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Subject Poor man's Rockauto Brake Upgrade
     
Posted by Polishzx on June 17, 2024 at 4:55 PM
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Message I installed some new front brake calipers, rotors and pads over a month ago and wanted to share the details as I've been happy with them. The quick and dirty is that Rockauto sells rebuilt Brembo and Akebono calipers from the 350Z and 370Z on the cheap... non-genuinely cheap. I went with Brembos because I preferred the slightly smaller caliper size over the huge Akebono. They seem to work just fine with my R35 BMC and Booster, I have full confidence in them after pushing them hard during the bedding process.

Front left Brembo for a 350Z: La-Z-Link

Front left Akebono for a 370Z: La-Z-Link

The stock photo for each caliper shows the brand logo stamped on the caliper but what you'll generally receive is a part that does not have that stamp. Don't really understand all the details, but they somehow use the same castings as the genuine caliper? The most important part is that they're fully refurbished with all new seals and tested. I also have some friends that race Miatas and still swear by reman calipers from Rockauto so I do have confidence in them.

For these Cardones I just used a can of VHT Caliper Paint to spray them black. Came out good enough and I did bake them as instructed so hoping the finish lasts for however long I keep them on the car. I would eventually like to get some genuine Brembos and have them powder coated and rebuild them myself, but plenty happy with these results in the mean time.

I used 350Z caliper bolts because a buddy had some extras laying around, but this does require drilling out the stock 12mm holes in the front knuckles to 14mm holes. I purchased a 13mm and 14mm drill bit to do the job. I was nervous about this but it was actually very simple and straightforward. Drilled 13 first, then 14, slow and steady, no issues at all.

I went with these "Specialty Street Performance Metallic" Raybestos pads, they were recommended by TBM since you can no longer special-order TBM pads for regular cars. La-Z-Link. No noise, not even much during brake bedding. They also have these available in stock z32 form.

Went with matching Raybestos rotors, no drilling or slots. The unmodified plain disc look actually has grown on me quite a bit. Maybe one day when I upgrade to genuine Brembos I'll put on some fancy two piece rotors but in the mean time, happy with these: La-Z-Link

While my 18inch Enkei GTVs did fit over the brakes up front, there was only 1mm or less clearance from caliper to wheel spoke. I decided to run 3mm spacer up front to open up the clearance a bit. My paranoia won't let me run spacers without extended lug bolts though, so I purchased the 5mm longer Nismo studs front and rear, so much for this being cheap. Running 5mm spacer in rear because the previous owner of my car rolled the fenders for huge wheels and low suspension and since I'm running neither of those, the spacers are pushing out the wheel which fills in the wheel well a little more.

A few more random notes:

-Picked up a set of front Technafit banjo-bolt lines from CZP.

-Running stock Z32 rear brakes still but I did get new matching rear z32 Raybestos rotors.

-Don't bother with the "Nugeon" brand remanufactured calipers, they're beyond trash and I had to return several before I went with Cardones which were clearly of higher quality.

-While Cardone is better than Nugeon, they're still not the highest quality ever and you should carefully inspect the calipers before installation. I had an issue with the fluid inlet on one of the calipers that I had to return and get a replacement for.

-Using Permatex Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant with the purple label, excellent brake parts lube.

-Bleeding the brembos with a bleeder valve on each side of the caliper is a little different than stock. Complete bleeding on the outside valve first then move to the inside one.

-I got a lot of small white specs of debris from bleeding the calipers. Bleeding took additional time and fluid to flush out all of whatever this stuff was.

-Running ATE Typ 200 DOT4 brake fluid.  

PXL-20240603-090818011

PXL-20240617-053411010

PXL-20240523-034508607-NIGHT

PXL-20240523-034550301-NIGHT

     
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