Brakes

[ian059]

I recently upgraded from a '97 Forester auto to a 2002 MY03 Forester manual and the stand out feature apart from the extra ponies, was the brakes. Absolutely astounding. I've almost thrown my passengers through the windscreen just showing them off.

Good on you Subaru!

 

[J.M.K]

Throw a set of drilled and slotted rotors and some hawk HPS pads on there and youll be taking the road with you every time you hit the breaks!

 

[Rally]

The rotor size between the 2 models increased by about 20mm I think- maybe more, so that helps explain it. They are now the same size as WRX rotors. I went a bit further, adding WRX calipers and slotted rotors which combined with fresh fluid and not much power meant I coul have a lot of confidence in them.

 

[Eastie]

We noticed similar when we traded our 99x to our 05xt. I recently replaced the worn out/warped rfront otors on our xt with DBA slotted ones and the improvement was similar.

 

[Rally]

Slotted rotors certainly give more initial bite. For sustained braking though, pad material becomes important, but fresh fluid even more so. Change your fluid annually. What most people call warping is in fact not warping at all. It is a depsoit of pad material on the surface of the disc, and as that depsoit passes by the pads, the pads retract, pulsing the pedal as though warped. Machining removes the deposit, but will recur if the same pad material/disc material and driving habits remain the same.

 

[spinners]

Bleeding a little bit also from each of the corners every few months would also be a good habit to get into also would it not? I guess in lieu of or in addition to a annual replacement.

 

[Rally]

For all the effort involved in doing that, it takes only a bit longer to do the whole system. Old fluid just contaminates the new fluid, in this aspect bleeding from each corner would be more of something that you would do in a WRX or STI with a long pedal on a race track rather than a Forester on the road. Still, it can only help if done corrrectly