HI there
Well last couple of weeks whenever I corner sharply or brake hard I've been getting the low level brake fluid indicator flash up. Upon inspection brake fluid was indeed at minimum, but this what not due to loosing fluid but mainly because my front pads had no meat on them left and the rears were half worn. Such ensued much research, do I get stock Brembo Pads, do I go with well known Ferodo DS2500 or do I investigate and read reviews of highly rated pads such as Carbotech XP8, XP10 and Project MU HC+. My aim was to find a pad that offered slightly superior braking and fade resistance to stock but had similar dusting, noise and wear issues to the stock pads. This meant Carbotech XP8 and XP10 were ruled out as even though they are kind to the disc they are noisy and dust a lot. Ferodo DS2500 had mixed reports with many claiming of a wooden pedal feeling along with not that great and pretty useless for track use. So what was left was Project MU HC+ a pad designed to sit in between fast road and track use, so basically a pad thats fine for someone who does 1-2 trackdays a year and well basically drives like an nutcase. Even more so people who had prior used XP8/XP10 and DS2500 were reporting no noise or dusting issues with these pads either.
So £400 later I had myself front and rear Project MU HC+ pads plus some Project MU Four Brake Fluid.
The Fitting Guide
1. Read manual and obtain safe jacking points.
2. Slacken of all wheel bolts, place handbrake on.
2. Jack front of car with trolley jack with wood to spread load at front cross member, once high enough place axle stand under side jacking point and relieve pressure from trolley jack. Make sure chocks are in place behind back wheels.
3. Take pads from packaging and behold pretty picture
4. Release bonnet, remove brake fluid cap and put some cloth around resovoir in case of any spillages or overflowing, another picture
5. Remove wheel!
6. Knock out retain pins using hammer and proper tools, if you don't have the right tools for knocking out the pins simply improvise but be careful not to chip away the paint of the calipers.
7. Pull the pads out, if tight be sure to lever pistons back, swear a lot, wiggle things and eventually they will slide out.
8. Give everything a good clean, caliper, shims and sand the brake disc/rotor down with some sound paper to remove any film from old pads, this helps with bedding in.
9. Now reverse process, copper grease on back of new pads and shim and slide in, again you may need to force the pistons back to get the new meatier pads in place.
10. Put top securing pin back in, now put retention bracket in place and put second securing pin back in, make sure you hit them hard with hammer to make sure they have firmly gone back into their home positions. Things should now look like this:-
11. Be sure to put some copper slip onto the hub area, prevents wheels rusting/sticking to the hub making future work easier:-
12. Put wheel back on and now repeat this process on the other three corners. Do be aware the backs do tend to be a bit more stubbon and will invoke more swearing.
13. Check resevoir fluid level, top upto max if required and replace cap.
Time take to do all 4 corners = 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fronts takes 25-30 mins a side, the rears take 35-40mins and be sure to have a bigger hammer at hand for the rears.
14. Once off axle stands and jack make sure all wheels are tight.
15. After a quick 5-10 mile drive re-check all wheel bolts are tight.
Bedding in and Conclusion
1. BEDDING IN IS MEGA IMPORTANT, IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS YOU COULD RUIN YOUR NEW PADS AND DISC.
2. First of all pump your brake before you go anyway.
3. For the first 5 stop brake very early and gently and from no higher than 30mph. After 5 gentle low speed stops all the crap from the pads and discs should be gone and they should feel pretty good now. If not do another 5 gentle stops.
4. Next do more moderate stops say from 40 down to 10mph, aim to do 20-30 stops like this but all a minute or two apart. Now the brakes should feel pretty damn amazing and your beginning to and wondering wow what are these capable off.
5. Find a safe stretch of road and do say some 70mph down to 20mph moderate stops, say do 5 of these. Again give brakes time to cool between de-acceleration.
6. Now things should be all done, time to finish the bedding in, find your private driveway for this and say accelerate upto 120-140mph and braking using moderate to strong force down to 30mph, do 2-3 of these. By now you thinking wow glad I've got no passengers as they not appreciate licking the windscreen. Again give brakes time to cool between de-acceleration test. (This type of bedding in at such speeds is not required but can assist a track performance orientated pad when it comes to bedding in).
So what can I say in this short period of time, OMG changing just the pads has transformed the car. Those reviews of people saying the difference is night and day over stock in regards to braking force/power really are not making it up. The car really does now want to throw me the front windscreen, of course this also aided by having sticking Advan AD08's on the car as well. But needless to say braking ability is immense, I found the stock brakes on the EVO were truly fantastic with great modulation and feel. This upgrade just transforms them and I am yet to even add the fluid. The fact I can brake from 140mph and be down to 30mph in next to know time with little fuss and no fade is impressive to say the least.
These get a big thumbs up from me and I shall report back on noise, dusting and wear in the future.
