How Does your Brake Pedal feel?

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MXDesa

Senior Member
Hey guys whats up? Today i completed my rear disc swap on my Hatchback. I was hoping to get a stiffer pedal feel after completing the swap, but unfortunately, not. I did the swap the right way. All the following was changed...

1. Master Cylinder (From SI Hatch)
2. Brake Booster (From SI Hatch)
3. Proportioning Valve (From SI Hatch)
4. Rear Disc set up (From SI Hatch)

My question is, why doesn't my pedal feel any better? And what can i do to make my pedal A LOT stiffer than what it is? Are there stronger, more capable master cylinders for sale in the after market? Thanks guys ;)
 
If you use stainless braided brake lines youll feel the pedal alot better. A majority of the pressure you apply to your brakes goes into the expansion of your rubber brake lines. Ive read in some cases that the addition of steel lines to a stock vehicles brakes have resulted in a 40% decrease in the amount of pedal travel required to apply X amount of brake pressure to the pads. Try that, I think youll get what your looking for.

Also, with your new brakes, you wont necessarily notice an immediate increase in braking. Where bigger and better brakes usually shine is under demanding braking conditions such as autocross racing. In racing, sometimes what happens is you brakes get too hot and they start to loose thier effectiveness in slowing you down. This is called brake fade. The reason people upgrade their brakes to bigger ones is because the amount of heat produced when your apply the brakes is dissipated over a larger area, therefore making it heat up a little less and cool down faster. If you really get into it, huge brakes such as Willwood, Bare and Brembo kits, youll get a larger rotor that seperates the brake pad further from the axis of the rotor and therefore gives the brakes more leverage when stopping and also has a much much larger surface area to dissipate heat.

edit: if you plan on pushing your brakes, its a good idea to use dot 4 brake fluid enstead of dot 3. This will help stop your fluid from boiling in the lines during hard braking conditions.

Hope this helps
 
Originally posted by Canuck 93 Civic Si@Mar 20 2004, 05:27 PM
A majority of the pressure you apply to your brakes goes into the expansion of your rubber brake lines

ehh ... try again. a majority is the piston in your calipers moving and, while not in this case, rear shoe adjustment. thats why its easier to get a higher brake pedal in a car w/rear drum brakes (rear brk adjmt). dont believe me? line lock all your rubber brake hoses with vise grips at the closest point to the calipers. now try the brake pedal..... voila! hard as a .... :D

some brake pedals and/or master cyl.'s have an adjustment on them.
 
bleed them out and make sure you get all the air out. i had the same problem when i did my swap but it turns out i didnt bleed them very good.
 
If you want a stiffer pedal feel, swap out your MC for a bigger one, make sure you have bled your brakes completely, and get SS brakelines.

Everyone that posted above is right, none are wrong, rubber lines DO flex and cause ineffieciancy, heat DOES cause brake fad, pistons DO require more fluid to fill, and improperly bleed brakes WILL cause a soft pedal.

That being said, you swapped stock brakes for more stock brakes, the MC, booster and prop valve were made for your car, just a different model, so it is going to have a consumer friendly brake feel. If you want a aftermarket feel, you need to get something that wasn't put on your car from the factory, like big ol ITR/GSR brakes, MC, booster, etc...

If all the parts numbers cross reference, and I am checking it Monday, you should be able to use the Prelude vtec kncukles, and brakes, as I believe they are hte same as the Aerodeck, which I am using, and they clamp VERY hard in a small light car like a Civic, and bolt right on. Also the problem of finding rotors and pads is elininated because you are using something that is availible in hte states, unlike the JDM ITR brakes that everyone has to have redrill rotors from a GSR to fit.
 
Well i have a Integra LS Master cylinder as well around the garage, and as far as i know its the same one the GSR uses. Will a GSR/LS booster bolt up to my fire wall in my civic so i can match up the MC to it? I also have Front GSR Knuckles but am waiting for new ball joints to come in. Thanks so far guys...
 
Look at the side of the MC's you have laying around, you will see some numbers like 7/8, 15/16, 13/16 something like that. Use the biggest one, and yes teh GSR boster will bolt right to your Civic, just make sure one of your MC's can bolt to it.
 
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