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SpecR Brake upgrade - caliper decisions!

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My ethos with the 15 is to keep the spend low by waiting until something needs changing before upgrading.

Right, so I've got to the point of all round brake change as my rear discs are really old and all round the pads are down to the minimum (and well beyond:D). So the economical time has come for bigger brakes.

I've decided a good value package is spacing out the OE calipers for larger discs and I'm getting DB Power's 290mm rear upgrade and 315mm fronts while keeping my choice of pads DS2500 which I really rate for road and track.

I reckon this should be a nice package as the upgrade force front and rear is within 2% so should keep the brake balance as Nissan intended. If there was another easy option on the rear I would have gone larger on the front but I think this should do the job.

My main issue on track (with my current package of slotted and grooved OE size front and solid rears with DS2500's all round) was overheating at the front. No fade to speak of but badly overheating (I've cooked the grease out of my front hubs - still no fade or judder though with this package which I suffered from massively with stock discs - so got a replacement pair of hubs with bearings in good condition a little while ago ready for this overhaul) so the size increase should sort that out I hope. If I still suffer post upgrade I'll add some extra cooling too.

Anyhow DB are out of stock right now so I'm waiting a little while and had to sort the rears as they were down to the backing plates :rolleyes::eek: and distributing a nasty dose of iron filings all over my wheels and now paint work (another story is the polishing thats going to follow to sort this out!). DB sorted me out with some stock rear pads in the meantime to get me safe again :thumbs:

I pulled off the rear caliper and found the seals had gone so the piston was corroded horribly. I cleaned it up pretty well and finally managed to get the piston screwed back into the caliper and everything back together. Of course its not perfect as the seals are just in place (rather than properly located on the recesses of the caliper) and the piston is really pitted so is likely to start sticking if I left it very long but it'll do until it all comes off again in the next couple of weeks for the new brackets, Brembo grooved discs and Ferrodo pads....

...so this gets me to the point of searching around and looking at everyones efforts at refurbing calipers. While it looks pretty straight forward I can also see that it can be a complete arse and time consuming. As i haven't already got spare sets (thinking about fronts now too) of calipers to do the job and keep the SpecR on the road (shes a daily driver) I'm thinking of getting some replacements ready for the upgrade.


I've found these from camskill (exchange prices £140 or +£60 for the rears)



Right now I "know" I need the rears but the fronts have done 100K+ and the overheating I've mentioned so could well be due for a refurb.

So here are the fronts they offer too...(exchange £110; or +£50 for the fronts)




From finding the refurb threads I've seen a few of you have changed the calipers to R33/32 setup.

Based on the above prices etc what do you think I should go for??

Do you think I should sell the calipers for someone else to refurb or do the exchange prices?

Or what about other choices for front calipers like the R33/32 ones? (the other rear options are more involved than I want right now). Unfortunately camskill don't appear to offer the skyline calipers as that could go into the mixing pot otherwise...


Thoughts ???? :)
 
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You could try and get your hands on a set of Z32 calipers. They are the same size as stock, but in aluminium.
If you go for R32 GTR or R33 GTS, they have longer mounting legs on aluminium calipers to suit a factory 296mm disc, so if you used them in conjunction with the brackets from a 315mm kit, you would need a 330mm disc, due to the longer mounts.

I thought about going 330mm and modifying a set of Jag XJS/ Aston Martin DB7 pads to fit the caliper. I've been told you just need to file holes out a bit to let the pins through. I'm not sure if they would be too big for a 315mm kit or not though :confused:
 
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+1 for the R32/R33 calipers for a budget caliper upgrade. The R33 GTR Brembos are always better but cost more.

For cooling, if you haven't done it already, is to remove the rotor backing plates. You'll have to cut the front ones off, but you can unbolt the rears
 
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+1 for the R32/R33 calipers for a budget caliper upgrade. The R33 GTR Brembos are always better but cost more.

For cooling, if you haven't done it already, is to remove the rotor backing plates. You'll have to cut the front ones off, but you can unbolt the rears
taking these off? is this ok for everyday driving? i might think about doing this as mine are bent and damaged on back
 
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Why remove them?

If anything surely better to duct some air into them instead? I actually bent them back to divert more air in
 

tooley

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Just buy a set of Z32 calipers from a scrap yard, should be about 80 for the rear pair and 60 for the front pai however the front will be the same as the 15 spec r stock ones.

Im looking out for some rears for mine.
 

japmadlad

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need handbrake mechanism. S15 is disc brake only & Z32/s13/GTS-T have disc & drum setup so need hand brake mech
 

Darren_S15

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I've done The R33 front upgrade and the difference from stock is amazing.

First off the R33 brembos use 324mm disks so you would need to change the disks, and calipers + disks are going to be expensive.

Other option is to get some R33 GTST fronts, not sure of disk size off top of my head but believe it might be 315mm?

One thing I will pont out is the bolt from the skyline will not fit the S15 front hub because the shank on the bolt is about 10mm to long (for brembos atleast).

I'm going to be changing the whole rear hub for the R33 hub, I think it's the only real way to get decent rear brakes, even if it is a pain in the arse.

Otherwise your spending money refurbing the standard one and not sure it's worth it?
 

_Wing_

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R33gtst are 296mm.

No need to change the entire rear hub; nicely has made an excellent guide on how to do it most efficiently :)
 

Darren_S15

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Dunno where I got 315mm from then :rolleyes:

You mean this guide of Nicelys how to do a Z32 rear brake upgrade?

Thats what I mean by replacing the rear hub as you pretty much have to :nod:
 

_Wing_

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Maybe we've got different definitions of "hub" but as I understand it the hub doesn't need changing just the backing plate and cables (along with calipers pads lines rotors bla bla bla)
 
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S15 and S14a are identical calipers.... aren't they?? Buying refurbed units
 

meddler

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to add on to this discussion, are R32 GTR calipers the same as the R33 GTST ones? The reason being is I may be able to get a set of the R32 GTR calipers and want to know if they are a direct fit like the R33 ones are. They are both 296mm diameter discs.
 

_Wing_

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Get them, they fit like OEM, they're the best bang for bucks upgrade and worth every cent, and if I'm thinking of the same seller as you then those particular ones are very well priced too :D
 

Yakozan

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Dunno where I got 315mm from then :rolleyes:

You mean this guide of Nicelys how to do a Z32 rear brake upgrade?

Thats what I mean by replacing the rear hub as you pretty much have to :nod:
I beliave the Skyline R34 GT-T use 315mm discs. Or was it 310mm. Can't remember.
 
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