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Brakes are probably one of the most vital components of a vehicle but more often than not, people forget to upgrade their brakes. While it might not give you a lot of performance outright, brake systems should be upgraded first if you want to eventually increase the power of your vehicle.
The enthusiast, however, wants what it wants and many people just want the bragging rights to have more power. The wiser people choose to have a little more responsibility with the great power and they tend to upgrade the brakes as well along with the rest of the vehicle. Here is a comprehensive guide to brake upgrades and how individual parts affect your braking.
Upgrading your brakes pads is the easiest way to improve your braking force. One can get different types of brake pads depending on their usage. For most people who wish to drive on the street, the brake pads will be enough.
More aggressive brake pads give you more bite and they also have a greater operating temperature window. They will however, eat your rotors up more frequently, produce more dust and also make noise. More aggressive pads are suited for track use only.
There are a lot of companies which make brake pads for different use cases and a lot of different models. You have to strike the right balance, sometimes the pads are enough braking force but if you are doing constant track days then other components might need an upgrade as well.
While Brake Lines will not really add anything to your braking performance, they will however make your brake pedal feel stiff which inspires more confidence. Steel braided lines are also more durable and have better operating temperatures than rubber brake lines.
If you are going to a lot of track days, you should look into upgrading your rotors as well. Now rotors are a tricky business and not easy as they sound. Upgrading rotors to a larger diameter and thickness is recommended.
Larger diameter of the rotors aid in heat dissipation and heat dissipation is the name of the game here. Better heat management means that your pedal will also feel stiffer for longer and the brake fluid will also not overheat.
Other factors to consider while buying rotors is to see the direction of the vanes. The curved vanes are much better at pushing out heat than straight vanes. There are also drilled and slotted rotors. Drilled rotors clean the brake pad by trapping debris and slotted brake rotors are again pretty good at heat management. One can also get treated rotors which last longer.
nding on their needs as all of them have different operating temperatures. Having a braking fluid whicBrake fluid is also a vital component of the braking system. One should use the brake fluid depth is meant for track racing might not be a good idea for street cars and vice versa. Braking fluid should be bleeded correctly and doesn’t need to be changed that often and one can easily follow the manufacturer's recommendation of the brake fluid change interval. If you track regularly, you will need to service and change the brakes a little earlier than usual.
Calipers are the most expensive braking component and they are required if you need some serious braking performance. Larger callipers with more pistons will allow for even pad wear and also be stiffer. They also for larger pads and rotors to be used in the braking system which overall increases the thermal and braking performance of the braking components.
Big brake kits are basically all of these components combined into one. One can buy the whole big brake kit specifically made for your vehicle rather than choosing individual parts. If your vehicle is based on a popular platform, then there will be plenty of brake kits for upgrade to choose from.
