KIA Rio brakes

[hot4dl8ly]

Has anyone ever considered this a canidate for a brake swap? They look to be real close to Aspire knuckles, and the local jy has alot of them and no Aspires.

[Nerd Racing]

I know the struts and springs are a direct swap for the front of an aspire. some of the newer years had lug studs and nuts too!

[JPT]

I know the struts and springs are a direct swap for the front of an aspire.

What year Rio?

The back is different though. Correct?

[Nerd Racing]

correct.

[anomoly40]

It had been discussed before but it came to no conclusion. I'll try to get to a jy and try it out. Does anyone know what the spline count is?

[Nerd Racing]

that I do no know... rockauto got rid of their good info on axles too...

[anomoly40]

Well spline count looks to be 24. Looks promising. Don't go out and buy Rio brakes just yet though.

[wybnrml]

I remember Hot Wheels is using Kia Rio front hubs, he should know alot about this. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...t=kia+rio+hubs

[Nerd Racing]

hubs not knuckles though

[Hot_Wheels]

Jim FB71 did a comaprison of the aspire knuckle vs rio it, all matched except where the steering tie rod bolts into the kuckle was a little farther so it would give a little bit more of a steering radius. im sure you could probably use kia rio rotors and calipers with the aspire knuckle or i think escort gt will bolt up too. im not sure which one is larger though

[muscle_Car1]

The 00-02.5 were the same as aspire auto's the 2002.5-2005 were larger rotors & caliper setups

[Safety Guy]

I spent some quality time with an '02 Rio yesterday at the local PNP. Got the calipers and the LF strut assembly. Had to cut a connecting link with my big bolt cutters to get the strut off on the second trip!

I took pics. Here is the right side, which I only got the caliper from:



Here is another view. Note the connecting link that goes from the strut to what appears to be another stabilizer bar. I couldn't get the nuts loose because they just turned. Probably need an air wrench?:



And the left side after I had cut the link to get the strut out (cut link is in upper left of pic):



You can see the LF knuckle here, and the tie rod end. Okay, not so good a view of the tie rod end! You can barely see it.

[Safety Guy]

Here are the calipers compared:



The new looking one is a rebuilt Aspire unit that didn't fit right. The grungy one came from the Rio.

Another view:



Note that my Aspire caliper is for a MT Aspire, so the caliper frame is slightly smaller than the Rio's which is the AT Aspire equivalent.

Struts to follow...

[Safety Guy]

Strut comparison pics; Rio on left and Aspire on right in all:



The pic below shows the cut link and its bracket:


This one shows the other side. Note the second extra bracket on the lower Rio strut:


And this one shows the mount tops. Both are 1.5" thick:


With the advent of the larger 1.6L engine in some '03 Rios and all from '04 on, they went to a three bolt strut mount, but from looking at Rockauto part numbers, I think the struts are still very close or exact in size and properties.

I'm taking my Rio strut back for credit and if I decide to use Rio struts, I'll probably buy a new Rio GR2 KYB set of fronts. I suspect that due to the Rio being around 150 pounds heavier than the Aspire, that they may have stiffer valving than the Aspire struts. And remember, Aspires are about 400 pounds heavier than Festivas.

If I go that way, I'll be cutting off the two extra useless brackets to slightly lower unsprung weight and just get them out of the way.

I couldn't grab the knuckles since I always have problems with getting the tie rod ends to come loose. Also the tie rod end and jam nuts. Hmmph. I could use some ideas on how to do this if anyone knows the trick (besides a torch, which I don't have and they don't allow anyway).

As already noted, the Rio rear end is entirely different.

I'm still wanting to use Rio knuckle assemblies, since they would be much newer and will be getting more common than Aspire knuckles.

Karl

[91blufestiva]

so what does this all mean? they all look very similar