What non S brakes do you have
 

I just put my summer wheels & tires on and noticed quite a few heat checks on the rotors. Normally this wouldnt concern me however the rotors are 13 years old and some of the cracks go to the edge of the disc. Besides oem what brands or set ups do you all have? Last fall I bought a set of 16" wheels off an older Boxster and continental winter tires so I dont want to get bigger brakes like the S.

I dont track the car although I would like to, I just want a good set of brakes that will work as good or better than oem on my 2003 boxster base with original pads and rotors

Try EBC RedStuff

If you don't want bigger calipers then a set of good discs and pads with braided hoses would do the trick. EBC GreenStuff or RedStuff as mentioned are very good pads, along with a set of coated MTEC discs. This, with some HEL braided lines will give a nice increase in braking performance :)

Seems like the EBC marketing department did a good job. :D

But you can't outwit physics.

Regards, Markus

I've been happy with my EBC reds and my son has yellows on his Miata. Recently we went to a safety seminar by a certain vendor and they slammed EBC, they said never buy a brake pad that advertises on TV. They recommended a different pad that they sell :) they had some stats and friction coefficients that seemed to back it up. But my experience contradicted what they said about EBC and I'm sticking with them and maybe moving to yellow now that I am mostly doing track.

I forget the brand they recommend, possibly PFC, which I have heard very good things about, but not (as) suitable for dual use.

Ebc seems to be the winner for pads. I've got my eye on Zimmerman rotors, drilled and slotted rotors look cool but I gather they aren't any better. If anything slotted will give more bite however I think that might be over kill for my daily driver.

The pads have a Lot of meat left, I hate to just toss them. Doesn't make much sense to use old pads on new rotors, but we use new pads on old rotors all the time right? I found rotors on eBay for under $100 for all 4. Those must be good lol

Actually the inexpensive rotors will probably be fine.

Look at Meyle rotors on eBay. You can find a pair for an axle for around $75-$85. Probably about 1/2 the cost of 1 Zimmerman

If you have cracks in the rotors, you need to replace them ASAP

I know StopTech doesn't get much love around here, but +1 for StopTech brake pads from me. I've usually always ran with Hawk pads on my previous "fun" cars but sourced into something else less expensive and I'm very happy with the StopTechs.

I just put Power Stop Z16 Ceramics on the front. Not enough miles yet to be fully broke in but so far so good. Got them dirt cheap on Amazon.

Hahaha!

I got ceramic pads for all 4 wheels from Rock Auto for about $25 shipped. I don't even remember the brand name. Yep, I was scared at what would show up, but they've been amazing so far. I don't track, but I do get rough with her and she's got plenty of stopping power. 1200 miles later and I see just a faint hint of brake dust on the wheels. Definitely better than what was on there (stock Brembo).

Don't laugh at me :mad:

I'll go check out meyle rotors. I love a good deal however I know just because it costs more doesnt mean its any better. I also dont mind paying more if need be. Those ebay ones were by far the least expensive ones yet! Come on, 4 rotors free shipping under $100, thats almost worth it just out of curiosity.

Ill have these old ones off within a week. Now that I know they are there they gotta go.

Thats how I feel. I wanna try the less expensive stuff but I feel like Im breaking some sort of porsche owners rules. If you did the work yourself even if you had to redo it every year its still worth $25

Jimmy and Particlewave,

Could you kindly post links to the rotors and pads that you have talked about? It would be helpful to see. I need to go measure my rotors and check my pads to see if I need t change any of them. However the information might be useful to others on the forum. I too am not too fond of spending more money for OEM stuff so far as I get the bang for my buck...:) Thanks.

This is what I have. Great stopping power, no squeak and ZERO dust.

Brake Rotors Front Kit 2 Eline "Cross Drilled" 4 Ceramic Pads RG40001 | eBay

Brake Rotors Rear Kit 2 Eline "Cross Drilled" 4 Ceramic Pads RK40002 | eBay

This is the least expensive one I found.

http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=281922492225&alt=web

Friction Master CMX737 ceramic. $9.72 for 4 pads (2 wheels).

More Information for FRICTION MASTER CMX737

Now I feel bad. I spent $35 for front pads.

Like your style. :D

And maybe they are OK if you don't track them. ;)

Over here in Germany we have this road called Autobahn. So i prefer quality brand stuff. ;) But that doesn't mean that it has to be expensive like EBC. We have a lot of companies over here that produce brake components locally in Germany. And i always prefered to buy directly from them. So no ebay fake quality made in whereever and brand labeled. And prices and quality were always OK.

Also brake components tend to fade if components get older. If you use new brake pads, discs and new brake fluid and steel braided brake hoses the brake result will always be better than with 60-80% worn stuff.

Regards, Markus

Yeah, they're ceramic brake pads, not rocket science. I like to let others line wealthy pockets. Meanwhile, I'll use my mechanical and engineering knowledge to fatten mine. :p

To be honest, I was very wary of them. The first few hundred miles, I took it real easy. Since then, I've been giving them hell and they are fantastic! I'll be sure to report back if I have any issues, but that seems unlikely at this point.