Well last couple of weeks whenever I corner sharply or brake hard I've been getting the low level brake fluid indicator flash up. Upon inspection brake fluid was indeed at minimum, but this what not due to loosing fluid but mainly because my front pads had no meat on them left and the rears were half worn. Such ensued much research, do I get stock Brembo Pads, do I go with well known Ferodo DS2500 or do I investigate and read reviews of highly rated pads such as Carbotech XP8, XP10 and Project MU HC+. My aim was to find a pad that offered slightly superior braking and fade resistance to stock but had similar dusting, noise and wear issues to the stock pads. This meant Carbotech XP8 and XP10 were ruled out as even though they are kind to the disc they are noisy and dust a lot. Ferodo DS2500 had mixed reports with many claiming of a wooden pedal feeling along with not that great and pretty useless for track use. So what was left was Project MU HC+ a pad designed to sit in between fast road and track use, so basically a pad thats fine for someone who does 1-2 trackdays a year and well basically drives like an nutcase. Even more so people who had prior used XP8/XP10 and DS2500 were reporting no noise or dusting issues with these pads either.
So £400 later I had myself front and rear Project MU HC+ pads plus some Project MU Four Brake Fluid.
The Fitting Guide
1. Read manual and obtain safe jacking points.
2. Slacken of all wheel bolts, place handbrake on.
2. Jack front of car with trolley jack with wood to spread load at front cross member, once high enough place axle stand under side jacking point and relieve pressure from trolley jack. Make sure chocks are in place behind back wheels.
3. Take pads from packaging and behold pretty picture
4. Release bonnet, remove brake fluid cap and put some cloth around resovoir in case of any spillages or overflowing, another picture
5. Remove wheel!
6. Knock out retain pins using hammer and proper tools, if you don't have the right tools for knocking out the pins simply improvise but be careful not to chip away the paint of the calipers.
7. Pull the pads out, if tight be sure to lever pistons back, swear a lot, wiggle things and eventually they will slide out.
8. Give everything a good clean, caliper, shims and sand the brake disc/rotor down with some sound paper to remove any film from old pads, this helps with bedding in.
9. Now reverse process, copper grease on back of new pads and shim and slide in, again you may need to force the pistons back to get the new meatier pads in place.
10. Put top securing pin back in, now put retention bracket in place and put second securing pin back in, make sure you hit them hard with hammer to make sure they have firmly gone back into their home positions. Things should now look like this:-
11. Be sure to put some copper slip onto the hub area, prevents wheels rusting/sticking to the hub making future work easier:-
12. Put wheel back on and now repeat this process on the other three corners. Do be aware the backs do tend to be a bit more stubbon and will invoke more swearing.
13. Check resevoir fluid level, top upto max if required and replace cap.
Time take to do all 4 corners = 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fronts takes 25-30 mins a side, the rears take 35-40mins and be sure to have a bigger hammer at hand for the rears.
14. Once off axle stands and jack make sure all wheels are tight.
15. After a quick 5-10 mile drive re-check all wheel bolts are tight.
Bedding in and Conclusion
1. BEDDING IN IS MEGA IMPORTANT, IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS YOU COULD RUIN YOUR NEW PADS AND DISC.
2. First of all pump your brake before you go anyway.
3. For the first 5 stop brake very early and gently and from no higher than 30mph. After 5 gentle low speed stops all the crap from the pads and discs should be gone and they should feel pretty good now. If not do another 5 gentle stops.
4. Next do more moderate stops say from 40 down to 10mph, aim to do 20-30 stops like this but all a minute or two apart. Now the brakes should feel pretty damn amazing and your beginning to
and wondering wow what are these capable off.5. Find a safe stretch of road and do say some 70mph down to 20mph moderate stops, say do 5 of these. Again give brakes time to cool between de-acceleration.
6. Now things should be all done, time to finish the bedding in, find your private driveway for this and say accelerate upto 120-140mph and braking using moderate to strong force down to 30mph, do 2-3 of these. By now you thinking wow glad I've got no passengers as they not appreciate licking the windscreen. Again give brakes time to cool between de-acceleration test. (This type of bedding in at such speeds is not required but can assist a track performance orientated pad when it comes to bedding in).
So what can I say in this short period of time, OMG changing just the pads has transformed the car. Those reviews of people saying the difference is night and day over stock in regards to braking force/power really are not making it up. The car really does now want to throw me the front windscreen, of course this also aided by having sticking Advan AD08's on the car as well. But needless to say braking ability is immense, I found the stock brakes on the EVO were truly fantastic with great modulation and feel. This upgrade just transforms them and I am yet to even add the fluid. The fact I can brake from 140mph and be down to 30mph in next to know time with little fuss and no fade is impressive to say the least.
These get a big thumbs up from me and I shall report back on noise, dusting and wear in the future.
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
