How necessary are upgraded brakes for DD?

[justinhw]

Looking to put together a good reliable daily driver with stock engine - want some options about the stock brake system - is it adequate for normal use? in an emergency situation is it safer to have an aspire brake swap? or is it not worth the trouble for a DD and i should just go with good stock parts?

[navdoc101]

Aspire brakes, much safer.

[Rick the Quick]

In an emergency situation it is better to be in a tank. But seriously I have driven well over 100K miles in my Festivas with stock brakes with no problems. I have also driven 100's of thousands of miles on cars with 4 wheel drum brakes with no accidents. Aspire brakes will stop you faster.

[TominMO]

You can certainly get by with Festy brakes, but yeah, the Aspires are noticeably better for stopping power. Plus it's much easier to change the front rotors; and the rear spindles have the castle cover/cotter pin arrangement, to keep the spindle nut reliably in place (like on 93 Festys).

Also, the 4x100mm bolt pattern gives you more choices for wheels.

Safety-wise, the most important point of course is to tighten the nut behind the wheel.....

[dliverance]

Can you upgrade to aspire brakes and retain the 4x114 lug pattern? Sorry if this has been covered but I figured since you guys were on the topic I'd ask

[Rick the Quick]

Sure but why would you want to? You could re-drill the hubs and drums for the 4 x 114 pattern. You might make history if you did. There are much more choices for wheels in the 4 x 100 size.

[dliverance]

I'm really partial to my Watanabe's lol

[dliverance]

And I've found high offset old jdm wheels are a lot cheaper than 4x100 legit wheels

[ryanprins13]

Driven a long ways in my festiva, over 150k miles and with properly functioning front brakes i never wanted more. Its stopps faster than my brothers cavalier and stopps as fast or faster than my 2002 honda civic while towing the same trailer. Done lots of towing with it and never worried about it.
Just like any brakes you have to make sure to service them often enough to keep sliders from sticking and make sure the pads dont get glazed.
Probably more important is making sure your tires are good.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[FestYboy]

If you want to upgrade and keep the 114.3 pattern, use Capri front brakes. and if the xr2 isn't enough, that can then be upgraded with Nissan rotors and calipers from the Sentra.

[dliverance]

If you want to upgrade and keep the 114.3 pattern, use Capri front brakes. and if the xr2 isn't enough, that can then be upgraded with Nissan rotors and calipers from the Sentra.

This sounds like a winner for me. I wonder if all of that will clear my wheels

You're the man!

[Team Lightning]

Capri brakes Will not clear your 12" wheels. You need at least 14" from what's been said on here.

[dliverance]

my wheels are 14"

[scitzz]

Stock brakes are fine for DD. I did many hundreds of thousands of miles on them. That said, I am Aspire swapped for about 5 years now, and I ain't looking back. Better feel, more mass for stopping and easier to maintain.

[Eaglefreek]

As long as your wheel and tires aren't much heavier than the stock combo, you'll be just fine. I didn't notice a major difference when I swapped to Aspire brakes.