I like it when owners mention the $2000 yearly maintenance cost. I've spent maybe $2000 total in 5 years and half of that was for uneccessary mods or tinkering for fun. Hahahahaha! :D

Well said Particlewave. I second that.

BTW, I only saw the front pads on that website for the ceramic ones made by Friction Master. Did I miss the rear ones? The links on the rotors looked good. Thanks.

Hmmm...that's odd. They were there when I posted the last link. Part # is CMX738.
They have Friction Master MX738 semi metallic rears, but I wanted the same on all 4 spinny-go-rounds.

Their stock is always changing, so maybe they'll get more.

Thanks for sharing info about your brakes.

After the tires, brakes, engine oil & brake fluid change I still won't be near $2,000. 2015 set me back $160 for 2 oil changes. 2014 $500ish for oil changes, drive belt & and a shiny fleabay muffler. Maybe if you go to the dealer and randomly replace parts you could reach $2000? I would imagine with a higher mileage Boxster you will shell out some dough to keep it running like new ESPECIALLY at the dealer.

I put this on two years ago. Mine is a daily driver, not a track racer. I'm happy with the results.
Front Rear Drilled Slotted Brake Rotors Ceramic Pads 97 04 Porsche Boxster | eBay

Are drilled rotors really better? I dont want to start a debate here but i dont get it

wrong thread...oops

I don't think they are better or worse for street driving, I do think they look better though.

Better at dispersing heat under heavy driving, notable on track, not on the street. Cheap drilled discs are worse than solids due to their tendency to crack under heavy driving (even though they're supposedly designed for heavy driving). If you want better discs but don't want to pay for expensive drilled discs, then dimpled is the way to go. They're quieter also.

Or get dimpled discs and throw some GT3 brake ducts on the fronts to help with the cooling. They're very cheap even from new :)

Sorry, but that is b…****************.

Break discs drilled or slotted to get a faster break response it the discs are wet. If you don't have holes or slots you have a water / steam layer between disc and brake pad for a short time. That's why they started to put drill holes in the discs in race cars.

Cheap discs are normal discs that get drilled. In high-quality discs have the holes already included in the cast which are redrilled later in. These discs also don't tend to have stress cracks. But they are much expensive.

If don't drive in rain you don't need any drilled or slotted break discs.

Regards, Markus

Recently, I looked at the brakes on my '02, and noticed that the discs had a nice little ridge on the edges, so obviously they are worn, and it's time to replace them. I can't believe how much dust the stock pads (or whatever is on the car now) produce, so I'm going to get different pads as well. Since I plan on tracking the car occasionally, the EBC reds sound like the way to go.

This thread has been great, as I ordered the cheap drilled rotor set on eBay for $100 (thanks for the link, jimmythemuffler!), and EBC red pads. I found the pads for $96 per set from IRP, so for about $300 I'll have all new parts. At some point I'll look at replacing the lines.

The rotors are so cheap that even if they don't last all that long, it's not like it will be a big financial hit. The drilled rotors are probably overkill for a street car, but they do look really cool!

a good place to buy EBC pads is Summit racing. They will beat any legit price by $1 even if the front and rear are from different vendors. They have great service and ship super fast

I didn't know that Summit would beat any other price. Their listed price for the EBC's were $122 per axle, but IRP had them for $90 per axle.

Ah, I stand corrected, good to know how they actually work, I was told something different.

But there's absolutely no need to respond like an angry little boy, "that's not true" would have sufficed.

Cheers.

@geraintthomas:
Agree, but i'm an anrgy little boy from birth. :D ;) And sometimes my mantra doesn't work. :D

@Racer Boy:
I don't know if it's a really good idea to combine cheap brake discs with high temperature EBC red pads. We'll see. :D

Reminder to myself: just smlle.

Regards, Markus

Lol, good answer ;)

Yes they do. I have bought 2 sets of pads from them and saved a bunch of $$
They drop ship from the EBC warehouse in Las Vegas, so it's really fast delivery to the west coast

Today I installed my trick-looking, cheap Chinese rotors and EBC Red pads. The rotors ended up not being exactly plug-and-play, on the fronts I had to do a very minor amount of filing on the hubs to get the rotors to fit flush on the hubs. It took about 1 minute of filing on each side, but after that they fit correctly on the hubs. The rear rotors fit with no issues.

The combo of cheap rotors and EBC Reds seems to work just fine. There is no reason why they wouldn't, it not as if the pads can tell if the rotor surface is expensive or cheap. In my years of racing, I once raced a 1st generation RX7 that was very hard on brakes. The front rotors would last one race weekend and then they would crack, and the front pads were also only good for one race weekend. I've used relatively spendy rotors, and really cheap rotors, and there was no difference in performance. And they all cracked by the end of the race weekend!

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1461469631.jpg
You can see how little I had to file to get the front rotors to fit on the hub.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1461469646.jpg
Look at all the shiny new parts!