Brakes, Pads, Rotors, Fluid and Braided Lines
I will share with those that are interested how good my brakes work and what I have done with them.

My car is a Ford EL Falcon XR6 5sp.
Mods include exhaust, cam, head and unichip.

ORIGINAL BRAKES
The factory brakes were pretty crap, they did have good initial cold bite, ie 0% to 30% peddle pressure, but if you pushed the peddle down futher the car would not realy stop any harder, ie 30% to 100% and 2 moderate stops would cause huge fade and send the brake peddle to the floor.

STAGE 1
Formular Ferodoe front pads $150
Bendix Ulitimate Rear pads $90
4 new DBA slottered rotors.
Remove dust covers
Bed in the pads/discs

Bedding in was 5 mild stops from 80km/hr to 20km/hr. Then cool down for 10 minuets, then 5 hard stops from 80km/hr to 20km/hr. Then cool down for 15 minuets. Do not come to a complete stop ever! Until you park the car for the night

The brake peddle was strait away firmer, but the first stop was a litte dead. The brakes took one moderate stop to bring the pads up to tempreture every time, after that the bite was much better, and pushing the pedal 30% to 60% to the floor really improved the stoping distance. 60% to 100% did seem a little dead, especially after the first hard stop
After 3 really hard stops the peddle would still go to the floor.

STAGE 2
12 months on
New pads, same as before, bed in
4 PBR steel braided lines
1 litre of PBR racing brake fluid
Extream Brake bleeding session

I spend half a day changing over the brake lines, then flushing out the old black brake fuild until it was perfecty yellow. There was a hell of a lot of crap in the brake lines and master cylinder, even though the tank had yellow fuild in it, black stuff was still coming out of the bleed nipples for some time.
My steps were, change brake lines, bleed out air 4 times, flush until fuild was perfectly yellow 4 times, re bleed one last time 4 times.
Also start furthest from the brake Fluid tank and work towards it. And also pump the peddlle 50% then hold down when you close off the nipple.

My god the brakes are brillant. Again it does take one mild stop to bring the pads up to tempreture.
Then the peddle is really frim
0% to 30% pressure pulles the car up fairly well
30% to 60% is better but still a bit wooddy
60% to 100% is crazy, you can really feel the fulid pushing the calipers into the pads into the disc with no sweeling of the lines, or fluid overheading. The pads from 60% peddle pressure onwars bite extreamly hard and the peddle stays firm.
And will be hard to make the brakes fade on the street.

Thats about as good as you can get it with the standard callipers, Unless you want club spec rotors.
Trust me, when you feel how hard they bite, you will agree it was worth the upgrade

Excellent description there.
I've got a set of DBA slotted rotors and EBC greenstuff pads waiting to go onto my EL XR8 manual.
The braided lines are a fantastic idea too.
I will get some braided lines before getting the rotors fitted.
I thought brake fluid was red? Obviously that PBR stuff is some good s**t.

My EF XR6 manual has slotted rotors already and I think bendix ultimates. They work well enough.

Suspension is another thing to help you stop earlier so a stock EF/EL that ends up getting Konis/low springs and the setup you have will be a different car entirely in the handling /braking department.

There is another little unit you can do to further improve braking.
It sits on you drivers side shock tower and pushes against the master cylinder to stop it flexing. That would be the final improvement.

Last edited by Timmeh on Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ta for sharing & excellent result.

Next time I need to convince someont that Eseries brakes are good when maintained properly & pads make the next biggest difference, I'm posting a link straight to here.

Yes have decent brakes has highlighted a rather large problem with my front end.

It now pulls Baddly to one side, needs new control arm bushes, radius rod bush and a steering alianment.
I am also forking out for some $250 each Dunlops tyers, SP Sport max 225/50 R16
Then probally some Blistien or Koni shock absorbers, but leave in the standard XR6 springs.

After all that is done I will post stage 3.
I should be able to brake even harder, keep it straiter and have more control.