Front Brake "semi" kinda sorta performance upgrade

[Jakecallun20]

I will be doing this as well....

I highly reccomend it. Well Well worth it, espescially if your car is a daily driver...and not to mention your car has an SC'er.

[lilm]

I will be doing this as well....

me too

[Dawgz]

Anyone with the EricSol caliper relocation kit would DEFINITLY benifit fromt his mod...bigger rotor + 2 piston caliper + bigger braking surface(pads)

[Gibson99]

not to crap on the thread, but i do have to wonder how much of the improvement was gained by changing the brake fluid. First time i changed it on my miata (and did nothing else - didn't touch pads, rotors or any adjustments) it firmed up the pedal and gave me better response and control at the threshhold - I don't have ABS on the miata so it's easier to tell at the threshhold. I have no doubt that repeated hard braking will ABSOLUTELY be improved with this mod, but i do have to wonder how much of the initial impressions are solely because of fresh brake fluid.

that said - when i upgraded the rear drums to disk on my old 88, the difference was truly night and day. the car was flatter and much more confident feeling under hard braking... hell, even under light braking it just felt better. yes, i flushed the whole system and ended up with all new brake fluid as a result, and i'm sure that helped, but i've never felt THAT much improvement from simply bleeding before... and i've worked on a lot of cars...

also just to recap - all you need on each side is the avalon/es300/gen3v6(w/abs) caliper bracket, 2pot caliper, and the banjo bolt - you didn't have to change the flex line, right? I'm thinking I may do this when it comes time to do a brake job.

btw - nobody else mentioned it, but the fact that one of your pads was at the metal and the other one was only half gone means your needed to replace that caliper anyway, so this was a perfect time to do this job anyway!

[SleeperSolara]

not to crap on the thread, but i do have to wonder how much of the improvement was gained by changing the brake fluid. First time i changed it on my miata (and did nothing else - didn't touch pads, rotors or any adjustments) it firmed up the pedal and gave me better response and control at the threshhold - I don't have ABS on the miata so it's easier to tell at the threshhold. I have no doubt that repeated hard braking will ABSOLUTELY be improved with this mod, but i do have to wonder how much of the initial impressions are solely because of fresh brake fluid.

that said - when i upgraded the rear drums to disk on my old 88, the difference was truly night and day. the car was flatter and much more confident feeling under hard braking... hell, even under light braking it just felt better. yes, i flushed the whole system and ended up with all new brake fluid as a result, and i'm sure that helped, but i've never felt THAT much improvement from simply bleeding before... and i've worked on a lot of cars...

also just to recap - all you need on each side is the avalon/es300/gen3v6(w/abs) caliper bracket, 2pot caliper, and the banjo bolt - you didn't have to change the flex line, right? I'm thinking I may do this when it comes time to do a brake job.

btw - nobody else mentioned it, but the fact that one of your pads was at the metal and the other one was only half gone means your needed to replace that caliper anyway, so this was a perfect time to do this job anyway!

Changin' your brake fluid helps very little, the calipers do most of the work, the brake fluid absorbs the heat from the calipers.
So if you have new brake fluid it won't boil as fast compared to old fluid.
I just looked at the 1996 ES300 rear calipers, and it looks like you can swap the rear ones too, i'll have to pull the part and see if it bolts on the Solara.

[ASG14]

^ The Caliper Bracket is the main part you need. The rotor on the ES300 and Gen 3 V6 wagon are bigger. I swapped them on onto a '95 Camry doinf a rear drum to disc last month.

[aenties]

Nice! Thanks ASG14 for bringing this to our attention, and everyone else that helped. Found something for me to do during spring break (if not, then summer).

Forgot to ask, I read the thread but maybe missed this. Do we need bigger rotors? Or can we fit bigger rotors? I know we need the caliper, bracket, and the banjo bolts. I will be doing this on a gen 4 v6 camry.

[ASG14]

^ You need the Gen 3 pards. The Gen 3 and 4 rotors are the same in the front.

[SleeperSolara]

^ The Caliper Bracket is the main part you need. The rotor on the ES300 and Gen 3 V6 wagon are bigger. I swapped them on onto a '95 Camry doinf a rear drum to disc last month.

So would the caliper work though??
So i can just use my rotors on my car if i do the swap for the rear calipers??

[TMMK Toy]

You say es300 rotors and gen 3 wagon rotors are bigger? Anyone else able to confirm this and would these clear a 15'' wheel??

[ASG14]

^ Um, Both the ES and V6 wagon only came in 15's.......

[TMMK Toy]

What I thought, just making sure.

[grnsolara]

I did this brake upgrade on my 2000 v6 Solara. I used 96 es300 calipers, brackets (both front and rear), stock front rotors, and es300 rotors on the rear. I also replaced the front brake lines w/ Goodridge SS lines this last weekend. The upgrade was pretty straightforward. We used the banjo bolts from the Goodridge kit and its washers as well b/c it was fitted to their line ends. My friend and I did this in about 2 hours with painting and rebleeding the brake lines (and taking beer breaks).

The rear rotors and calipers were quite a bit bigger for this conversion and the fronts are much much larger. The clearance on the front between that caliper and stock 16" rim had me scared for a bit, but it's about 1/2", so this upgrade is definitely worth it.

Cost. I paid $110 for the es300 parts including the brake pads the guy had that were 90%. I sanded the parts down and did some wire brush cleaning up as well. The bolts and washers were $7-$10 at the stealership. You'll also need some dot 3/4 brake fluid which was like $5. So $125 plus 18-pack of beer was about $140 overall for this upgrade.

[SleeperSolara]

I did this brake upgrade on my 2000 v6 Solara. I used 96 es300 calipers, brackets (both front and rear), stock front rotors, and es300 rotors on the rear. I also replaced the front brake lines w/ Goodridge SS lines this last weekend. The upgrade was pretty straightforward. We used the banjo bolts from the Goodridge kit and its washers as well b/c it was fitted to their line ends. My friend and I did this in about 2 hours with painting and rebleeding the brake lines (and taking beer breaks).

The rear rotors and calipers were quite a bit bigger for this conversion and the fronts are much much larger. The clearance on the front between that caliper and stock 16" rim had me scared for a bit, but it's about 1/2", so this upgrade is definitely worth it.

Cost. I paid $110 for the es300 parts including the brake pads the guy had that were 90%. I sanded the parts down and did some wire brush cleaning up as well. The bolts and washers were $7-$10 at the stealership. You'll also need some dot 3/4 brake fluid which was like $5. So $125 plus 18-pack of beer was about $140 overall for this upgrade.

How did the rear calipers and rotors work??
Is it a straight bolt on??
Can you take some pictures for me.
The ES300 here, no has touched the rear brakes.
Did you swap over the rear calipers and rotors??

[ASG14]

^ The brakes are BOLT ON!