Ottawa Fiero Club Forum

I'm thnking of upgrading the front brakes or maybe depending of the cost the whole thing as long as the E-Brake can still work.  I saw this Z34 upgrade for the front brakes on westcoastfiero http://www.westcoastfiero.com/brakes/brakes.html (http://www.westcoastfiero.com/brakes/brakes.html) and I was wondering if its worth buying that or getting another mod of some kind?  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

JP

The only real custom work seems to be the rotor/hub being turned down to accept a 'normal' rotor.  You can get that done here, even if you need a brcket made to properly mount a Z34 rotor. Looks to me like your buying heavy brake parts for 600$ plus brokerage and who knows what.

It would be a lot cheaper the brake stuff here.

4:43 am? Gary?
guilty conscience?

doggy  !!!!   ;D

Adam got up at 5 to go to work.  Had to rush and get away, complaining his alarm was wrong.  I never thought anything about it as he has odd shifts anyway.

He dashes out at 5:20 saying he has to be at work in 10 minutes. 

I get a call at 5:45 and he asks when the clocks go ahead  >:D   ;D  Should have asked that one before he left.  First time he was ever real early for work.

alright, so doesnt seem to be worth the money for that kit eh.  What can I get here then to improve the braking power.  If I were to get vented rotors how much of an improvement could this give me.  Has anyone else done any brake mods consisting of replacing the parts with another kind of car parts? like a cavalier for example.

thanks,
JP

Why do you want more power?  If you have any part master/flex hoses/calipers/rotors that is poor condition, then you do not have even stock braking.

The easiest move is to Grand Am calipers and rotors.  But if you do the rears, you will lose the ebrake.  The fronts require the hubs to be machined to allow the GA rotors to be mounted.  You can do the fronts only and leave the Fiero rears for a bit more than replacing the stock parts with new items.

Cross drilled and or slotted rotors are more for looks on a street car.  They are to aid in cooling and prevent excess fade in hard driving (racing) conditions.

yeah; the Grand Am sounds like the best bang for the buck but I guess it depends on what you plan on using the car for:
vented rotors pay off when you get into severe brake fade situations. Repeated hard braking. If you aren't going to race the car (ie on a course) then they will actually serve to reduce the life of the pads and/or rotors. I have been in supply shops when they were getting complaints and returns on slotted rotors due to uneven (and high?) wear problems and I paid attention to see what was going on.

For street I think an upgrade on the front and make sure the rears are in top shape and it should be a huge difference. Guys who have done that on PFF swear by that conversion.

whatever you do, don't cut corners on the BRAKES. There are few enough fieros left out there!

gp

I have another suggestion.  The proportioning valve can be adjusted.  It is has too much bias to the front brakes.  This is no doubt because the car is under-tired in the rear and GM didn’t want uneducated drivers doing spinning in the corners when they touched their brakes.

To adjust the proportioning valve, remove the spring that is currently in it and replace it with a lighter rate spring (I really don’t know what rate because I haven’t tried this). It will be a trial and error until you get the right rate though.

This will give you much better braking, but you will still have fade if you go to the track.  And for gods sake don’t expect that you don’t have to rebuild the brakes and replace the 20 year old brake lines (rubber part).

Aaron

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alright, well this is great info guys!!.  ok but here is the dumb question..

Where do I go and what do I ask for when modifying the hubs to fit normal grand-am rotors.  No, JP doesnt have a shop in his backyard yet..hehe
would be nice though...humm  :D  < I had to use this thing...too funny...lol

The easiest thing to do is to bring both a Grand Am rotor and a pair of old Fiero rotors to a local machine shop, and show them exactly what you want done.

The friction surface of the Fiero rotor needs to be removed, and the remaining hat turned down enough so that the Grand Am rotor will slip on over top.

I did the 11.25" swap on my car and have never been happier. Removed the spring too. Still needs a proportioning valve , but the car stops on par with some other high dollar sports cars I have driven. Fairly easy swap too!

Does this mean that the rears lock up just before the fronts?  Or that there is still too much front bias?