Is this a good brake combination?

Been reading and wanting new brakes so now since my old ones are seriously warped, i've put down the cash. Ordered some brembo blanks from summit racing and just picked up some axxis semi-metallic metal master pads from advance auto. Are these two a good combo? They hopefully won't warp right away like my raybestos rotors and pads did. I don't break really hard, just regular driving, but I occasionally like to take the turns on the back roads for fun.

oh hell yeah it's a good combo.

I have that same setup on the front except they are crossdrilled and it stops on a dime with 9 cents change...
However the semi-metallic pads do squeek a little, so be aware of that.

like how much squeaking do they have? is it like every stop?

Yeah, because they have more metal to metal contact (more metal in the pad) they will squeak more, probably every stop....but not real bad.

I would suggest getting your hands on a Si master cylinder. They have a larger bore size and shouldn't lock up as quick either. I have some PowerSlot Slotted rotors and EBC Green Stuff pads on my Civic and it stopped pretty good, just had to get used to it locking up quicker. Was gonna get a Si M/C but ended up screwing up a MPFI swap on it and now it just sits. :(

Yeah well your brakes are only as good as your tires really...

like how much squeaking do they have? is it like every stop?

Yeah 90% of the time... It's not very loud, I'm pretty much the only one that notices it.. but yeah then again I'm picky and notice everything.........

Brembo blanks are good. Even work good with regular cheap Advance Auto semi-metalic pads...

Yeah well your brakes are only as good as your tires really...

Thats very true. Still a Si master cylinder isn't a bad idea, takes a little bit of work since you gotta bleed everything, so I would actually save that for if you ever replace lines or calipers or something. Alot easier to just knock it all out at once.

Yeah 90% of the time... It's not very loud, I'm pretty much the only one that notices it.. but yeah then again I'm picky and notice everything.........

oh, now since you say that i'm getting a bit worried cause i'm picky too when it comes to noises and vibrations. would the organic or ceramic pads be noisy since they aren't fully metal pads? I still have the pads in the box so i can exchange for something else. what else is good that i could pick up at my advanceauto parts store? i'm willing to change cause i really don't like squeaking all that much.

Organic will be much quieter, but wont last as long and may not have the bite that metallic pads will. Its really not a bad squeak, hardly a squeal, if at all youll only notice it when your next to a large solid object just before you stop rolling.

if at all youll only notice it when your next to a large solid object just before you stop rolling.

DITTO... It's not as bad as you think and only happens at low speeds like approching a red light.. with say a giant semi beside you.. HARDLY noticable..
If you give them a shot, I'm sure you will be plesently pleased with the braking results.

I know when i first tested them I almost shat my pants, and planted my teath in the steering wheel.:grinyes:

Thats very true. Still a Si master cylinder isn't a bad idea, takes a little bit of work since you gotta bleed everything, so I would actually save that for if you ever replace lines or calipers or something. Alot easier to just knock it all out at once.

Hey Tony,
Kind of off topic, but still within the brake system....

Will my stock SI prop valve work fine with a rear disc brake conversion ??

DITTO... It's not as bad as you think and only happens at low speeds like approching a red light.. with say a giant semi beside you.. HARDLY noticable..
If you give them a shot, I'm sure you will be plesently pleased with the braking results.

I know when i first tested them I almost shat my pants, and planted my teath in the steering wheel.:grinyes:

That sounds alot better cause i took it to be a loud squeaking at every stop. I think i'll go ahead with the plan and install them and i'll keep you informed how they are. Thanks again guys!

It should work just fine. It will just send the same amount of pressure to the back discs, but you should get better bite out of the disc's than the drums, not to mention its a lot easier to upgrade discs than it is drums.

People complain about the noises that semi-metalic and metallic pads make, but they usually don't make that much noise. The worse noise you will ever get from your brakes is from the metal clip telling you that its time for new pads. I can handle a little noise from my brakes every so often if i get a better stopping distance. I'm about to put 4 piston calipers on my 240sx to actually get the brakes to stop like they should, stock 240 brakes suck ass, already wrecked the thing 3 times because of them.

