DBA slotted rotors - initial impressions (1 Viewer)

[quicktodoze]

Over the last four months, I've become increasingly annoyed at my pulsating brakes and so about a month ago I decided to do a full brake job with new DBA slotted rotors, front and back. I bought the DBA 4000 Series Brake Kit from man-a-fre with the three frame to axle stainless steel brake hoses and also ordered the other four brake hoses and caliper rebuild kits for front and back from cdan. I was going to do this right, dang it!

Well, my weekend project turned into a weekend + a few weekdays project. What a monster!

Anyways, I finally finished after replacing all rotors, rebuilding all four calipers, flushing all brake fluid, repacking all the bearings, replacing 7 brake hoses...

My initial impressions really weren't that favorable. Pedal travel increased quite a bit, I'm assuming because the pads needed to bed into the rotors, stuff needed to break in, yada yada... I've driven about 75 miles between last night and this morning and pedal travel really hasn't returned to what it was with all OEM. They stop great and no more pulsating (woohoo). Oh and yes, I did the break-in procedure for new brakes.

So my question is for anyone else does who has done this mod. Did your pedal travel increase and what were your initial impressions. Did pedal feel improve over time?

-Nic

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I did the exact same with the slotted rotors. Pedal travel was unchanged. The SS brake lines did firm up the pedal a bit, but it still feels spongy compared to my other cars. I think vague brakes are just an 80 series thing. If you still have a bunch of travel, I would re-bleed and make sure you bleed the LSPV.

 

[quicktodoze]

Yeah, I'll re-bleed. They're not really spongy, though, as if there's air in the system. They're really firm and that aspect of it feels great. It's just that I have to push the pedal further before I start to feel drag.

 

[yomama]

I have the same issue. You learn to live with it. I have bled my brakes 3 or 4 times, even bought the speed bleeders and still have to push that darn pedal way down there. It does however....stop much better. Although there are those without DBA's that will argue that

Yomama

 

[nakman]

I've done the same upgrades, new booster too. Pedal travel is a little less if anything, definitely not more... I agree the best part is no more shaking, but I'm hoping to have much longer life from these rotors than I got from stock, also running 100 series pads in front. Been about 6 months now, so far so good.

 

[bkgiii]

I had 'em (slotted / cross drilled DBA's), and got rid of 'em. Slotted, in my case, DID in fact pick up debris (read: rock) which killed other stuff, as several cautioned me on in earlier posts (Read: search). ANYway....I did not do the stainless lines, and noticed 'noticeably' increased pedal travel. To be fair, though, I did feel better braking performance with towing.

Look at earlier posts regarding the hazards of slotted and / or cross drilled rotors.

 

[Beowulf]

>> Did pedal feel improve over time? <<

Very unlikely it will improve. Bleed the brakes again.

-B-

 

[fzj]

I am no expert on brakes, although I've done many brake jobs, and do understand the basics, that being said, how could new and different rotors affect the amount of pedal free play? I have done many brake jobs on 80 series Cruisers, and one thing I have noticed is spongy brakes after they are done, I have alwayes attributed this to not doing a good enough job on bleeding the brakes!

 

[IdahoDoug]

Rock solid brakes with stock OEM stuff. Regularly bled since new, synthetic fluid, new OEM rotors a couple years ago. I tow 6000lbs all summer and my 80s braking performance remains outstanding for a 5300lb truck. Rebuilt the front calipers with a $22 Toyota rebuild kit after noting a slight pad wear variance. A sticky caliper might be an issue with poor brake feel. Caliper doesn't retract all the way and then the pistons are coming out at different rates/distances = longer travel??

DougM

 

[quicktodoze]

No really - they're solid! There's no spongy feeling. As soon as the brakes engage, I can feel much more braking force behind my foot with just a little bit further pressure compared to OEM.

In other words, once they start to slow me down, they're awesome. Not much more pedal force is needed (once they engage) to SMOOTHLY slow me down quickly without ANY spongy feeling in the pedal. At all.

Like I said before, it's just that I push the pedal a little further than normal ( free play ?) in order to begin to feel the drag and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon.

Beo, another bleed I think did me good. Pedal travel improved a little.

Doug, I think a sticky caliper is what led me to have my problems to begin with. When I looked at my old pads, they were definitely worn irregularly. One side was thicker than the other and it wasn't worn straight - the top was thicker than the bottom. The caliper rebuild was kind of a pain - the hardest part was getting the darn pistons out - but everything slid back together nicely, so I don't think it's a caliper again. I hope not anyway.

All in all, I think it was a great improvement.