NHT brake calipers - OEM replacement

[Yarflana]

I am looking to just replace my stock front brake calipers with lighter, better performance calipers.

I looked at Wilwood, but they do not seem to have Yaris fitment.

Here are some I like the looks of, but I am wondering if the benefit stops at the looks, or are these lighter and better performing calipers than stock.

http://www.buybrakes.com/p-681-nht-c...-calipers.aspx

Let me know your thoughts as they are much appreciated.

Pat

[bronsin]

According to the description they are just pretty colors that wash off easily!

[Yarflana]

Respectfully disagree with you. Some one who has either bought these or knows a mechanic that has worked with them is what I was after with my question. There is some reason these are $400 more than a pair of OEM stock and paint cannot be that full difference, else they would not be able to stay in business.

I frnakly was looking to replace my stock calipers with a lighter caliper, if avaliable.

Maybe I will venture over to Garm's forum and see what they have on caliper replacement.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by Yarflana

Respectfully disagree with you. Some one who has either bought these or knows a mechanic that has worked with them is what I was after with my question. There is some reason these are $400 more than a pair of OEM stock and paint cannot be that full difference, else they would not be able to stay in business.

I frnakly was looking to replace my stock calipers with a lighter caliper, if avaliable.

Maybe I will venture over to Garm's forum and see what they have on caliper replacement.

If you look at the close-up picture of the red ones on their website, they have the Ford logo on them, so they are likely just remanufactured calipers.

[Yarflana]

Ok much appreciated...so if one were wanting to replace the stock calipers with a higher performance caliper, but keep it at the stock size (just bolt on the stock size rotor) what would you go with?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by Yarflana

Ok much appreciated...so if one were wanting to replace the stock calipers with a higher performance caliper, but keep it at the stock size (just bolt on the stock size rotor) what would you go with?

I don't think that you will find anything higher performance without going to a setup that is a complete replacement with larger rotors. With how light the Yaris is, I don't think that you will find any type of upgraded direct replacement calipers that are dual piston, etc.

A while back there was a discussion about lighter rear drums as well. I ran into a website for a company that makes lighter ones, but when I spoke with them about the Yaris ones they had listed, it turned out that they were exactly the same weight as OEM. Their actual lighter ones were the much larger ones for trucks and older muscle cars.

[Yarflana]

Ok makese sense...thanks. I contemplated going to a larger rotor, but seeming it would not be for any racing application, I am just replacing the rotors, pads, drums and shoes and leaving the calipers and cylinders be until they wear out.

[cali yaris]

^ That is the best strategy. Reading through Jason's threads will demonstrate that even on a full race car, he's using stock calipers.

Wilwood does not have a replacement. You'd need to match an existing Wilwood caliper to the stock rotor (diameter and thickness), then fabricate a bracket to hold it in the correct position.

[Viperoni]

Originally Posted by Yarflana

There is some reason these are $400 more than a pair of OEM stock and paint cannot be that full difference, else they would not be able to stay in business.

Straight from the NHT link you provided:

"The NHT Calipers start out as OEM Brake Calipers that are remanufactured with brand new hardware, and then given an extremely durable powder coat finish that will outlast any painted caliper."


Stainless Steel brake lines are a great addition.

Also, for road racing, if you're not boosting, you don't need anything more than the stock caliper + rotor with EBC Yellows / Hawk Blues.
Getting some more cooling to the brakes would help bunches, and that's something I'll look at this year on my Echo. After a couple of hard lapping days, I'm getting a little too much of the pad-edges breaking apart.

For street use, good pads are all you need to spend money on.

[Yarflana]

Yeah, after rereading I think they are not giving a lot of additional benefit. I guess with the BBKs on the market, it doesn't make sense to supe-up a 4 piston OEM type caliper and it is likely you cannot get much additional performance from only 4 pistons unless you enlarge them.

[racerb]

I have Road Raced lots of different FWD racecars over the years all using stock brake calipers. Your best money spent is on good pads (Hawk/Carbotech), rotors (Brembo,R1 Con.,Centric), brake lines (Goodridge,Stoptech), oh and as others have said proper cooling. Good quality fluid is a must, we always ran Castrol Dot 4/5, but any good fresh fluid bled often will make a big difference. A good set of Speed Bleeders will make life easier when optimizing long time brake performance.

http://www.russellperformance.com/mc/speed/import.shtml

racerb

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by Yarflana

Yeah, after rereading I think they are not giving a lot of additional benefit. I guess with the BBKs on the market, it doesn't make sense to supe-up a 4 piston OEM type caliper and it is likely you cannot get much additional performance from only 4 pistons unless you enlarge them.

Not sure on cars but on motorcycles four piston calipers rule!

Two piston calipers: I feel sorry 4 u!

[Yarflana]

Originally Posted by racerb

I have Road Raced lots of different FWD racecars over the years all using stock brake calipers. Your best money spent is on good pads (Hawk/Carbotech), rotors (Brembo,R1 Con.,Centric), brake lines (Goodridge,Stoptech), oh and as others have said proper cooling. Good quality fluid is a must, we always ran Castrol Dot 4/5, but any good fresh fluid bled often will make a big difference. A good set of Speed Bleeders will make life easier when optimizing long time brake performance.

http://www.russellperformance.com/mc/speed/import.shtml

racerb

Yeah, that's what I decided. On order right now from MI are R1 drums, rotors (drilled and slotted), shoes, Hawk pads, and a racing battery. I already replaced the break fluid with Motul 5.1 and put on stainless lines and adjusted the e-brake.

As of now, with just the new fluid, lines and e-brake adjustment, my pedal is twice as firm and 50% less travel in the brake pedal. With the new pads and shoes, it will be unbelievable I am sure and I won't have to mess with brake fluid bleeding again for a while.

Thanks for all the responses on this. I don't think I would have paid $500 for 4 piston calipers anyway, even if they were "double" the performance.

[cali yaris]

Those rotors look great, I have them on mine.

[mazilla]

^ and I'm literally wiping my hands down after installing my set, Hawk pads, speed bleeders and flushed the fluid with ATE super blue. I'll do my lines and drum shoes next week...ran out of steam for tonight. Hehe

[jetblast]

The $3.50 Harbor Freight magnetic bleeders with check valves work great too. Nice for being able to quickly flush your system once a year.

[mazilla]

Originally Posted by jetblast

The $3.50 Harbor Freight magnetic bleeders with check valves work great too. Nice for being able to quickly flush your system once a year.

Nice.




I thought about going with an external bleeding device, but @ 7.00 ea for the speedbleeders I just bought the set and one extra for the clutch. They worked perfectly...kinda wish I had done that sooner, especially on the clutch. It makes it super easy to manually bleed.