Last week I got a package and finally had all the parts I needed.
See look they're overnight from Japan:
Contents, 2x of these:
That's a rear caliper bracket and rotor, and my stock rear rotors are a bit smaller. So the first thing I had to do was trim the rear dust shields a bit
Cutoff wheel, meet dust sheild:
Dust sheild, meet cutoff wheel:
So after a few minutes with that thing I had room for the new rotors:
Then I thought it would be a good idea to clean off all the clips and bolts and other caliper hardware:
Oh hey look there are some stainless steel lines in there too:
Looks like those pads fit the new brackets. They're Axxis Ultimates.
Saturday it was time to get to work. In exchange for those rear rotors and brackets, I agreed to help my boss change the rotors and pads on his CR-V, flush the fluid, and put new pads on his wife's Forester. Here is all our stuff and him and his dog:
We put the CR-V on jackstands, pulled off all the wheels, and I took off the front caliper, cleaned off the bracket, greased the pins and all that junk, then put it back together. It was soon apparent that the rotors we ordered online were the wrong size so we put the old stuff back on, slapped fresh pads on the Forester, and got to work on my car.
Here's the stuff I put on:
What is it all?
WRX front brakes
'H6' Legacy rear brakes
Goodridge stainless steel lines
Axxis Ultimate pads
Motul RBF600 fluid.
That other fluid and the Hawks were for the CR-V.
So, my old front rotors are somewhat smaller than the new ones (260x22mm vs 294x24mm):
The calipers also have an extra piston each.
The rear rotors are also a bit bigger (290mm vs 266mm), and the new rear calipers also have bigger pistons.
Okay lets put this stuff on there. First put on the bigger dust shield:
Then the rotor:
Then the caliper bracket:
Then the pads and caliper:
Do the same for the rear:
Then quickly detach the old lines and put on the new ones. Thankfully they all came off without trouble after being attached for 14 years.
Hey that's nice that with WRX lines and struts I don't have to zip tie things in place:
I bought a mityvac at Sears before I did all this, so flushing and bleeding the brakes was a piece of cake. Pump vacuum handle, crack bleed screw, keep pumping until new fluid comes out. It took like 2 minutes a corner.
Old fluid vs new:
As far as I know it had never been changed. Also it wasn't quite that nasty because some of that came from the calipers and lines that had been sitting for like a year.
So yeah thems are some bigger brakes:
They barely fit under the wheels:
So far I've only bedded in the pads and driven for like 20 minutes. They are a lot better and it's really easy to lock up a wheel. Tonight I think a few of us are going to go for a drive so I'll get a better impression then, and see how the bias is. According to Josh's spreadsheet it should be about the same as it was. I definitely need some stickier tires now.
This was also pretty cheap to do, especially since my boss bought the rear rotors and brackets ($250), and all the rest of the stuff is used. Front calipers were $120, rear calipers and lines were $60, pads were $70 for all four, front rotors were $60 total after a resurface (they had only been a wrx for a few thousand miles before he put brembos on), and the fluid was $30. So like $400 total for bigger brakes all around. The only things missing are the shims, which I don't have. I'm playing around with the idea of having some cut out of a sheet of titanium.
Driving impressions so far (two days later):