Stopping Power (Si part 3)
And the transformation of the Civic continues... One of the weak spots on the 2006+ Civic Si is the braking system-- perfectly adequate for street driving but toast on the track. Our balanced approach to all things automotive dictates that we look at the entire system as we make upgrades. We've already tweaked the suspension some, detailed here (and there's much more to come in this department, stay tuned) and upgraded the intake and exhaust system, detailed here. So now it's on to the brakes.
As already mentioned, the stock braking system on this Honda is not up to the challenge of track driving. The owner was able to make it work last year by doing some of the basic stuff: high temp brake fluid, better pads, slotted rotors. But now that we've already added a bit of muscle under the hood in the form of better breathing, stickier tires, and a complete suspension upgrade is currently in the works; the corners at the track will be coming a lot quicker and the car will need to scrub off much more speed.
We went with the Brembo four piston caliper and big 328mm by 28mm slotted rotor brake kit. Brembo is the biggest high performance brake manufacturer and has a long standing track record of top quality engineering and manufacturing-- so the choice was easy.
We prefer slotted over cross drilled for their durability at the track. Cross drilled rotors are great for highway cruising in the rain-- which is what they were designed for in the first place. Slotted rotors still help to evacuate the gases that can build up between the pads and the rotors when braking, but the basic integrity of the rotor is not compromised with a bunch of little holes.
Here's the kit as it arrived:
Modern brake components are pretty simple to swap out if you follow good mechanic's habits. It is really important to know the proper torques for the various bolt sizes and materials. The brake components are not only put under a great deal of torque stress, extreme heat cycling is a major issue. An over tightened bolt will fail, end of story.
One thing to note about installing big brake kits on your car-- more often than not the stock wheels will no longer fit. Bigger brakes require more caliper spacing-- the space between the "spokes" of your wheel and the caliper. Stock wheels are often very tight against the caliper and allow very little room for larger set-ups. In a pinch spacers can be used if the rotor diameter fits inside the wheel diameter and all you need is more space for the caliper-- be we do not recommend going more the 7 mm.
