BREMSA High Performance Brakes

As the other side is in the air too, it's easy to turn the brake parts outside to get onto the bolts holding the calipers. The pic shows the inner side of the caliper. You can easily see the two bolts on the bracket part of the caliper (this is somewhat larger than in the US version) On the EU version I used a 17mm nut and a large tourque wrench to make the bolts loose. Be careful not to damage anything like bolt head, fender or your fingers. When the bolts are loose remove the lower one at first. The caliper can the be turned up a little to prevent any damage to the pistons or the rotor.

Note how helpful the box is, hehe. Now it's time to remove the rotor. For this each rotor has to hols with threads whre another bolt can be screwed in. As the rotors is not monted to anything else it just sticks to the parts due to rust and dirt. Screw the bolts in until both make contact with the inner part and then use a wrech to screw them in. Bot about the same amount. You'll then hear a "ping" and the rotor is loose. Now just slide it off the five wheel bolts. The pic shows the parts after the stock rotor has been removed. Now it's a good time to clean the parts with e.g. WD-40.

     If the old pads where worn out the pistons are somewhat pressed out too. To make the new pads fit, you have to press them back in. For this open the brake fluid canister on the drivers side of the engine compartment and remove some fluid if necessary. This because pressing the pistons in will cause the fluid level to rise ! BE CAREFUL AS THE BRAKE FLUID IS VERY AGRESSIVE !! Now use a large plier and some towels (to prevent any damage) and press the pistons back until they reach the rubber seals. This should be enough for the new pads. After this is done, close the brake fluid canister.

     Prepare the parts for the new rotors/hub by using some high temp anti-seezing grease. This especially as the BREMSA hubs are anodized aluminum.

     BREMSA is a Swiss company located in the italian part of Switzerland. They work hand-in-hand with some companies located in the north of Italy that are producing high performance brakes for the customers specifications (guess where the Brembo or Porsche brakes are comming from ?). This "made in Europe" setup consists of the following parts :

Front :

- 314mm disks (296mm for the US), moulded/cross-drilled holes and slotted (made in Italy)

- blue anodized aluminum hub (made in Switzerland)

- Pagid RS 4/4 orange pads 0°- 900°C (made in Germany)

Rear :

- xxx mm rotors, moulded/cross-drilled holes and slotted (made in Italy)

- PBD high temp pads 0°- 600° with specific direction (made in Italy)
 

	This is the inner side of the disc/hub combination. Note the blue anodized hub. It's additionally slotted to withstand thermal expansions against the attached disc. The holes are created during the casting process and only drilled out to the final size. As BREMSA usually delivers Formula 3 racing teams as well as Rally Racing teams allover the world, they have a lot of experience in creating high quality products.
The quality the brakes are made of is almost the highest I've ever seen. The US GTR parts I used some months before (and got warped at high speed braking !!) are not comparable to this high-tech product ! I prepared them by cleaning the surface with brake cleaner to get rid of any silicons or grease. Of course the liquids used during the machining process will be backed out when starting the "seasoning" of the new rotors.
	Here, the BREMSA disc/hub is already placed onto the spindle without the caliper mounted. Before you put the rotors on, watch the grooves and the drills. Keep in mind that the first inner drill has to reach the pads when turning the wheel and the groove touches them at first on the inner side (in view to the hub). Therefore the rotors are mirrored for the other side to fullfil this requirement. Also put the rotors onto the spindle on the same position you took the stock one off, i.e. note the holes wehre the remover-bolts went in. This is not a big deal as you're using new rotors anyways.
Now, put the caliper back staring with the upper bolt. Please be careful not to scratch anything. For this I used some think tape at this part of the rotors until I fixed the caliper. First place the caliper bracket onto the place where the upper bolt slips in. It's easier when you turn the caliper up like you did as you removed it. Just screw the bolt in a little and turn the caliper down to insert the lower bolt. Screw them in an tourque them exactly for the specs from Mitsubishi/Dodge. I'll give the right specs here when I find them again ;-)      Now you can remove the "anti-scratch tape" from the disk and prepare the pads to get in. For this use some good high temp anti-seeze grease on the back of the pads (where the pistons touch them). Do not use too much just cover the pad slightly. Now put them back into the calipers. They should almost fell in as you pressed the pistons in ... did you ? I forgot the first time and had to remove the caliper again :( The picture shows the Pagid pads already placed into the caliper.
	Finally, put the pad-retainer spring (cleaned) pack into place by puting the the bolts back into their place. Use a screwdriver to turn the bolts from the front until the small hole on the rear side of them is visible from the pad side of the caliper. Now put each end of the T-spring into the holes of the bolts and secure it by clipping it into the small hole in the caliper.      That's it, the job is done..... on one side, hehe.
Put the wheels back on and use only little power to the lug nuts. Put hte car down to the ground and final tourque the bolts to the specifications given by the manufacturer of your wheels. Please use a tourque-wrench for this.      The picture shows the look of them behind the OZ wheels.

