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Need Brake Help

eXodium

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So I'm new to learning about brakes, and was hoping I could get some help. I have a 2015 ecoboost non-PP. Looking to upgrade from the base break kit. Would like some understanding on if I should just replace the rotors/pads or to replace the calipers as well. I know I only have the weak 2 piston calipers, but if I replace the rotors and pads with nice aftermarket ones will that be good enough? My use case is spirited daily driving. Already have all of the bolt on mods to the car done.
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NightmareMoon

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So I'm new to learning about breaks, and was hoping I could get some help. I have a 2015 ecoboost non-PP. Looking to upgrade from the base break kit. Would like some understanding on if I should just replace the rotors/pads or to replace the calipers as well. I know I only have the weak 2 piston calipers, but if I replace the rotors and pads with nice aftermarket ones will that be good enough? My use case is spirited daily driving. Already have all of the bolt on mods to the car done.
What did you break? Hopefully you're still under warranty. I try not to break things if I can help it.
 

NightmareMoon

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Oh you mean Brakes, not breaks! :p

Have you noticed any brake fade? Normally the stock base brakes are really ok for 95% of street use. It takes sustained periods of high heat generation to overwhelm a brake system. Even the two piston base brakes can provide plenty of clamping force to slow down (i.e. lock up the tires) at speed. They just can't take as many sustained, repeated, high speed stops before being overloaded with heat.

There are really only a couple of situations where your stock ecoboost brakes would be likely to prove inadequate
1) you're tracking the car on a road course, where you're constantly on full throttle or the max braking. This situation will easily overdo the base bakes.
2) you're driving canyons hard and descending from altitude. Driving downhill for long stretches can overdo a brake system.

Anyway, the easiest/cheapest way to upgrade would be to switch to the 6-piston Brembos (and rotors/pads that fit them). Its a factory parts swap and calipers/rotors are pretty affordable and easy to find. The Brembos are up to most challenges that drivers will throw at them. The rotors used on the Brembos are larger and have a better cooling design - significantly more difficult to overheat.
 

Bikeman315

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So I'm new to learning about breaks, and was hoping I could get some help. I have a 2015 ecoboost non-PP. Looking to upgrade from the base break kit. Would like some understanding on if I should just replace the rotors/pads or to replace the calipers as well. I know I only have the weak 2 piston calipers, but if I replace the rotors and pads with nice aftermarket ones will that be good enough? My use case is spirited daily driving. Already have all of the bolt on mods to the car done.
Lots of good advice in this thread.

https://www.mustangecoboost.net/threads/brakes-upgrade-from-base-ecoboost-to-base-gt.16019/
 

Bikeman315

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Anyway, the easiest/cheapest way to upgrade would be to switch to the 6-piston Brembos (and rotors/pads that fit them). Its a factory parts swap and calipers/rotors are pretty affordable and easy to find. The Brembos are up to most challenges that drivers will throw at them. The rotors used on the Brembos are larger and have a better cooling design - significantly more difficult to overheat.
Just remember the PP Brembo’s require 19” wheels. Regular GT brakes are OK with 18’s.
 

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NightmareMoon

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Just remember the PP Brembo’s require 19” wheels. Regular GT brakes are OK with 18’s.
Good point. Many 18" wheels won't fit over the PP Brembos (some will).
 
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eXodium

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Ya brakes not breaks lol autocorrected. It's more I'm just looking for if I do replace something do I need to replace calipers and rotors or are just rotors ok. I'm not having any real issues now other than wanting a bit better stopping power. The brembo brake kit costs around 1200 which to me is a bit more than I want (or need really) to spend on a setup. I've been looking into the GT replacement as well, but unsuccessful at finding any in the last 6 months or so. The setups I was looking at were:

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...tor-pad-caliper-kit-front-rear-kc6808-26.html

or

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...kit-front-rear-1518-v6-standard-ecoboost.html

Seeing if the 500 price bump is necessary for me just to add some new calipers. Also, I have 19" wheels now. As a side note, will I need a new master cylinder if I do any of these things?
 

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If all you need is a bit more stopping power - I'm thinking 'bite' here - just a pad swap to something with a higher coefficient of friction and maybe a fluid swap to a DOT4 fluid with higher temperature ratings should be enough.

Possible downsides . . . more dust and probably some noise.


Norm
 

NightmareMoon

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Ya brakes not breaks lol autocorrected. It's more I'm just looking for if I do replace something do I need to replace calipers and rotors or are just rotors ok. I'm not having any real issues now other than wanting a bit better stopping power. The brembo brake kit costs around 1200 which to me is a bit more than I want (or need really) to spend on a setup. I've been looking into the GT replacement as well, but unsuccessful at finding any in the last 6 months or so. The setups I was looking at were:

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...tor-pad-caliper-kit-front-rear-kc6808-26.html

or

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...kit-front-rear-1518-v6-standard-ecoboost.html

Seeing if the 500 price bump is necessary for me just to add some new calipers. Also, I have 19" wheels now. As a side note, will I need a new master cylinder if I do any of these things?
Those rotors won't do a single thing for your stopping power (and it will be worse for a while until the pads bed in to the new surface). Those are a cosmetic mod only.
 

OF5.0

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Ya brakes not breaks lol autocorrected. It's more I'm just looking for if I do replace something do I need to replace calipers and rotors or are just rotors ok. I'm not having any real issues now other than wanting a bit better stopping power. The brembo brake kit costs around 1200 which to me is a bit more than I want (or need really) to spend on a setup. I've been looking into the GT replacement as well, but unsuccessful at finding any in the last 6 months or so. The setups I was looking at were:

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...tor-pad-caliper-kit-front-rear-kc6808-26.html

or

https://www.americanmuscle.com/powe...kit-front-rear-1518-v6-standard-ecoboost.html

Seeing if the 500 price bump is necessary for me just to add some new calipers. Also, I have 19" wheels now. As a side note, will I need a new master cylinder if I do any of these things?
Shelby American’s eBay store sells Brembo calipers and rotors from brand-new Mustang GTs that are being converted to Shelby Mustangs. These take-off Brembo calipers and rotors routinely sell for $500-$600 a set (2 rotors and 2 calipers). Check them out.
 

JackofAll

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Lots of good advice here, brakes are very simple as a mechanical system and generally speaking the components get bigger for the sake of dealing with heat better not increasing clamping force. It sounds like for your described purpose bigger components would be an investment you wouldn't get much return on.

Some places you can spend money that will give you performance you can see are:

1. Sticky tires- tires connect your car to the pavement the more grip they have the faster you'll stop

2. Pads- good street performance pads will make a difference you will notice, I have had good luck with hawk pads in the past

3. Stainless braided lines- braided lines have less deflection and give you a firmer more consistent pedal feel. These are listed 3rd because modern soft lines are much better than older cars so these are less noticeable on new cars.

Do not scrap you stock rotors for something of worse quality with holes drilled in it. If you choose to really push the car hard get a high temp fluid and change it often.
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