Brake advice...

[Jonathan]

Fronts need doing before I go loopy, they are so badly warped they're making a hell of a racket under 40mph, have to rest my toe on the brake to shut them up which is a bad thing.

Got EBC rotors and greenstuff on my Elise and they seem to work well and I know Simon has fitted them (any issues ?).

Read LEW obviously but looking for some real life experience on some different types.

Must admit I'm not a balls out driver (hence the Elise) but I like to improve on the stock stuff. Ta muchly.

[s4simon]

My fronts discs were a bit of a Bi*tch to get off. They (Lotus) use loctitite 4,000,000 on that dam screw (Make sure you order two before starting work - only cost a pound each). First one took me a week to get off, and once I had the knowhow, the other took just over an hour. The EBC discs look super (bought them at Stoneleigh last year ('show special' they said) - probably saved

[Techspy]

I went with a set of 4 from here http://www.ramspott-brandt.de/ I cant comment on the performance yet as I havn't driven it since being installed. It was a decent price though.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for input so far,

Simon - I do like the setup I have on the Elise which are EBC, they're still not bedded in yet but they certainly pull up well. TBH I have looked around a lot and I think I'm gonna go the same way - they are by far the cheapest option for an upgrade over the originals and tbh I'm not a heavy on the brake guy anyways.

Gonna speak to the guy who sold the Elise set to me, by far the cheapest around

[lrg_machine]

I've just bought a pair of the EBC front discs, a set of Hawke pads and new braided brake lines for my S4s, have yet to fit them though so will let you know how they go, certainly look the biz

[s4simon]

Esprit 2.2 Turbo 94- , EBC Greenstuff Brake Pads (DP21140e2946)

Not sure on the discs (thrown the boxes away) - the EBC website should sort you out.

[lrg_machine]

What you want is www.Powerstop.co.uk

they list all the EBC products and list the S4/ S4s discs front and rear for 89 squid

and non brembo S4 discs for

Edited September 17, 2005 by lrg_machine

[Jonathan]

Yeah, they've cocked up with the GT3 (not the 1st time some 3rd party has done that !) and listed it as non Brembo and clocked it on AP brakes......cant think of any GT3 equiped with AP from new - afaik they're all Brembo equipped front and back.

I did enquire about them but the guy was unsure of the product number, so badly need mine done they're going wobwobwobwobwob even with the foot of the pedal !

Just gonna do the front for the time being - I'll do the rears when the car gets layed up over the winter.

Tempted to go for redstuff - I know Dave Mc uses them and the thing pulls up like mad.

[s4simon]

I pretty sure the fronts discs were (EBC) GD1130.

[DAVES_GT3]

Yeah, they've cocked up with the GT3 (not the 1st time some 3rd party has done that !) and listed it as non Brembo and clocked it on AP brakes......cant think of any GT3 equiped with AP from new - afaik they're all Brembo equipped front and back.

I did enquire about them but the guy was unsure of the product number, so badly need mine done they're going wobwobwobwobwob even with the foot of the pedal !

Just gonna do the front for the time being - I'll do the rears when the car gets layed up over the winter.

Tempted to go for redstuff - I know Dave Mc uses them and the thing pulls up like mad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

john

the ebc discs are a one off made for the esprit, well at least the rears anyway. i spoke to steve at sj about this. only one main distributer sell them to the trade. even ebc dont sell them to the likes of sj etc:

steve offered me front and rear discs and s/steel hoses for

[Jonathan]

I was going to go along with the big brake upgrade but PNM and I don't currently see eye to eye

Personally I dont want to spend that much money on something when I know what a big difference changing the pads makes. I would probably go for standard disks but they are a lot more expensive than EBC which certainly work well on the Elise.

Gonna order mine tomorrow and I'll see what prices I can get -

[Jonathan]

Ordered the fronts @

[superdavelotus]

PNM do discs pretty cheap as well

Fronts plain

[The_Del]

Got EBC discs and pads on front and rear of mine and can't really fault them. Them took a hile to bed in but now they bite quickly and no fade issues so far. I'm not a slow driver either.