     For the rear rotors just secure the car and UNLOCK the hand brake. This because the hadnbrake works like a drum brake to the inside of the rear rotors. Now, loosen the lug nuts on both rear wheels while the car is still on the ground. Don't remove them now. Jack the car up almost simultaneusly on both sides until the wheels are about an Inch off the ground. Now remove the lug nuts with the top one as the last one. Take the first wheel off securely and you'll see the old looking rotors.

	Unfortunately we had rain for a week and the freshly turned rotors looked like crap just standing one night outside. Please note that this is the European version of the 93'3000GT and therefore also the rear rotors are bigger than the US version. During the ultr-heavy braking situation on my accident, the rotors got that hot that the repair shop had to turn them. The worked not bad but I always felt that they started to fade faster than the fronts and the car then felt less stable during high speed braking.      Removing the parts is as easy as in the description of the front setup. Although, the rear parts cannot be twisted out like the front with the steering parts but there is plenty of room to get onto the bolts that hold the calipers.
Here the new rotors from Bremsa are shown. The inner part has something like a coat on it to prevent rust. I additionally put on a coat of high temp paint as well as a clear coat. Of course it looks different to the front blue anodized hubs but it would look too strange if I paint the rear one blue :)
	The installation was done very quickly and I also had some time to clean the calipers. Also I wanted to paint the calipers red but I decided to leave them black. I'll polish the lettering later. The pads are from PDB (Italy) and should be better than the stock ones. Even more the PDB are side specific against any squeeking and should last longer than the stock ones.

     This is THE important part to get out the maximum of your new brake setup. I highly recommend to install new stainless steel braided brake lines together with good brake fluid. There are 8 lines necessary and 4 are always the same lenght.

     If you plan to do this job, make sure you have the appropriate tools at hand. Especially an open line tool size 10 is 150% necessary. I tried to do the fronts with just a normal tool but I had no chance to open the brake line fittings. Due to the fact that the stock fittings are somewhat "cheap" the nuts can be damaged easily. After my trys I had to file them that the new tools could fit. Also soak the parts with WD-40 or any other rust-loosening fluid. On one side it took almost 2 1/2 hours until I got them loose !

This are the very good lines I got from Mikael in Sweden. I'm very pleased with the quality of this products and am sure that they will work well. Also the line-kit from "Goodridge" is made of very good quality.      When changing the lines, first step a few times onto the brakes without the engine running. When you feel that the brake pedal is becomming very hard, all pressure should be released of the lines.

The picture shows the already installed lines at the rear brakes.      Start with loosening the top fitting on the inner side of the fender (here shown on the right-top side). Take a clear silicone hose that will fit over the hard line. When the fitting is loose put the hose over the lines and the other end into plastic cup to catch the brake fluid. Also you can twist the stock line down to the cup to release the remaining fluid. Now release one fitting to each other until you can remove the stock line at the caliper.      The new lines go in in the opposite order like the old ones came out. Before the last fitting will be closed, make sure to open the bleeder valve at the caliper.

     After each caliper has got it's new lines, attach a hand-bleeder tool to the bleeder valve and pump the air out of the system until the brakefluid comes out without air bubbles. Unfortunately, on our system, loosening the valve will cause air in and therefore you'll always get some air out too.

     At this time, it's good to check the quality of the brake fluid. Mine was really dark and looked old. Although the mechanic said he changed the fluid but I guess he didn't bleed the system properly ! I bleeded the system until the new fluid I've put into the reservoir came out. For this I used the new Castrol Super Disk fluid DOT 5.1 and I think it is the best bang for the buck. The ultimate would be the Castrol SRF but is on a cost of about $50 just a litre ! As I plan to bleed the system at least one times in a year the Super Disk fluid will do its work pretty well.

