Hi everyone,
I'm doing some work on my 2001 C5 (45k miles), I have bigger rims and tires at 245/40 R18" front and 275/35 R19" rear. I want to go ahead and do my brakes and maybe rotors, but I am not sure what I should look at. Is there any benefit from moving from the stock set up in my brakes related to the increased rim and tire size?

 

First question is this for looks or are you going to track time and use them hard?

 

Not planning on tracking, the brakes are definitely in need of being replaced though.

 

If it's not for tracking, then OE brakes work wonderfully....if you want to swap for looks (it's ok, no judgement), then your only limitation is your wallet. I did a C6z swap, which bolts right on, the wheel diameter being the only restriction, which you have covered. I did the one-piece pads though, as I didn't care for the padlet choices.

 

The increased rim size will allow you to upgrade to a big brake kit such a Brembo or Wilwood. Swapping in C6 Z06 brakes was also popular. However, they have become harder to find. All of these options will both look better and significantly increase brake performance. However, big brakes are expensive. The stock brakes are just fine for normal driving around town. If you just want something that looks good, you can buy much cheaper brakes, and powdercoat or paint the calipers. Amazon has deals on entire kits.

 

Willwood has a nice bolt on caliper and rotor set that is reasonably priced.

The rotors I would recommend avoiding drilled as they are cosmetic at best. GM/Delco as do a few others offer good chemically treated rotors that are rust resistant. They have little things cost into them to clean the pads and add some style.

But like mentioned the stock brakes for the street are more than enough. I would assume you are just wanting to fill the wheels up.

 

Definitely in need of some brakes, and having a bigger rim, I just was curious if I really would need to go much bigger. Main reason I ask is my rotors are pretty scored up and I think one is potentially warped so I was going to start looking at what types of options I have.

 

I don't care too much on the looks with my brakes, I'd be more performance concerned than anything. Just having the larger rims, I am just curious on what type of options I have. I am not super knowledgeable on brakes and rotors, I think one needs to be replaced anyways so I just wanted to know if keeping stock options would be fine all things considering.

 

Staying with OEM should be fineif you don't push the car too hard. Because of your rims, you have a ton of options though. A six piston front 4 piston rear big brake kit from Wilwood or Brembo will offer you the best performance though. be warned that they are expensive.

 

If you don't care about looks and aren't pushing them hard often, a set of stock replacement Centric blank rotors and and ceramic pads will be plenty adequate and be pretty dust-free as well.

 

Watch out for Centric, they have been sold a few times in the last 5 years or so....

 

Three things improve braking.pad compound. Rotor size and make up of their material and pad size which means larger calipers.

The brakes on your car are more than enough for anything on the street. Might get more braking with better more aggressive pads but they will wear the rotors more.

Larger rotors and pad surface will give more braking but due to more surface area but you can remain with more conservative pads.

As for the rotors you have now they can and will grove they are an expendable part just as Brake pads.

As for warp that is not a real thing. Rotors don’t warp. They will get pad material build up uneven on the surface and it will feel like a warp but it is just uneven material. This is why bedding in new pads is very important. If not a hit hard stop off a freeway and holding the pad hard on a un bedded rotor will leave material and create this problem

The other issue that can cause it is rotor thickness variation. RTV. A bad wher hub bearing just being out of spec can let the rotor wobble and hit the pads. It will wear a Roto uneven and make the pedal pulse in some cases.

If you want more brake there are a number of kits out there and pads to choose from. I would just pick what looks best to you that you can afford as any of them will be more brake than you plan in using.

Most kits will specify the wheel size needed.

It sounds as if you really want to fill the wheels size a bit more and look good.

Also make sure what you use will work with the EBrake in the rear. Some kid do not always have that provision. Many Corvette kits do so you should fine one.

 

A moderate "upgrade" that may be suitable for your use-case is C6 Z51 brakes. You can use your existing calipers with C6 Z51 caliper brackets and C6 Z51 rotors, with any C5/C6 standard pad. These rotors are bigger diameter by 0.6" front and 1" rear, and thus will fill out your wheels better. It's not an overly-expensive endeavor.

