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Standard brakes are showing heavy fade. Factory big brake parts to replace them?

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OgRoar

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Hello,

It's a used car a picked up so I'm going into fully knowing its a wear item and if the previous owner hammered the brakes with no regard for heat, its easy to warp the rotors.
Having said that, how temperamental are the stock rotors? With even a LITTLE spirited driving I can get rotors cooked and they develop a shimmy. The brakes also feel grabby, like its all or nothing in the braking if that makes sense. It has a little bite but then anymore pedal and its very harsh braking, no graduation up to the higher bite force.

I'm interested in upgrading to the factory big brakes. I can't seem to find a definitive list of what's needed. Obviously caliper, bracket, pad and rotor. What about the dust shield? Same brake lines, bolts? Any ECU/PCM changes needed? I'm hoping to find a wreck and get the parts I need and then buy new rotors. I guess I'm hoping someone already did the leg work and has all the part numbers, save me some time. If not, I'll be sure to post it here.

I'm very frugal so just buying a kit from a 3rd party isn't something I would do.
 

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Cruising68

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I only drove on my stock brakes for about 15k but I thought they were decent for oem. Repeated heavy braking events will overheat them. I did an auto cross with stock brakes and I had no fade issues but that’s not nearly as bad as high speed.

I had the street pack bigger oem brakes .

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

2020FordRaptor

2020FordRaptor

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OgRoar said:
Hello,

It's a used car a picked up so I'm going into fully knowing its a wear item and if the previous owner hammered the brakes with no regard for heat, its easy to warp the rotors.
Having said that, how temperamental are the stock rotors? With even a LITTLE spirited driving I can get rotors cooked and they develop a shimmy. The brakes also feel grabby, like its all or nothing in the braking if that makes sense. It has a little bite but then anymore pedal and its very harsh braking, no graduation up to the higher bite force.

I'm interested in upgrading to the factory big brakes. I can't seem to find a definitive list of what's needed. Obviously caliper, bracket, pad and rotor. What about the dust shield? Same brake lines, bolts? Any ECU/PCM changes needed? I'm hoping to find a wreck and get the parts I need and then buy new rotors. I guess I'm hoping someone already did the leg work and has all the part numbers, save me some time. If not, I'll be sure to post it here.

I'm very frugal so just buying a kit from a 3rd party isn't something I would do.
Click to expand...
First off do not ever go cheap on brakes. Recipe for disasters. I don’t know what you’re referring to factory big brakes. Are you referring to the larger Street Pack brakes or GT350 or GT500 brake swap. The rotors alone aren’t going to be the problem, it’s going to be the overall braking power and brake pads especially.
 

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OgRoar

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2020FordRaptor said:
First off do not ever go cheap on brakes. Recipe for disasters. I don’t know what you’re referring to factory big brakes. Are you referring to the larger Street Pack brakes or GT350 or GT500 brake swap. The rotors alone aren’t going to be the problem, it’s going to be the overall braking power and brake pads especially.
Click to expand...
I definetley agree not to cheap out on brakes. I was referring to the fact that I don't mind sourcing OEM upgrades instead of buying a companies package.

See, I'm learning. This is the first I'm hearing that not only do the Street Pack brakes work (of course), but the GT350 and GT500 brakes also work? That's great.

Correct, to get better clamping force you need at a minimum better calipers, i.e. more pistons, and ideally those paired with upgraded and preferably larger rotors.
 

2020FordRaptor

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OgRoar said:
I definetley agree not to cheap out on brakes. I was referring to the fact that I don't mind sourcing OEM upgrades instead of buying a companies package.

See, I'm learning. This is the first I'm hearing that not only do the Street Pack brakes work (of course), but the GT350 and GT500 brakes also work? That's great.

