5d ago

Brake upgrade (read before saying I don't need it)

I need brake upgrades for a 2012 Honda pilot. The local twisty road is quite hilly and I can be hard enough on the brakes to get fade from the OE brakes. They seem to have shit themselves after a recent drive. I asked for pad recommendations and was told Hawk Performance, EBC Bluestuff, Porterfield r4-s, or akebono euro are good options. I was unable to find those for my car. If any internet stranger could find some in a size that fits, that would be awesome, but I would also be open to other suggestions. I also would like fluid and rotor recommendations. I don't want drilled rotors, would consider slotted. I'm hoping to not dump tons of cash on this, as I'm trying to save for a better car as the long term plan. Thanks in advance!

16 comments

I can be hard enough on the brakes
Why not put it into a lower gear whether it’s sport mode or just manually shifting into one? Mountains in my part of the world are rather hard on brakes too if you’re just riding around in a high gear.
- I use low gears. The issue is it's also the fun road with corners and such.
I put the Powerstop Z23 "Sport" carbon-ceramic brake pads on my Crosstrek some years ago and they've been bomber so far. Rockauto also lists them for your car, but plug in all of your make/model/options/etc. yourself rather than purchasing from that link because I don't know if there are any trim level variations we need to worry about. I got slotted rotors at around the same time, but I don't recall from what brand. They're out there, regardless.
For brake fluid, DOT 5.1 will have the highest boiling point. I don't have a brand preference, I just use whatever the Autozone across the street sells me, which is I think Prestone. Edit: My neighbor races his N series Hyundai and swears by Castrol SRF. He hasn't binned it yet, so I must imagine it works.
Do not use DOT 5, it has to be 5.1, since 5 is silicone rather than glycol based not chemically compatible with the DOT 3/4 that your car came filled with. Do yourself a favor while you're at it and pick up one of those brake fluid pressure bleeders. I have this one, and the reservoir caps on most Asian cars seem to be the same so this will probably work for yours without having to buy a different cap.
Punters on the internet may tell you that since everything is a tradeoff, DOT 5.1 will require flushing more often than 4 or 3. If you decide this is so, it ought to be a doddle for you with your shiny new pressure bleeder. A mere 30 minute job.
If your brakes have blown and not recovered after apparently boiling but then cooling off, you may also need to look into replacing one or all of your calipers, or the flex lines going to them.
Why don't you want drilled rotors?
Edit: I'm not sure what the best answer is for you I would go post on the forum to get information who know your car in and out and may have even done those modifications themselves already
- Drilled rotors crack when pushed and don't offer much for cooling gains.
Make sure your tires are in order too; they're just as important for stopping distance, if not more important than good brakes.
- Yep, tires are all in order. Just looking for better temperature resistance in the brakes.
Slotted or drilled rotors won't do anything for fade. The only thing you can do short of a big brake kit is upgrade your pads, and ideally your brake fluid with them too.
- Yep, the rotors just need replaced which is why I am asking for recommendations. Pad and fluids are what I intend to actually upgrade, I just need to figure out what pads to get. I specifically asked for rotor recommendations that aren't drilled because drilled rotors crack easily, but will consider slotted rotors because the only real downside that I know of is worse pad wear which isn't too bad.
The only cheap way to really do brake upgrades is to find a junkyard with a higher trim car, IF your car had options for larger brake sizes. Then swap the all the knuckle and brake assemblies including master cylinder. It's fairly involved and doing anything else custom is gonna be $.
Ceramic pads typically perform the best in high heat compared to typical organic or metallic pads. They're also noisy. Eh. I get all my stuff on rockauto typically Raybestos brand.
Its ultimately a physics issue. Better pads and slotted rotors will slightly increase your braking force and temp resistance, but at the end of the day if your brake system is not physically large enough to reject the heat it is generating, it will continue to fail every single time no matter how many Amazon parts you throw at it.
Flushing your dot3 for dot4 brake fluid (its directly compatible) will get you an extra 20deg of boil point protection and reduce fade a little. Especially if your fluid is already neglected. But see above issue about physics, it is not a magic bullet.
Other commenters are right. Change how you drive to reduce brake heat.
On long downhill slopes you need to stay in a lower gear so you have more engine braking force helping you out. If your gear shifter has the option for d, d3, d2, use the lower gear options depending on speed to ensure engine braking.
Practice pulse braking- brake harder for a few seconds to drop 8-10mph, then let off and coast until you are going too fast again. This extra few seconds allows heat to conduct away from the surface of the brake rotor and prevents excessive heat buildup in the pads and caliper. You'd be surprised how much it helps.
You definitely need to change the way you drive before you consider upgrading your brakes.
- That's good advice if you're driving a sporty car close to the limit. It's a Honda pilot so the limit is fairly low and falls into the range of spirited driving. I want to save for a more suited car to how I drive which won't be pushed as hard when driven somewhat spiritedly.
  
  No you’re driving that vehicle past its limit and you should change the way you drive if the brakes are fading that badly.
I watch a lot of mischa choudrin, a guy who drives various cars around the nordschleife, a public „race track“. From the videos it looks like a simple brake pad upgrade may already do the job to avoid brake fade as OEM ones tend to overheat quite fast.
Maybe you could try using better pads instead of replacing the whole brake-assembly?
- I'm wanting better pads, and brake fluid. My rotors are just getting worn. Calipers and everything will stay stock.
I always just go with Bosch ceramic pads and whatever rotors off of Rock Auto. Flush the fluid.

16 comments