Uprating the std s12 brakes Performance.

[PukkaSilvia]

I am rebuilding my s12's std brake system and wheel bearings etc. I will be fitting new Pads all round and bleeding them.I also have grooved std disks to fit on at the same time

The s12 uses .3 brake fluid as standard. Has anyone changed to .4 and noticed any improvements or not.

what pads come highly reccomended from those of you who have tried a few different versions. Can we get Mintex pads for the s12 from somewhere? or are there other options? I have tried ferodo premier baggins pads and Halfords ones when i was desperate( Neither impressed me at all). I want to improve bite and reduce brake fade as much as possable.

I do not wish to change my hoses or change to the s14 brakes at this point before anyone suggests it

Cheers in advance.

[Dr Silvia]

use dot 5 fluid as it has the highest boiling point and better water resistance than the lower number dot fluids, and will not cause any harm

[30psi]

In one day I changed to dot 5, grooved discs and budget Apec pads. Initially I thought the brakes were worse. But get them warm and they were really good.

Put them on the red car but never changed the fluid. I never really ran much power on that car for about a year so never excercised the brakes.

Dropped the engine in and then realised they were pretty shite but the discs were worn down and the grooves had nearly disappeared.

Fitted black diamond discs and standard Nissan pads and the brakes are shite. Haven't been arsed to change the pads for the pikey ones I used to use. But the pikey pads are twice as good as the Nissan ones. Might be the fluid but I can't imagine that causing a problem for normal day to day braking, that would only show up as a problem after a fair amount of abuse.

[NIZMAINIAC]

i would use dot5 aswell , i used it in my pulsar and was better than the dot 4 that came out, but i wanted a bit more bite (as pulsars are known to have really , really sh*te brakes) so i put in a set of black diamond predator pads , not great when they're cold , but once warmed up, peel your eyes off the windscreen, but what i was going to say was that all brake fluids up to dot4 are mineral based , have alot lower boiling tempreture , when it does boil not only is it inducing air into your braking system but moisture aswell , corroding your brake pipes from the inside out NOT GOOD , dot 5 however is synthetic based , it boils at a lot higher tempreture , i can't for the life of me remeber what it boils at though , i've got it on paper somewhere, but even a hard track day would struggle to make it boil, it's also down to brake set up too, ie the bigger the better , more energy scrubbed off quicker and better heat dissapation through larger disc's

[umpkin]

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/trackday&race.html

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/Assets/2005ebcintcat.pdf

they list the silvia 1.8 zx there quite goot, my brother has them on his vr6, hes got no complaints.

i think green stuff are more disc friendly, the red will wear i would think, but i dunno, just a guess

[PukkaSilvia]

thanks people. .5 fluid and red ebc pads are my choice now.Thanks for the link umpkin. So they definalty do the red ones for the s12? The green ones dont seem to be suitable from there descriptions

[umpkin]

i dont know, the link gave me a headache TBH if the numbers they give there are the red ones then yes else best to speak to you local stockists, im sure they will have a book etc.

[30psi]

I've heard from a number of different sources that EBC stuff is shit and that is from an old S12 owner and S13 and other people.

Mintex don't do S12 pads I've already checked through someone and they didn't come up. Porterfield are supposed to be pretty good.

Pretty sure you cant get reds for the s12 prob only greens. The reds are supposed to be better but some still say their shite.

[PukkaSilvia]

now im confused again. I dont really want to listen to rumours though,i would like to get opinions from what people have tried themself

Shaun what do you use?

[s13eater]

jon i've always used ferrodo baggins, but i don't really give the car much with the kids in, but the last time i slaughterd a scooby, i warped a disc braking fast a high speed so thats why i've rebuilt some z32 calipers and bought some braided hoses from earls, i've not fitted them as of yet, but i need to soon, as my pads are shot, the guy at zworld reccomends ebc, so i think if we listen to everything we here we would not have any pads in at all lol.