You won't believe this but i received the supposed brembo rotors from summit racing today and when i open the box, there's the brand Qualitee plastered all over the rotors. I checked everything to make sure that they were brembo but nothing at all said it was them. So i go online to search the brembo blanks for my civic and behold they aren't there anymore. It's funny cause the night i ordered them, i saw them on their website in full view with the correct item #.

So I call them up and ask about this whole situation and the customer service woman says that she can't find any brembo rotors of any sort for any hondas. She said that they actually stopped carrying them. I told her that i ordered them with the brembo blank for my hatch clearly on the site and after looking herself, she said that they aren't carried. Instead, they actually gave me qualitee rotors which is the cheapest brand they carry and they are actually for an acura legend.

Now I'm pissed cause i have no brembos for my civic and it sucks that my order just so happened to be when they quit carrying them. It sucks for me but it also sucks for all you future buyers cause all i've read about is how people buy them off summit all the time. Guess i'll have to find some other place. What other places sell brembo blanks? Take a look for yourself on their site. Could be that i'm going crazy or something.

www.brembo.com - Thats where I purchased both the front and back packages... The rear conversion will be completed sooN!

If they are real brembos they will have "Brembo" engraved on the very top edge of the rotor.

Qualitee is Brembo. It's okay!

Qualitee is Brembo. It's okay!

It is? From what i've looked at, it's a completely different brand.

Well, maybe i did get a little mad about all this but I looked this situation over. I've been reading forums and found that people like me have been experiencing the same problem. Some people say that if it's a true brembo blank, the have brembo stamped on them. Others say that it's just a badged generic rotor with qualitee using the name brembo when it really isn't a true brembo rotor.

Should i go ahead and try them out and see? My only fear is that money is tight right now and I kinda blew my paycheck on these brakes and was hoping for it all to be a smooth process. I hope they won't warp like my more expensive raybestos rotors did in the past. Should i put them on?

I would just send everything back and start over. :2cents: I just got Brembo slotted rotors (they came in a Brembo box and have the Brembo logo machined on to the hat section) and Hawk HPS pads from www.tirerack.com but have not had a chance to install them yet (they also list Brembo blanks for our cars and the customer service is very good). But I have read this combo is almost guaranteed to squeak. :lol: But they carry other types of pads.

My question is why are your rotors warping so fast? Possibly the calipers are not moving freely (ie dragging, dry slide pins?), possible the booster is faulty and appling the brakes a bit, or the brake hoses are collapsing and not letting the piston ease off? Please keep us posted.

yea, i would look into the rest of your brake system too if you are warping rotors quick. They shouldn't be warping that quick.

About a year ago my original rotors on the car when i bought it where becoming warped and we had just put new pads on it. So i ordered some Raybestos PG Plus or something and put them on but didn't change the pads. After 3 weeks of driving, they started to become warped again. I have a feeling that I should've changed the pads as well or none of the warping would've happened.

Well, yesterday was such a nice day and i really didn't want to crap around with the unknown rotors, i just went ahead and put them on. The only problem we ran into where the two screws that hold the rotor on the hub. They were becoming horribly stripped. So we went out to a hardware store and bought some new ones. Went back and got the right side done. As we were taking the left side wheel off, one of the screws on the rotor just fell out. My first thought was wow, maybe this is why my rotors were warped. So we took all the left side apart and everything fit right up. Took her out and she brakes pretty good, but i still don't know how well since i'm breaking the pads in very gently.

Those screws aren't that big of a deal really, they just keep the rotor secure when your wheel isn't on there. Because if you really think about it, what are 2 little screws gonna do over 4 lug nuts holding a wheel to your hub, sandwiching the rotor between? And I hope you don't do too much driving without any wheels on, lol. I mean, yes, its a good precaution to have them in, but it isn't going to do any harm in not having them in there.

but yea, you should have changed your pads when you changed rotors. Its always a good thing to change things in pairs like rotors and pads.

