GOD I LOVE THESE ASSFIRE BRAKES

[Gforcefd]

OKAY so I walked out the door to go get some water, and it started DOWNPOORING on me hard, just got my festiva back last night.

God I love these brakes. I decided to give them the old SLAM DOWN, didn't slid at all stopped like it was dry out, maybe 40 feet to stop from 50 miles per hour, no joke.

One thing though, I push my brakes really hard works wonderful, but I can't make the wheels lock up like you can with the festiva brakes. Is it just because there is so much more braking force my car doesn't weight enough?

Its actually better than my ABS in my 98 grand am right now, loving it. And that thing is sport tuned :-)

Me and my brother planed on making a festiva Vs aspire braking video because he has the brand new festiva setup all around, and I have this brand new aspire set up, but I think the wet roads will effect the numbers. We are going to get measurements and side by side braking video.
Logan

[mattswabb]

I've got cheap pads and I can easily lock up all 4 wheels. My rear are always locking up under hard braking. When I 1st put them on they weren't all that great but once they wore in they are awesome.

[Silv3rBull3t]

I can lock all mine up at highway speeds... Braking is awesome.. But now I've glazed my front pads pretty bad so I've gotta replace those :lol: -Kyle

[FB71]

the pads and shoes have to 'bed in' before the brakes' potential can be fully felt. 'Bed in' means to transfer some of the friction material onto the surface of the rotor or drum. Its the mat'l transfer that actually stops the car. Until the brakes are properly bedded, braking force at the wheel is slightly reduced. Do several (15-20) gradual stops from 35-40 mph, that should promote transfer. Then try a hard stop, see if there's a difference.

[Tim]

I'm lucky if my stock brakes stop the car at all....

[nonamekid]

I locked up the front brakes on my stock festiva before I hit the deer. I was doing about 70 mph.

[shoggoth80]

now that i have a parts manifest, and a relative approximation of hte costs involved... i can actually try and get this project started. i don't think there can be anything quite as practical as a better braking system. how much "extra" weight does this add to the car? anyone know? or are the differences really not worth worrying about?

[FB71]

considering whats different, larger diameter rotors and drums, and a sway bar in the rear, I'd say in the neighborhood of 5-10lbs more. And remember, 100lbs=10hp, so 10lbs=1hp. Not a bad trade, 1hp for infinitely better braking.

[shoggoth80]

plus i am thinking about ganking out the back bench... and according to what i read, that's like 40lbs shaved off... plus it will give me the space to haul teh lot back to my place... heh. that's provided that i can find all the parts in one place.

[Gforcefd]

dogging

I live in IThaca which is at the end of Cayuga (finger lakes) lake in NY, and its steep hill on both side, I notice I definetely cant climb the hills as fast as I could with teh 12" tires.

Logan

[FB71]

I know right where you're at. Ever been to Morrisville? About an hour south of Oneida.

[Silv3rBull3t]

The brake swap if you do a Manual Festy brake swap to an Auto Assfire swap (with rear beam, spindles, and all 4 brakes) is about a 40lb possibly a 45lb increase in weight which is well worth it to me for what it has done for the other aspects of the car... -Kyle

[Safety Guy]

Use manual Aspire rotors. The automatic Aspire rotors are thicker, thus heavier. You don't need them unless you downhill race with a full load of baby elephants with intestinal flu.

Karl

[Tim]

You don't need them unless you downhill race with a full load of baby elephants with intestinal flu.

Karl

Now that's an interesting mental picture!

[shoggoth80]

well, i got the front brake parts.... spindles, rotors, calipers, and tie rod ends. they're from an auto aspire (all the lot had), but from what i have read it doesn't matter, as long as you get both front units from the same car/style. so hooray on that part. i almost had the axles (it was a pull it yourself place)... got all but one bolt undone, and the only reason i couldn't get that one bolt was because they had the thing propped on rims, and it blocked that last bolt! that's alright though, i am sure i should be able to find another aspire back end somewhere. anyone got a set of aspire steelies they wouldn't mind coughing up? gonna need them. couple extra questions if anyone knows.... does the back end differ between autos and manuals, or is it just the front brakes? might be a good thing to know... but then again, when you build a mutt, it wouldn't matter as long as i ordered the correct pieces. got charged up the ass for pieces that were still attached (my tool set isn't comprehensive), so i need to remove these bits, and bring them back for a refund. i totally didn't like getting charged for 2 junk struts that i couldn't remove, and a crap CV that was still attached. did score a couple really nice headlight buckets for the festy though (i have a cracked one, and missing a few bolts.... not anymore ) . the tie rod ends were free. they aren't perfect, and no way was i gonna cough up more money for them. i already paid $177 cause of attached crap! i also have to get that core back for the CV joint i bought... as i bit hte bullet, and got new.