[STI Tiff]

Today I was driving our Tacoma and noticed that it seemed to stop better than my sti does. I'm on my stock pads still and I never broke them in when I bought the car because I thought they would already be seated properly since the car was new. I never really noticed until now because I live in the middle of no where and usually just coast to slow down when I've been driving faster than I should have been. What should I do?

[STiROCKET06]

well trucks are usually used for towing so their brakes need a lot of clamping power, but i dont see why your brakes would feel weaker than your tacomas...and the way you drive you car(sti) it seems like you only slightly use ur brakes, so your brakes should be broken in even better than the rest of us...maybe the could be a brake line issue or something along those lines...im sorry if this is no help to you lol

[STI Tiff]

My husbands evo can stop quicker than I can too.

[STiROCKET06]

well doesnt that just suck lol...im not a huge fan of the brembo brake pad by the way, throws off way to much dust and as you said they do seem a little weak for stopping power, but maybe im just asking for way too much lol

[evilSTi7]

well, you can bed the pads in at any point, so i would reccomend you do that. You also might want to flush the brake system and put some better fluid in it.

[STiROCKET06]

^^^ listen to him lol, im not a huge brake buff lol

[STI Tiff]

What kind of brake fluid and where can I get it?

[Turninconcepts.com]

Originally Posted by STI Tiff

What kind of brake fluid and where can I get it?

before you go changing fluid do a bed-in process first.

The other thing to consider is tires. What tires are you running on the STi, and what tires is your husband running on the Evo.

[WESTI]

i too didnt really bed in the pads. Whats the procedure on that?

[STI Tiff]

I'm on my stock tires still and my hubby has kumo all weather tires on his evo.

[evilSTi7]

Originally Posted by STI Tiff

What kind of brake fluid and where can I get it?

Either Motul RBF600 or ATE Superblue (which is what i use). but like TiC said, go bed your pads in first. for precedure you can use what stop tech says for street pads here http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_bedinstock.shtml

[BoostJunkie]

I don't think this is a hardware issue. A lot of cars have that strong initial grab, which creates the illusion that their brakes are strong. However, after driving a car with real brakes (like the STi brembos) it becomes clear that their initial bite is less peaky but they just keep grabbing. The initial bite FEELS good on a lot of other cars but the brakes are actually slowing the car down a lot less effectively. It's understandable that the Evo's brakes feel better because they are. Their master cylinder is superior to the one subaru uses, although it's really not a very big difference. To be honest, the only cars I have driven that have brakes better than the STi brembos are porsches.

[STI Tiff]

Well, I guess I'll do the bedding process tomorrow and see what I think after that. I feel a lot better now knowing that the pads can be bedded at any time. I was afraid I was going to need new pads!

[WESTI]

so you do the first set of 10 stops, then 10 more of the same? it doesnt really specify what ur supposed to do for the 2nd set

[Nis01]

What I did was between 7 - 10 stops with intermediate pressure from 30-35 mph and than 3-5 stops from 45-50 with a lot of pressure (Don't come to a complete rest). Between each braking period allow the brakes to cool by driving for a bit and try not to stop at all and avoid red lights if you can. Bring the car back, park it WITHOUT the e-brake and allow them to cool completely. I think this is similar to what HAWK recommends but I can't remember exactly where I picked this up.

I could also imagine that if you have really gotten on the brakes a bunch than possibly some of the brake fluid has been "boiled" or watered down or your pads could be slighly glazed over which is what happened to mine. I only have 16k on my car currently and we switched out the brake fluid and it was already disgusting and not very well colored.