i had EBC greenstuff on some generic cross drilled rotors. I must be lucky because i never had any cracking isues at all. I broke them in properly and then some. I used to autocross and those brakes were awsome. I put the same pads on my wifes 02 civic but kept the same stock rotors. the EBC pads are very good pads. braking was better.
by the way, what is the biggest master cylynder swap that can be put into a 91 crxsi? i heard integra is good. What are the biggest rotors? I have 15 inch 99 civic si rims and want to keep them but increase braking to the max without breaking my bank. are 99 civic si rotors a stright swap? i like to keep with all stock honda parts from different hondas or acuras

Alright, the problem with swapping to a bigger rotor, is you have to have an adapter bracket made to fit the caliper around it. I'm unsure if you can swap the 99 Caliper over to the EF or not, it would be worth a shot. If that won't work, then you would have to get a bracket made, which could cost some $$ if you go and have one CNC'd, which would be the best bet.

I never had a problem with my EBC's, they just grabbed ahold of the rotor way too fast and locked up too easy IMO. I don't know for sure if the teg master cylinder will fit or not, but I could probably do some research tomorrow if I get a chance. Ofcourse the first thing you want to check is where the bolt holes are on it, then check and see what the bore size is on it, which is usually stamped in the side right below the reservior. LIke I said, ill try to check it tomorrow, because thats something worth looking into.

Yeah the tiny squeaks are worth it for that extra bite. As far as brake upgrades, I really wanna get some nice 4 or maybe even 6 (6 is kinda rediculous for crx i know)piston calipers to improve the brake control/feel. But even replacing these damn drums would be nice.

I hear that! Although, I havent noticed ANY problems with my drums...except Im not sure that they lock with the fronts...could just need new shoes, Ill have to take a look...They do brake well though, only because the car weighs nothing!

lol yeah im not sure they're doing anything unless i pull the E-brake

Exactly...

Ok, did some research on the Integra Master cylinders. The only way you could swap them, and its not a guarantee fit, just a guess, would be to swap the brake power booster over with it. I would assume this would work, but not for certain, non were unbolted already, and already had to undo enough of those things today to check. But the Teg MC are 15/16, I believe the EF Si is 13/16, but unsure on that, I know the EGs are 13/16, so yes the Teg is bigger, its just the fact of whether the power booster will swap or not. The MC bolt up reverse of each other between the Teg and Civics.

As for the rear brakes, I think they only do like 10-20% of the braking, forgot the percentage, but its not a whole lot. Not saying upgrading the back to disc doesn't help, because it does, just not a huge difference. It usually always helps to upgrade both the Front and Back to try to keep things even.

Well, after a week of use, they work well. There actually has been no squeaking except for the first use of the brakes as i'm leaving my driveway every morning. I have also been looking at the rotors to see how the pads are digging into the rotors and so far they are slowly creating lines and polishing. My driver side rotor is about half polished but the passenger side is concerning me. It still has a few lines but nothing compared to the driver side rotor. I've put my finger up on the side of the outer pads and the driver side always seems to be more hotter than the passenger. Is it possible my caliper is sticking or something on the passenger. The car is braking well, but if i'm not using them to the full potential, then there's something wrong here.

ok, so i came acros a master from a 94 integra and it says it will work with a crx. Does anybody know for sure? also, when i say i want to get bigger rotors, i mean what acura/honda would be a direct replacement. i know that ALOT of parts are interchangable between cars. i just want a DIRECT replacement. NO mods at all. just unbolt and bolt the new, upgrade.

ok, so i came acros a master from a 94 integra and it says it will work with a crx. Does anybody know for sure? also, when i say i want to get bigger rotors, i mean what acura/honda would be a direct replacement. i know that ALOT of parts are interchangable between cars. i just want a DIRECT replacement. NO mods at all. just unbolt and bolt the new, upgrade.


The 94 Integra Master Cylinder is NOT a direct replacement for your CRX. You would have to get the brake power booster which should swap right in without any modification, in order for the MC to bolt up. Just look at how your CRX MC bolts to the PB, and look how the Teg MC bolts up. Complete opposite.

As for a Direct replacement for your rotors. There is none, not just the rotors. In order to get bigger rotors, your calipers are gonna move out, if your calipers move out, they won't bolt on the spindle anymore. See the problem. In order to find a direct replacement, you will have to find a caliper and rotor combination that will work, or spend quite a bit of money on an actual big brake upgrade kit from some manufacturer.