Brake pads

silver

silver

Forum Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
1,018
Location
Tathra, Far South Coast, NSW
Car Year
2005
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
Manual
Just been looking at the BENDIX site as i am thinking of upgrading my pads.
Some of you might be interested in the 4WD pads they make for Foresters. They only seem to be available for the front and i am thinking of 4WD front and Ultimate rear or Ultimate F & R.
I have just sent them an email with details of the way/sort of driving i do and will see what they suggest.
 
Apparently they are made specifically for 4WDs. I think they are groved also. Check out the website.
 
I was on the Disc Brakes Australia site, thinking i might put some better rotors on the front, just for something to do really, and i see they have 'vented' rear rotors availiable for 02 0n Foresters. Could be interesting.
I have sent them an email to see if it is a straight on/off swap. If it is this is something i will do.
Anyone got specs on the OEM rear discs. I could compare them to the specs of the vented ones to give me an idea if they are a straight swap. I would have thought vented discs would be thicker.
 
Last edited:
Re the above post.
DBA has got back to me and the vented rears are a no go. The calipers don't suit, but they do have 3 different solid rears to choose from including slotted and slotted/drilled.
He suggest heavier duty pads to get the most out of them and the Bendix Ultimates would be fine.
As a matter of interest...do any Foresters come with rear vented discs? Must be for the overseas market.
Very good response from DBA:bananatoast::Bananacomputer:
 
I have slotted DBAs all round and am very pleased with them in combination with upgraded pads.
 
DBA has suggested Ultimates all round.
Kevin..so you had to change the calipers on the rear??
 
silver said:
As a matter of interest...do any Foresters come with rear vented discs? Must be for the overseas market.
Click to expand...
I know that the MY05 come standard with vented front discs. As for the rear I'm not quite sure.

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
silver said:
DBA has suggested Ultimates all round.
Kevin..so you had to change the calipers on the rear??
Click to expand...

Nope. slotted with vented fronts and solid rears. The difference is quite noticable in that very little pedal pressure is needed to stop the car. In normal (slow speed) traffic, I can just rest my foot on the pedal and the car will slow to a standstill.
 
My blue Kevin. I had vented on the brain. I was thinking that vented all round would be very nice indeed.
It seems funny to me that DBA offer vented rears as i don't know of any forester in any market that had vented rears,maybe the STi version in the UK/US, therefore you would have to change the rear calipers to put vented rears on. In fact i think the US models on the X had drum rears and it was actually an option to have rear discs. Not sure if that changed with the latest model.
Not many 'racing' Foresters around so where exactly is the market???
They offer two vented rears... the street series and the 4000 series.
Each of these has 3 versions.. normal,slotted and cross drilled and slotted.
In the solids they have the street series and the 4000 series all in normal, slotted and slotted/cross drilled.
For the fronts they have 3 versions...street,4000 and gold all with the 'kangaroo paw' style cooling vents and all with 3 versions,normal, slotted and crossed drilled/slotted.
I went to AUTOBARN today and the qoutes are ... Bendix Ultimate pads front.. $199 set......Rears $169set.
DBA 4000 solid slotted rears... $269 each ($538)
DBA Street Series Slotted Rears...$239 each ($478)
The difference between the Street series and the 4000 series is the material used in the rotors.. the 4000 series have better thermal properties and dissipate heat better.
Not sure what the difference is with the Gold series.
Don't know why but i didn't expect them to be quite that expensive.
Might settle on new pads....then again???
My OEM pads are now up to 73,000klms. As a matter of interest what are you guys getting?
Any tips on changing the pads as i have never done it before....rears.:bananatoast::)
 
I just changed my front pads at 104000 km (have had the car from about 50000 km) so I assume that they were the originals. Could have gone a bit longer but by the time you have the wheel off and the pads out you might as well put the new ones on.

Subaru have made it very easy to change pads. One bolt removed at the bottom of the caliper and the caliper pivots off the disc. Pull the old pads out, push the piston back in (G clamp - check the fluid level under the bonnet as it could spill) put the new pads in, pivot back in place and bolt up. Repeat on other side.

I have put the bendix 4WD pads in.
 
I am not sure but I think you will find vented rears are for the WRX from about 1999 onwards. While swapping to these calipers would allow the use of the vented discs, I doubt it would be worth it. Early Forries had small brakes that can easily be upgraded to current spec. Slotted rotors will improve initial bite and help in hard braking by allowing gases that build up under nraking to dissipate better. For brake advice there are a number of places you can try in Sydney, such as V-Sports at Arndell Park, or Race Brakes (They have moved I think since I last used them). Of course, make sure you flush your brake fluid annually.
 
Correction. The rear vented discs ARE for the WRX, what I am unsure of is which model they came out on or if used on other models such as Liberty, etc. I have an MY99 WRX which does have them, but the MY96 WRX did not .
 
The reason i questioned the vented discs is that they are listed under Forester replacement discs. I didn't even look at the Rex stuff.
Just seems strange to me. I can't imagine that there are loads of Forries out there that have changed to rear vented discs.
 
Ah, I see. Maybe some of the GTRydaz mob go for that sort of thing?
 
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