oem Civic Si front brakes on my LX!! -impressions...(pics)

[Andrei'sCivic]

Brakes came off a new Si, the guy said they had only 5 miles on them.
Well I'm not sure if I'm the first one to do this but I must say that I am very pleased with the result, and I would recomend this to any one.
I found these oem Si brakes and I mean calipers, rotors, brake pads and brake lines. I got them for dirt cheap at the Tein Garage sale.

- This is an upgrade from 10.3" rotors to 11.8" rotors. Calipers seem to be the same. Maybe the Si calipers have larger pistons, otherwise the brake pads on the Si are actually smaller than the ones on the R18 civic.

Pros: Braking is by far better, than what it was before. No fade what so ever.
I figure because the Si is aproximately 200 lbs. heavier and it is more nose heavy (by 1%) installing the Si brakes on the R18 Civic is like getting a big brake kit on the Si, like 13" or slightly less.
-They fill in the wheel gap better.

Cons: The Si rotors are 6lbs. heavier. And the calipers seem to weigh around a pound more. So all together you increase the weight by 6-7lbs. The car does feel slightly slower the first two three gears, but it makes up for it in braking.

Impression:
These si brakes on my LX really inspire confidence.
In the end I say if the opportunity comes up and if its cheap GO FOR IT! You will love these brakes. My friend drives an 03 Lexus IS300 and he says my car brakes like his now.

Before:


- After:






The difference is more obvious in person.

And my stock brakes, not sure what I'm going to do with them.

[TNguyen7]

looks good

[Jardiniboy]

Dang I never noticed how bigger the Si brakes are compared to the lower models.

[BATANG CITY JAIL]

i think the EX & the SI's calipers are the same, the only difference is the rotors...

[dere-licte]

SCOREEEE haha...


DUDE i'm diggin your rims! where'd you get them?

[Andrei'sCivic]

Originally Posted by BATANG CITY JAIL

i think the EX & the SI's calipers are the same, the only difference is the rotors...

More engravings on the Si caliper, I believe it reads Nissin? Plus the Si caliper is heavier, for what reason? I could only guess. Even though the rotors are 6lbs. heavier I feel like this translates into oem quality. The rotors feel denser, and capable of holding more heat.

[Andrei'sCivic]

Originally Posted by dere-licte

SCOREEEE haha...


DUDE i'm diggin your rims! where'd you get them?

I am the 3rd or 4th owner of the Volks. I bought my bro new S2000 wheels/tires for $1000 and he gave me the Volks/tires. He had originally bought them from a girl, from www.v6performance.net, an online forum for V6 Accords.

Oem steel wheel with the 205/50/16 Bridgestone Turenza tire weighed 39lbs.
My Volk TE37 with 225/40/18 Toyo Proxies weighs 37.5lbs.
+ 6-7lbs. from the Si brakes.

[iqbbang]

haha thats the same thing i will be doing when i get big brake kit for my si and hand down the si brake to my other family member's EX. basically anything that comes off my si goes on the EX. hhaha. btw congrats on the brakes and sweet rimz

[Way2Short]

nice mod. Did you only replace the fronts and how much did it cost you?

[el_ben2]

congrats!!!
so what parts do you need to do the conversion?



edit: sorry i miss a line

[CZ-75]

Now 90% of your braking is done up front and your ABS computer is compensating for it by reducing line pressure.

[codys8thcivicsi]

hey nice mod man...propz

[Way2Short]

Originally Posted by CZ-75

Now 90% of your braking is done up front and your ABS computer is compensating for it by reducing line pressure.

good or bad thing...

[CZ-75]

Makes your stops longer. I'd rather have installed rear discs than 11.8" front rotors.

[Exeon]

Nice

anyone do a LX rear drums to rotors/brakes conversion yet? or know how to? This was one thing i needed from the EX model

[Way2Short]

^^ I am SOOOOOOOOOOO with you on this. Please let us know.

[aki]

Hate to say this, but your braking distance will be longer with that mod.

First off, it will feel like it's braking better, because of the stronger brake torque up front, which gives an initially stronger bite.

BUT

1) The ABS computer will detect that the car is decelerating too rapidly, and will continually modulate (in other words weaken) the braking force. When the ABS cuts out for a moment, it again detects that the car is decelerating too fast, and compensate again. This happens continuously over your braking, and it stretches out the braking distance of your car. The ABS computer was programmed to expect a certain deceleration rate, calculated by the stock LX brake torque. Since you've increased brake torque up front by adding bigger rotors, the ABS will be overcompensating.

2) You've significantly increased the brake bias up front, which reduces the overall efficiency of your braking. The reason being that Honda engineers specifically chose the front and rear brake rotors sizes to work with each other. You can't simply add stronger brakes up front and expect better braking, as it throws off the brake balance with respect to the rear. A more front-heavy brake bias means that the front brakes are doing more work than needed, and the rear brakes are doing less than they should. Hence, irrespective of ABS, your braking distance would increase. The only benefit for this new setup would be less brake fade, but that comes at cost of greater braking distance.

[Andrei'sCivic]

Originally Posted by aki

Hate to say this, but your braking distance will be longer with that mod.

First off, it will feel like it's braking better, because of the stronger brake torque up front, which gives an initially stronger bite.

BUT

1) The ABS computer will detect that the car is decelerating too rapidly, and will continually modulate (in other words weaken) the braking force. When the ABS cuts out for a moment, it again detects that the car is decelerating too fast, and compensate again. This happens continuously over your braking, and it stretches out the braking distance of your car. The ABS computer was programmed to expect a certain deceleration rate, calculated by the stock LX brake torque. Since you've increased brake torque up front by adding bigger rotors, the ABS will be overcompensating.

2) You've significantly increased the brake bias up front, which reduces the overall efficiency of your braking. The reason being that Honda engineers specifically chose the front and rear brake rotors sizes to work with each other. You can't simply add stronger brakes up front and expect better braking, as it throws off the brake balance with respect to the rear. A more front-heavy brake bias means that the front brakes are doing more work than needed, and the rear brakes are doing less than they should. Hence, irrespective of ABS, your braking distance would increase. The only benefit for this new setup would be less brake fade, but that comes at cost of greater braking distance.

- First, would you say this with all big brake kits?
I don't know about that... I will tell you that the car definetly feels like it stops quicker exspecially at much higher speeds. I believe that the car reaches 0mph quicker than before.
ABS definetly doesn't kick in as early or as often (since it doesn't need to) I did think about getting rear rotors from the Si or an Acura which has 11.1" rotors. Or if some crazy thing allowed me to use my front brakes in the back. I heard that changing rear drums to discs is quite involved, lots of work, parts.

[KC MICKO]

wow...good to know~

[CZ-75]

Originally Posted by Andrei'sCivic

- First, would you say this with all big brake kits?

All those that aren't properly designed with smaller pistons to apply LESS clamping force at the front.