     This is the first phase you have to go through after putting on new rotors and pads. This is necessary because during the production process the used oils and fluids are still sitting between the metallic particles. Any cleaning will not do the job enough. Only the pads can do this job for us :)

     For this, you have to babying the new brakes for about the first 100 miles or over the next two/three days. Of course this depends on how much you are using them. Avoid any panic stopping during this period as well has heating them up too much. When driving try to brake somewhat earlier than usual, somewhat softly, and then let them cool down to ambient temperature again. Also try to release the brakes when waiting on the lights (I used the hand brake during this time). This will help to cool the rotors down evenly. Some sounds will be heard in the beginning of this phase and it will go away the longer it takes. Also the curves in the rotors can be feeled during braking but this will go away after a few days. Please note that during this time the pads will only "grind" the rotors surface and prepares them for the forthcomming pad-phase...

     In this second phase the pads will be broken in (hehe, sounds good). As the pads are still containing some gases from the production process they must be "gased-out". This will be done by cycling them up to high temperatures and down until they start to fade. Unfortunately, if you got good brakes like the BREMSAs, you'll not notice any fading :)

     So start doing this by driving up to 60mph and brake down hard. Then accelerate and hit the brakes hard again. I also went up with speed to 130mph and hit the brakes like an animal but I never noticed any fading. I did this cycling about 6 times and urgh, they smelled like grazy and the rims where gray after this. I then drove home not using the brakes a lot and parked the car over night to let them cool down totally.

     After this the brakes are now backed-in and ready for normal driving (ahem, what I call normal). When you notice any abnormal behaivour during the last phase or you feel a warping than please check out if everything is ok. Especially check the tourque on the lug nuts. Every nut should be exactly tourqued down to the specs given by the wheel manufacturer. Also check if the car tends to draw to one side while braking soft and hard. On my car I felt a vibration when I began phase two but after two heavy brwakings the behaivour went away and everything was allright.

     I hated the first phase .... I drove around and only slowly pushed the brakes long before a stop light, really babying them. I then heated them a little, left them cool down, heated them a little and so on. I drove yesterday on the Swiss Autobahn (120 limit, 160 for me :) and slowly pushed them. I felt a warping feeling that went away after soft braking during the time. I did the same for about 130km today and this evening I felt they are ready for the first "mucho" heat up phase.

     As we had around 30°C this day they wouldn't have the chance to cool down. But, as I drove home I hammered it several times. And they really stop ! The main difference between the stock ones and the Bremsas is that immediatly after hammering it over 120km/h the ABS engages. With the stock ones I've never been able to activate it before it slowed down around 60 or 50km/h. And the car stops straight in line ! With the stock ones I felt a drifting to the left and back to the right side and always had to correct the line with the steering wheel. But now the tires screetch until the car stops and it stops straight (remember the post of a fellow member... the 180° turn, but not with this setup !)

     After installing the new brake lines, the feeling of the brake pedal became more firm. After some days of driving, the brake-setup became better and better. IMHO, the brake lines are a definite must for the ultimate setup ! Fo the cost of about $200 for a full set you'll get a much better feeleing as well as the safety of heat resistance when braking at very high speeds.

     So far, I'm very happy as I can compare them with other aftermarket rotors (GTR). I can feel also a better braking when only touching them a little. At high speeds the pads grab the disks much harder and they feel more secure than all the others. Our stock european brakes are good as well but started to fade so fast. This was my main goal concerning my high speed driving on the german Autobahn. In rain I'm feeling now an immediate response in brake power. With the stock ones I felt that it tooked some milliseconds until the hooked up. But now the action is immediatly and I think this is a very good improvement.

     To be honest, in the beginning I expected some more braking power. But from day to day the system is becomming better and better. After a few wekks driving, I must say that they work now better than expected and I feel that the Yokohama tires start to be unable to handle the hard braking ! For the price of $1000 for the front and $650 for the rear, the system is really good and I haven't have any need for any bigger caliper or bigger disks. It's definitely worth the money !!