I only put green stuff on as I do a lot of normal driving and didn't want any issues due to not getting to temparature. Also with the grooved and dimpled discs red-stuff wouldn't be required except for trck days IMHO.

[rens914]

But for track days they're not good enough

after 5 fast laps you'll have to be very carefull not to park your car outside the track

slowing down helps too but is no issue

EBC green or red stuff is only yust good enough for normal driving with a fast sprint once a while

rens

[Jonathan]

Got the stuff today <24h, thats service !

[s4simon]

That was the easy bit

Now you gotta get the old ones off

That Dammed Hex Screw

[DAVES_GT3]

That was the easy bit 

Now you gotta get the old ones off 

That Dammed Hex Screw

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yer i dont envy you john, i just put some 25mm spacers on ly hubs and had a bad enough job getting the wheels off!!! sorry to put a downer on things

all copper slipped up now though!! wey hey!

dave

[Jonathan]

Nee worries - had plenty of practice, wouldn't be the same if it didn't fight you all the way !

Funny, people ask "worst thing about owning a Lotus"

Reply "My aluminium and GRP car ?....the rust....."

[Jonathan]

Decided to take a look today - must admit the thing came to pieces alot quicker than I realised 30mins I had gone from a recie to changing 1 side. Rusted to hell but the threads are fine, no probs (sorry guys).

The clowns who had put the old set on though really f'ed the job up, no copper slip at all and the inside pad was frozen in place which is what was causing the wobwobwob noise, I had to hammer the pad out !

Pity Lotus didn't design the piping a bit better - the rigid pipe stops you taking the caliper off easily, the only way to do it I could see was to crack the nuts slightly and loosen the piping but I didn't wanna bleed the unit so left the pipes intact.

Would have thought a nice P clip should have done the job to hold the pipes in place but they went the hard route and put them through a rigid bracket...never mind, other wise it would have been a 10min job.

On the plus side, the pre-brembo's look 10x times harder so I'm thankful for that.

Edited September 21, 2005 by Jonathan

[lrg_machine]

Decided to take a look today - must admit the thing came to pieces alot quicker Pity Lotus didn't design the piping a bit better - the rigid pipe stops you taking the caliper off easily, the only way to do it I could see was to crack the nuts slightly and loosen the piping but I didn't wanna bleed the unit so left the pipes intact.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Along with the discs, I bought a braided brake hose set from SJs for

[Jonathan]

Brilliant - car's now off the road due to the fact the person who done the last pad change thought it would be ideal to HAMMER the pads in and consiquently there is damage to the caliper..........

Both pads are so jammed in I can't even withdraw them, its a wonder the things were actually biting at all !

Ppl wonder why I do all the maintenance on the car myself....

[DAVES_GT3]

Brilliant  - car's now off the road due to the fact the person who done the last pad change thought it would be ideal to HAMMER the pads in and consiquently there is damage to the caliper..........

Both pads are so jammed in I can't even withdraw them, its a wonder the things were actually biting at all !

Ppl wonder why I do all the maintenance on the car myself....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

my thoughts exactly jon. couldnt get the bloody wheels off mine because the last idiots never greased them up!!

id rather do the work my self. just worried about the after sales side of things

dave!

[ansellb]

So what's the news, Jon? Did the new hardware make a huge difference?

I'm just checking out the options for upgrading the brakes of my pre-Brembo S4, you see.

PNM suggested spending

[islandbloke]

This probably isn't much help as I only remember part of the story - but when I bought Lottie back, PO said he'd upgraded the standard SE calipers to Brembo units (S4/V8 spec??) and I *think* Audi S4 discs which were machined a bit to fit.

Or something.

Am dreading having to replace them one day, but another poster may have the details...and they certainly make a world of difference compared to the originals.

Edited November 20, 2006 by islandbloke