite as it isn't really specialized. So what kind of pad? Well, most of what you will be looking at are ceramic pads. Some more aggressive pads use some metallic base, but they can be rather noisy and depending on the metal can rust and leave rust deposits on the wheels which can be messy. Aggressive pads generally dust a good bit. The dust is either the pad material if they are light on rotors or the rotor material if they are harsh on rotors, well a combination of both to various degrees. Deposits are normal, and you just have to deal with it. Some pads dust less, some dust differently than others making for easier clean up and such. The less aggressive the pad, the less dusting generally. The choice in brand and model is up to you and in some part a matter of cost as certain brands/models can be a bit pricey. In the most basic sense, look at a few parameters. Many of the companies offer some level of data including operating temperature and friction coefficients. If you're worried about cold bite, look at pads that have lower operating temperatures. Some of the sport pads are labeled at 100C or 150C as the lower end of the operating range. Milder pads will be labeled lower at say 50C or 0C. Also consider the upper end of this usability range. Is the pad from 0C to 400C or from 100C to 900C for example. How are you using the pad? Just for daily use or also for auto-x and such? How hot will they opperate and how much fade resistance do you really need? The second part is friction coefficient. The higher the number, the grippier the pad. Stock and cheapy organic pads will generally be in the 0.3 to 0.4 range, rather mild mannered and in need of heavy pedal pressure. Sportier pads move up into the 0.4 to 0.5 range and offer heavier bite and lighter pedal force needs. Some heavier sport pads and even track pads step above 0.5 and move up into the very grippy 0.6, 0.7, and I think 0.8 range, offering very, very strong bite and feather light pedal effort. This is useful for stopping ease with grippier tires. It's nice to have a good bit of grip when running something like R-compounds where you can make good use of stopping power. However, if you are running crappy all-seasons, grip levels remain low, and you really can't make much use of braking power. A mild tire calls for a mild brake pad. A grippy tire calls for a grippy brake pad. Doing things this way makes for relatively equivalent brake pedal force through the range of braking ability. A grippier pad will stock easier with less pedal effort. Less pedal effort means less fire wall flex and less hydraulic line pressure and less tube bulge. This translates to more immediate braking and a more linear behavior. However, braking will be less forgiving and more difficult to modulate. A milder pad means heavier pedal effort, more fire wall bulge, more line pressure and more tube flex. You'll get a squishier response overall, but you'll have a larger range of pedal effort and easier modulation control. There are lots of pads out there, lots of companies, lots of models, and lots of fits. You'll just have to figure out what fit works best for you.
OP, You really aren't getting much of an upgrade at all by using 02 WRX calipers. You'd get a different pad and caliper mount, but the effective braking surface is going to be about the same. Just get more aggressive pads and maybe stainless lines.