Correct, to get better clamping force you need at a minimum better calipers, i.e. more pistons, and ideally those paired with upgraded and preferably larger rotors.
Click to expand...
Scroll down to the brakes section on my modding guide and all the infos there:

https://www.explorerst.org/threads/explorer-st-modding-101-guide.7324/
 

2020STAWD

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If you have the standard brakes and not the street pack brakes. You can upgrade them to the street pack set up. Just need calipers, brackets, rotors and pads. If you’re not worried about the red calipers, you can go with the police interceptor utility calipers. They are the same size as the street pack brakes just not painted red. They seem to be $50 - $100 cheaper per caliper without the red paint. I’m working on Putting together my GT 350 front brake kit and then going with the street pack rear calipers, brackets, rotors and pads.

My ST came with the standard brake set up. After all the GO parts put on, I need to put some whoa parts on.
 

Chamorro85

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There have been a couple sets of Street Packs that people sold after upgrading to aftermarket kits. Much easier upgrade for you if you're ok sourcing the parts. You'll get a nice visual upgrade on the calipers but if you're track days or anything super heavy I don't know if you'll notice the diff in braking. Stock brakes are a little underwhelming for anything beyond street needs.
 

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OgRoar

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2020STAWD said:
If you have the standard brakes and not the street pack brakes. You can upgrade them to the street pack set up. Just need calipers, brackets, rotors and pads. If you’re not worried about the red calipers, you can go with the police interceptor utility calipers. They are the same size as the street pack brakes just not painted red. They seem to be $50 - $100 cheaper per caliper without the red paint. I’m working on Putting together my GT 350 front brake kit and then going with the street pack rear calipers, brackets, rotors and pads.

My ST came with the standard brake set up. After all the GO parts put on, I need to put some whoa parts on.
Click to expand...
This was super helpful. I really only started on this journey because the stock rotors are warped LOL. That's how it goes.

I was able to source 2020+ Police calipers and brackets for $90/pair and about $65 shipping. They're is lots in junk yards. I like going this route vs ebay as you can easily see what kind wreck it was in. I found a few rear end collisions that are perfect.

Just going to get a rebuild kit, some nice rotors/pads, probably from Powerstop as I've always had good luck.

I think I can be all in for about $300~ and I'll even strip and paint the caliper so they're ST red and not Police black. I'll for sure put some stainless lines in while I'm doing it all.
 

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OgRoar

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jeffreybehr said:
Here some affordable HUGE brakes, all 4 wheels, for $3850. The front calipers are 16"ers so you MAY need 22" wheels. Call Lethal for info.

https://www.lethalperformance.com/s...explorer-st/brakes-brake-parts/brake-kits?p=2
Click to expand...
Those are super nice. If I planned on tracking it, would be a nice upgrade.

I just figured if I could upgrade to the factory big brakes for about the same as a full rebuild kit, would be worth it.
 

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Cruising68

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OgRoar said:
Those are super nice. If I planned on tracking it, would be a nice upgrade.

I just figured if I could upgrade to the factory big brakes for about the same as a full rebuild kit, would be worth it.
Click to expand...
I just sold mine to a member here. He needed brakes. He ended up buying my oem sport pack with 15k miles on them for around the same as parts for a full set of upgraded replacement pads and rotors.

That’s your best bet for a cheap upgrade if you keep your eye out. Otherwise, as mentioned, there are brake kits at varying prices. IMO replacing pads and rotors with something like powerstop only marginally improves the braking. You can get more aggressive pads with less fade at the expense of noise and rotor life but the improvement may or may not be noticeabl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

2020FordRaptor

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Cruising68 said:
I just sold mine to a member here. He needed brakes. He ended up buying my oem sport pack with 15k miles on them for around the same as parts for a full set of upgraded replacement pads and rotors.

That’s your best bet for a cheap upgrade if you keep your eye out. Otherwise, as mentioned, there are brake kits at varying prices. IMO replacing pads and rotors with something like powerstop only marginally improves the braking. You can get more aggressive pads with less fade at the expense of noise and rotor life but the improvement may or may not be noticeabl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Power stop brakes are just for either for looks or maybe slightly less brake dust. No performance improvement.
 

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