Brake upgrade advice for XF - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

DansEdgli · 10-30-2003, 06:55

Well last time i drove my car i had a car full of people and I had a friendly with a VN SS and won but when i tried to slow done my car wouldnt very well from around about 160km/h.
My brakes became very spongy and I didnt think I was going to stop in time for the lights but i did. Just.
I have rear drums so i imagine this makes a huge difference so that will be changed first.
What would be a good brake conversion? should i try changing the discs to something better with better pads or should i go the whole hog and get the Hopper Stoppers treatment?
I think for around a grand they give you VT calipers and 300mm rotors and the rest of the kit?

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
Dan

Freak · 11-03-2003, 14:50

Go the whole hog. If your gonna do a job, do it good and get it right the first time. It will save you money in the long run.

Try to get your hands on an LTD diff with rear disc brakes. Makes a hell of a difference believe me.

xf6250 · 11-04-2003, 22:50

I was goin to suggest hoppers stoppers, Im going to put the hoppers stoppers kit on my car, but the factory 4 wheel disc on xf's were pretty good, 289mm fr and 283mm rear with rear vented discs.

DansEdgli · 11-04-2003, 22:59

Are they that big? I thought they would be heaps smaller. The Hopper Stopper kit is only 300mm but i suppose the calipers would be better.
I will do the rear axle first and put on rear disks, That might satisfy me. Trying to slow down from 160 that night was a bit scary with the red light approaching fast.

Thanks for that
Dan

MADXF · 11-04-2003, 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by xf6250

I was goin to suggest hoppers stoppers, Im going to put the hoppers stoppers kit on my car, but the factory 4 wheel disc on xf's were pretty good, 289mm fr and 283mm rear with rear vented discs.

They're actually 287mm all round, all vented.
But DBA give you 286mm rotors for some reason

xf6250 · 11-04-2003, 23:50

Thanx for that MADXF, try that dan put in a disc brake rear end put a set of good pads in it, bleed the braking system and u should pull up, i gave my car a thrashing at easternats last year, had heaps of brake fade but it still pulled up.

andrewcrocos1 · 11-05-2003, 05:25

The hopper stoppers upgrade use a 300mm vt disk at 32mm thick. Your standard falc disk is only 28mm thick. The kit also uses a AU xr8 2 spot caliper. Where standard falc uses single piston.
There is an article in the latest street machine mag.
Remember that the front brakes do 70% of the braking. Thus look at upgrading your front brakes first. My xc had the same problem (brake fade) and I found that the front discs were undersized. They had been machined to under 22mm thickness.
BHP = Braking than handling and then power. This is the order that all hotted up cars should follow when being rebuilt.

outback_ute · 11-05-2003, 21:59

/\/\ Spot on there. To really appreciate the difference, have a look at the difference in the sizes of the pads, the AU2 pads are getting on towards twice the area of the single piston pads.

lowy · 11-28-2003, 02:27

I have an xc disc rear setup on my ute, I used the original drum brake master cylinder, this gives you slightly stronger brakes at the rear. the ute stops like a dream, and the rears don't lock up before the fronts either...
Only problem is that it makes it a little harder to do a line locker!!