Buying tips...

[Huffer]

So given that my passenger side caliper has basically given up and is trying to set my car alight (dragging brake pad, smoking etc), I spent a few hours online today searching out the good deals.

I checked Boxer4racing, Subarupartsforyou.com, etc, Autozone.com, autopartswarehouse.com

Basically, it was settle for rebuilt calipers and pretty much stock pads and rotors for around $350-400. But I wanted Hawk HPS and Brembo rotors (if it's broken you might as well upgrade, right?).

So I discovered that autopartswarehouse.com not only had rebuilt calipers (with a core charge return) for $140 (same price as Autozone), but that they also stock Hawk pads AND Brembo rotors.

I added a bunch of stuff to my shopping cart, and printed it out to order from home when I grabbed the emergency debit card. I decided to call and double-check the Hawk HPS pads because I wanted to make sure I was ordering 4 pads, not 2 (sometimes a set means one side only...).

When I called the guy who answered told me he would give me $10 off if I ordered over the phone, so the pads were now $85. I gave him the SKUs for the rotors, and the brake calipers. He knocked the prices down on each item. I ended up spending only 10mins on the phone, and saved an additional $23 AND will have all the items arrive at the same time.

Nothing bugs me more than collecting up parts and having to wait until the last box arrives.

Moral of the story - sometimes, talking to a person will get you a better deal.
:D

Oh, and now I get to install my pads of choice and some nice Brembo rotors.

[blueb3]

Grats! That and doing the brakes on these cars is SUPER easy. Gotta love the rally mentality of Subaru :)

[4n70n1n0]

Did you get the Brembo cross drilled ? or Brembo blanks for rotors
and
how much were the rotors total? I've been thinking of getting Brembo Cross Drilled

[subba]

Going for a pretty nice setup there huffer, Props for the tips.

[decke48]

Moral of the story - sometimes, talking to a person will get you a better deal.
:D


ohh yes i love when you get 10-20% discounts for talk over the phone.

well i hope you have more luck with the brembos than i did.. i had the drilled and hawk hps. and my rotors cracked after 2 month of use. because the had a bubble in the cast. so i luckly got the money back w/ labor :grin: to replace them

[Huffer]

Thanks all - I'm going with Brembo blanks - just vented rotors - no slots or drilled holes...based on the advice of a number of far more competitive cars in the area, the slots and dimples are only useful for extreme heat situations... which this car will not see.

Rotors were $50 each, reduced from $55.
The Hawk HPS were $85, reduced from $95.

Only thing I'm really missing is a set of speedbleeders ($28) some Super Blue brake fluid and stainless brake lines. But I don't need any of those just yet.

[Huffer]

Woohoo.. brakes arriving Monday... will be painting the calipers before install.

[Huffer]

Finally got the brakes on... the pads and rotors are hella nice considering what they were. Install went fine, along with the brake bleeding.
Bled the entire system...

I have a new problem though, now the rears are making a "whirr whirr" noise that increases with wheel speed.

*sigh*

[Plays_with_Toys]

FWIW, tirerack.com also has good pricing on brakes. I bought the brembo blanks and some ceramic pads for $150. Was $175 after shipping.

[2.5GT]

I bought my Hawks pads HPS i believe and drilled Brembos...ran me around $500 on tirerack :eek:

[1-3-2-4]

I had Hawk HPS they were pretty good first 1-3 stops are a little light until they heat up.

[birukun]

Finally got the brakes on... the pads and rotors are hella nice considering what they were. Install went fine, along with the brake bleeding.
Bled the entire system...

I have a new problem though, now the rears are making a "whirr whirr" noise that increases with wheel speed.

*sigh*

Did you resolve this noise?

I just changed the rear brakes on mine, along with the struts. It was making a speed and brake pressure dependent whine (almost sounds like a supercharger). I went back into the FSM to find a discrepancy with the tattle tail clip location. Diagram shows outside pads, clip on the bottom. Written portion says inside pads clip on the bottom. I swapped them to the outside and I get the same noise???

I did have the rotors turned; I normally don't but the rust ring on the outside was pretty significant and I did not want to bork the new pads. It is the rear too, not as critical as the fronts.

[Huffer]

Yeah, turns out it's not the rear wheels at all. It's the fronts.