[joyride]

hey guys,

i havent read up much about anyone doing a brake upgrade for vitaras. why is this? because its not needed or too much hassle?

personally i dont feel very safe to be driving on the roads with a solid front disc brake and drum rears....

what are my options; can i do a straight swap from a lwb vit or or model suzuki?

cheers,
andrew

[joeblow]

how modified is the vehicle. best upgrade which is sort of cheap would be to put a 2 litre booster and master.

[royce]

LWB DISCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did this mod and the difference is amazing, vented rotors and calipers from the same model (so 1.6 versions) Wagons bolt straight on

[joyride]

my vitara is stock. upgrading the booster and master cylinder sounds like some effort involved compared to swapping discs... royce did you swap those parts too or only the discs?

[royce]

nope just the rotors pads and callipers, vented ones are heaps bigger

[joyride]

how does it feel after putting on the lwb ones? i just wanna know if its worth doing. fyi i would be doing alot of driving on the roads/highways. right now i dont have any 'real' interest in taking if off-road (newborn is taking up all of my hours)

[royce]

I have 235/75 so keep that in mind

with the stock brakes I always worried about pulling up in time in an emergency and even towing my fairly light boat or trailer I had to stand on em pretty ahrd to stop

with the LWB brakes I wait till the last minute to stop just so I can lean on em for giggles and to scare people they are heaps better

[royce]

some pics here

http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... 8&start=90

[Damo]

royce wrote:

some pics here

http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... 8&start=90

Mine are more bling

http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... c&start=12

If you want the part numbers for the rotors and pads I can post them up.

[joeblow]

lwb brakes aren't really heaps bigger...wider yes...with venting. contact surface area is very simmilar between solid sierra, solid vitara and vented vitara. vented vitara callipers are alot wider, but as for contact area and pad size are a little bigger. zooks biggest probs are the rear- very shitefull. over the years have tried many brake combos and the biggest results were obtained from booster and master set-ups, proven by an adr approved brake testing rig. fluid pressure and flow will make more of a difference than changing to slightly bigger discs and callipers. the main advantage of vented stuff is they shouldn't need much machining over the years.

[royce]

so you fit a smaller bore master to get better line pressure? what about the shit pedal feel?
how do you fit a bigger booster to late vits with a battery tray in the way?

vented has bugger all to do with machining, pads dictate rotor wear, vented will recover from hard braking quicker, which isnt an issue hear

the pads ARE bigger but a decent amount of surface area, the caliper is also a lot bigger so stiffer for better feel

the rears are bad cause if the stupid adjuster design, bit of time with a mig and file fixes that up

[joeblow]

vented helps with machining because the rotor stays cooler....cooler = less warping, not talking about how much the pad chews away. and a shit pedal feel with a booster and master upgrade...you tried it?

[royce]

most rotors wear uneven from inside to out, bugger all have any amount of runout wear

no I havent cause it wont fit mine and you havent told me how you get more pressure without a lower pedal

[joeblow]

is in the booster, hence i recommend booster and master. only a handfull of people i know have got it, and the difference it makes is huge. increasing pressure doesn't mean the pedal has to go further to the floor, is all in the way the internals a designed. with this setup the pedal stroke is decreased greatly, feel is awesome, oh and my zook is 1600kg's loaded [ engineered for this weight ] so she needs good brakes.

[joyride]

joeblow- if the pedal stroke has decreased greatly, is it very sensitive?

thanks for the input too guys

and damo's calipers are blinging lol

[joeblow]

no, it isn't too sensitive. had lots of people test drive it and they commented on how well the pedal felt. there are lots of ways to upgrade brakes, booster and master is prob the best bang-for-buck. the next step would be rear discs, but they aint that cheap if done correctly.vit wagon brakes will make a difference, even better if you run large tyres, but front brakes, or rears for that matter are only as good as the system that feeds them.

[christover1]

Is the 2 litre master / booster a bolt on job?

My LWB 93 booster is dead, looking into options.

[Poita]

So upgrading from drums to discs is easy but not worth it?
Is it just rotors and calipers or are new lines needed as well?

[DarkHorse]

benT makes a kit to upgrade the drums to Sierra discs and Galant calipers:
http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... ic&t=15009
It's on my to do list when I get the car back.

I'd also love more info on the 2L master/booster option...

[got_bar_work]

Joe how much larger is the 2l master and booster
My battery is on that side of my lwb so I want to know if it will fit
Is this a bolt on job or is there some mucking around to get things to line up
Is it only the master and booster that we need to find and is it a 2l lwb that it's out of

[christover1]

christover1 wrote:

Is the 2 litre master / booster a bolt on job?

My LWB 93 booster is dead, looking into options.

updated info:
There was nothing wrong with my booster.
It was the check valve in the vac line.
And my Load Sensing valve needed adjusting.
Brilliant brakes now, and loving rear discs.