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Hey guys, I have had my brembo setup on my Maverick for 6 months now, and I wanted to share some findings with the forum.
The Brembos in question come from the 04-07 Volvo S60R and V70R. These are also widely accepted as the same calipers that are from the same era STI.
Disclaimer: I have NOT tracked these on anything more than a 1/4 mile drag strip!
That being said, going from roughly 115mph down to 15mph will leave you with plenty of fluid atcthe front of your head! High speed braking is drastically improved!
The pedal still feels like stock, and day to day braking still feels like stock as well.
There are some downsides to these though. One being the factory pads (S60R) are annoyingly squeaky! The squeakiness is also random, hit and miss.... The other downside, as @colinl mentioned in my build thread, is the proportioning now favors the rear more. By how much more I'm not positive. I'm sure it can be calculated based on caliper volume, but under normal driving, you won't notice it. Where I did notice it, was breaking while turning! I entered a tight corner too fast, applied the brakes, and the rears locked enough to throw me sideways. Tokyo Drift would have been proud!!! It was cold and wet, and I haven't had this experience in the dry, as I tried a few times, purely for science.
Ok, on to the how to:
Materials needed:
S60R Brembo Calipers. I didn't have cores so mine cost about $380 shipped. I think $120ish of that was core charges.
Rotors: I kept my stock rotors. The Volvo rotors would probably work, but I didn't buy them to try. If someone tries the Volvo rotors, you probably won't need to mill the mounting tabs, as from what I saw from the dimensions, they would be closer to on center within the caliper. Price for me: $0
Pads: Rock Auto has these at $16 a set, which is what I used. I would by an upgraded set that doesn't make noise like these stockers.
Lines: HEL Performance is an online brake line manufacturer, and I used them to build my lines, $120 for the two lines, free shipping. Lines need to be female Inverted flare 10x1.5mm to adapt to the chassis hard lines, and male 10x1mm bubble flare to go to the calipers.
I needed to modify my calipers by milling roughly .080" of the mounting surfaces. That's about how far off the center of the rotor was to the center of the caliper, and it also allowed me to clear my Bronco Sport wheels, and factory steelies. I do not know if this part was necessary, or if the pistons would have been fine being different distances from centerline.
Assembly is pretty standard, however, when bleeding the calipers, I put a block of wood in between the pistons, and bled the calipers on a table, to make them the highest point in the system for better bleeding.
So, final thoughts: For roughly $520(cheaper if you don't buy ramanned) the price seems quite reasonable, as when Fast Mavericks was planning to sell them, I think their "on sale" price was around $1400. (They were using Focus RS units though).
To be honest, since I don't beat my truck besides 1/4 mile runs, I probably wouldn't do it again, as the stock brakes are pretty dn good from the factory. Now, if I was going to autocross or road race, I'm sure that is where these would shine! Also it is kinda a being factor to say you have them, lol. I'll add some pictures of the process, as this was all captured on my build thread!
Thanks for reading!
The Brembos in question come from the 04-07 Volvo S60R and V70R. These are also widely accepted as the same calipers that are from the same era STI.
Disclaimer: I have NOT tracked these on anything more than a 1/4 mile drag strip!
That being said, going from roughly 115mph down to 15mph will leave you with plenty of fluid atcthe front of your head! High speed braking is drastically improved!
The pedal still feels like stock, and day to day braking still feels like stock as well.
There are some downsides to these though. One being the factory pads (S60R) are annoyingly squeaky! The squeakiness is also random, hit and miss.... The other downside, as @colinl mentioned in my build thread, is the proportioning now favors the rear more. By how much more I'm not positive. I'm sure it can be calculated based on caliper volume, but under normal driving, you won't notice it. Where I did notice it, was breaking while turning! I entered a tight corner too fast, applied the brakes, and the rears locked enough to throw me sideways. Tokyo Drift would have been proud!!! It was cold and wet, and I haven't had this experience in the dry, as I tried a few times, purely for science.
Ok, on to the how to:
Materials needed:
S60R Brembo Calipers. I didn't have cores so mine cost about $380 shipped. I think $120ish of that was core charges.
Rotors: I kept my stock rotors. The Volvo rotors would probably work, but I didn't buy them to try. If someone tries the Volvo rotors, you probably won't need to mill the mounting tabs, as from what I saw from the dimensions, they would be closer to on center within the caliper. Price for me: $0
Pads: Rock Auto has these at $16 a set, which is what I used. I would by an upgraded set that doesn't make noise like these stockers.
Lines: HEL Performance is an online brake line manufacturer, and I used them to build my lines, $120 for the two lines, free shipping. Lines need to be female Inverted flare 10x1.5mm to adapt to the chassis hard lines, and male 10x1mm bubble flare to go to the calipers.
I needed to modify my calipers by milling roughly .080" of the mounting surfaces. That's about how far off the center of the rotor was to the center of the caliper, and it also allowed me to clear my Bronco Sport wheels, and factory steelies. I do not know if this part was necessary, or if the pistons would have been fine being different distances from centerline.
Assembly is pretty standard, however, when bleeding the calipers, I put a block of wood in between the pistons, and bled the calipers on a table, to make them the highest point in the system for better bleeding.
So, final thoughts: For roughly $520(cheaper if you don't buy ramanned) the price seems quite reasonable, as when Fast Mavericks was planning to sell them, I think their "on sale" price was around $1400. (They were using Focus RS units though).
To be honest, since I don't beat my truck besides 1/4 mile runs, I probably wouldn't do it again, as the stock brakes are pretty dn good from the factory. Now, if I was going to autocross or road race, I'm sure that is where these would shine! Also it is kinda a being factor to say you have them, lol. I'll add some pictures of the process, as this was all captured on my build thread!
Thanks for reading!
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