Going to replace the brakes/rotors next week!

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My 2008 xB just hit 70K miles... Still on OEM rotors, a few months ago I noticed the rear rotors have started to develop "rings" around the circumference of the rotor. Front rotors look OK, but I am one to want to replace everything at once. I am not a fan of just machining the rotors, so I will be replacing everything. The pads have decent life left, but I am ready for a change. I switched out the OEM pads at around 25K for centric ceramic pads front/rear. Although they have been everything I ever wanted as far as absolutely no dust, I can't help but be jealous of the brake feel in almost every other car I drive. When hot, the ceramic pads work excellent... But under normal and cold conditions, they are a bit "linear feeling" for me, and I desire more bite and aggressive braking power.

I am going with the combo I used on my girlfriends old car... Powerslot rotors with Hawk HPS pads. Looking to get a little more bite back with the pads, and I was a big fan of the quality of the powerslot rotors... A little pricey, sure... But when it comes to stuff like brakes I am not one to skimp with cheap anything.

Autoanything had all four rotors and brake pads for $439 shipped... Found a 15% off order coupon code that they always have floating around, and got $65 off the order. Also used Mr. Rebates for another 5% off, so my final cost to my door was $349.80 - Not too shabby (I thought!)

My question is... A few weeks ago I replaced the brake fluid in my car. I had my mom work the brake pedal inside the car, while I purged the fluid about 12 times each corner. Fluid came out the color of the honey, new fluid was clear. Now that I will be "resetting" the calipers, should I open up the bleed valve when I push the calipers back in, or just leave it alone since I already did the fluid change? I heard some people like to open the valves when pushing them back in, so they get the old fluid and such out. But has the old and new mixed whatever was in there anyway?

Look forward to hopefully gaining some bite back with the new brake setup... Due to my heavy city driving and constant morons all over, I find myself hitting the brake quite a bit to avoid other peoples carelessness. Sometimes the ceramic pads feel a bit weak for me.
 
You will probably here advice for both ways but in over 30+ years of doing brakes on various cars over the years, just removing the reservoir cap and pushing the fluid back in has never hurt anything.
 
opening the bleeders can easily introduce air into the system.

I'm just like Hoot, I've rarely done anything but push in the pistons. Never had an issue.

Regarding pads, you'll generally find that the less dust they make the poorer the 'bite'. Ceramic has become a maketing buzzword and may only be 1% of the formula.
 
Originally Posted By: xBa380
My 2008 xB just hit 70K miles... Still on OEM rotors, a few months ago I noticed the rear rotors have started to develop "rings" around the circumference of the rotor. Front rotors look OK, but I am one to want to replace everything at once. I am not a fan of just machining the rotors, so I will be replacing everything. The pads have decent life left, but I am ready for a change. I switched out the OEM pads at around 25K for centric ceramic pads front/rear. Although they have been everything I ever wanted as far as absolutely no dust, I can't help but be jealous of the brake feel in almost every other car I drive. When hot, the ceramic pads work excellent... But under normal and cold conditions, they are a bit "linear feeling" for me, and I desire more bite and aggressive braking power.

I am going with the combo I used on my girlfriends old car... Powerslot rotors with Hawk HPS pads. Looking to get a little more bite back with the pads, and I was a big fan of the quality of the powerslot rotors... A little pricey, sure... But when it comes to stuff like brakes I am not one to skimp with cheap anything.

Autoanything had all four rotors and brake pads for $439 shipped... Found a 15% off order coupon code that they always have floating around, and got $65 off the order. Also used Mr. Rebates for another 5% off, so my final cost to my door was $349.80 - Not too shabby (I thought!)

My question is... A few weeks ago I replaced the brake fluid in my car. I had my mom work the brake pedal inside the car, while I purged the fluid about 12 times each corner. Fluid came out the color of the honey, new fluid was clear. Now that I will be "resetting" the calipers, should I open up the bleed valve when I push the calipers back in, or just leave it alone since I already did the fluid change? I heard some people like to open the valves when pushing them back in, so they get the old fluid and such out. But has the old and new mixed whatever was in there anyway?

Look forward to hopefully gaining some bite back with the new brake setup... Due to my heavy city driving and constant morons all over, I find myself hitting the brake quite a bit to avoid other peoples carelessness. Sometimes the ceramic pads feel a bit weak for me.


I had great results with the Powerslot rotors and Hawk pads too.
 
Thanks for the advice on the fluid... After pushing them back in, I was going to bleed them slightly to make sure no air was in the line, but if there is no need to, I will just do it the simple way and not worry about it!

I look forward to the combo on my car though. The ceramics did what I wanted, but now I want more braking power. So I hope the hawks will give me the bite back!
 
If your car is equipped with antilock brakes, DO NOT just push the calipre pistons back without opening the bleeders. you risk pushing contaminents into the antilock HCU and damaging it. HCU's start at about $1,000 don't risk it.
 
I've tried various combinations of drilled and slotted rotors over the years, and think that they cause the pads to wear faster, especially higher friction pads like the Hawk HPS. So I'm a smooth-rotor guy now. If I want extra "bite" in the brakes, I put on high-friction pads.

Don't open the bleed screws when pushing the pisons back in. Bleed the brakes afterwards. The fluid in the calipers can't be too clean.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8

Regarding pads, you'll generally find that the less dust they make the poorer the 'bite'. Ceramic has become a maketing buzzword and may only be 1% of the formula.


While I agree that "ceramic" can be a buzzword, but not all ceramic pads have poor bite.

I have Bendix CT-3 on my Sonata. They're GG rated, which is pretty high. The OE pads were FF. I haven't noticed too much dust.

I also haven't read complaints about Akebono ProActs having poor bite, but I don't personally own them.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Billbert
If your car is equipped with antilock brakes, DO NOT just push the calipre pistons back without opening the bleeders. you risk pushing contaminents into the antilock HCU and damaging it. HCU's start at about $1,000 don't risk it.


Nonsense.
 
Originally Posted By: R2d2

Nonsense.


Agreed.. I've been replacing brakes for years, never an issue just pushing the pistons in to get the caliper/pads in place. You may need to remove some of the brake fluid from the filler to unsure it doesn't spill out of the top though.
 
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