I'm in a semi-similar boat with wanting larger-diameter rotors. To that end I have a full set of brand new C6 Z51 caliper brackets, but haven't bought rotors yet... my current C5-size rotors/pads only have 10.5k miles on them and I'm struggling to justify nearly $500 for the (budget) rotors + pads I want.

 

Tire rack seems to have good prices for performance brakes and rotors. Stock replacement is fine. Im a big fan of hawk. Hawk makes ceramic pads which are fine and don’t dust a lot. If you want a little more stopping power, use hawk HPS pads. HPS pads do create dust unlike ceramic pads. As far as rotors, rotors have gotten a little pricey. You can probably reuse your old rotors if they’re not rusted out. A shop can probably cut the rotors for you. If you just want to replace them, see if a parts store has some premium rotors.

 

I used to run the Hawk HPS pads for autocross (still the C5 brakes), and they worked great, but were pretty dirty. When I did the C6z upgrade, I went to their ceramic pad (1-piece) because with the much larger diameter rotors (clamping force), I could afford the small loss of friction. Their ceramics are tidy, with very little dusting.

 

As said, the stock rotors, calipers and pads will do just fine for street driving. If you want to change things up a bit, I ran a set of Baer Eradispeed rotors and Hawk HPS pads on my '00 and they performed very well. More expensive than a stock setup, but I also went for the looks department for the rotors.

 

Im currently running my first set of Hawk HP+, and boy do they bite hard. Reasoning for that is I have a couple HPDE events this summer. And they make noise, which is fine, turn the radio up along with headers and B&B bullets and it somewhat goes away. Also running Hawk brake fluid HP600.

 

The factory pads are good but leave black dust.

Not all pads leave dust but those claiming to be dustless leave lighter color dust that is not as visible.

Hawk, EBC, Willwood and other mentioned here are all good pads. The key is to match the right material with the type of driving you do.

Too aggressive pads will eat rotors up. I had a customer who just had to have road race pads. He lived in San Fran and hills.

Well Frank Bullet called back after being warned they were too much and his rotors were eaten up by the pads. They were made for one race not stock replacement. Also cold they were not good.

Just keep in mind better is not alway what is best.

I have had good results with Hawk and EBC pads. EBC even has bedding and break in material that is coated on the pads.

No matter what you get or use read and follow the bedding procedure for the pads. Generally a series of stops and not coming to a full stop. EBC is to drive easy for the first few hundred miles.

This will help prevent your warp feeling from happening. Also check hub play vs the allowance. Todays hubs are Ball Bearing and they go bad more often than a taper roller. But they have less resistance and get better MPG. This is why we see mor Rotor Thickness Variation.

 

Your oem brakes have more than enough stopping power proven by the fact that they can easily lock the tires up if you get a little to frisky with the pedal.

the benefit to aftermarket kits depending on what you buy some are lighter to save weight for drag racing. Some are bigger to help with heat but are usually heavier.

if you have never exercised your brakes to the point of getting fade I would not recommend spending the money unless you just want the look.

reasons not to get bigger brakes would include the fact that it is a very expensive upgrade and it is easy to keep falling in to the trap of ( the next bigger setup is not that much more) and before you know it you blew your next 2 years of car budget on something you may not have needed. I also want to mention that brakes are the worst kind of weight on a car you will feel the car accelerate slower and turn differently and not in a good way. Unsprung weight is the enemy of performance cars and the more you reduce it the better your car will feel while driving. Or in other words if you have ever went to a substantially lighter wheel and tire combo on a car and realized how much better the car seemed to drive then you k ow what bigger heavier brakes will do but in the opposite direction.

reasons to upgrade would include the fact they look cool!!! And they will handle much more heat before getting fade. If you have really deep pockets you can have your cake and eat it too with carbon ceramic that are lighter than stock and have incredible performance.