Brake discs - vented vs grooved/drilled

[taylormj4]

Hi there,
As I understand it drilled and grooved discs help to dissipate heat and reduce fade problems. If my Chimaera is a daily drive and only used for spirited street driving rather than track days and the brakes have never shown fade problems, will there be any advantage for me in swapping to drilled and grooved discs.
I am looking for better / sharper braking, so better to spend money on increasing disc size or number of pots in caliper ?

Cheers, Matt

[taylormj4]

Hi Trev,
Yes read that one this morning which got me thinking.

How much of it is discs (size) and how much pads (friction grade and amount of heat required to work properly). If I had the funds, I'd try some different options and find the best but...
Have green-stuff pads at the moment but see one website only recommends red and yellow for the Chimaera. The greens produce low dust but they seem to need 2 or 3 hard applications before they really work well, which 'aint much use on a road car / daily driver with the occasional blast when traffic permits. Reds and Yellow used to be faster pads than greens which makes me think they'll be worse.
Cheers, Matt

[taylormj4]

Quinny said:

If it hasn't already been done, a nice little upgrade is to remove the old original, and by now, deteriorating brake lines

And replace with nice shiney, new stainless steel braided lines

I have been looking to upgrade as my brakes aren't as strong as they should be. On bone dry roads from 30mph, it is virtually impossible to lock up the tyres, which seems wrong. Still pretty quick at stopping but no lock up suggests they could be better.

I have suspicion that my calipers aren't quite right as pads tend to wear at the outer edges more than toward the centre of the disc (knackered slides?) and the disc doesn't quite sit central to the caliper.

If going to the cost of replacing calipers / slides, makes it worthwhile investigating upgrade options.
My objective is to get faster response of the brakes after a quick hard application followed by stronger braking force.

Matt

[taylormj4]

simonej said:

I had a problem with mine in that I couldn't lock them up and was getting uneven pad/disc contact. Turned out the carriers were clagged up with rust and other debris and the pads couldn't move freely. Cleaned them out and fitted Tarox G88 all round with some DS2500 pads and they were transformed (though I'm sure standard discs and pads would be just as good - I just like the look of the G88 discs ). I later had the lines replaced with braided and that massively improved the feel.

When you say lines, do you mean the complete brake line from the master cylinder or just the flexible connections to the wheel hub ? I have stainless braided flexible hoses on the front but they are probably 8 years old by now.

Matt