Minnesota Focus Owners Club

Hey i have a 9" thick book, i call it a dictionary.

As far as not knowing anything, i know nothing either.

how do you really feel?

sorry what i typed was un called for. i do appologize

sorry sir my work is some thing i take very seriuosly (spell chek). i did not mean to jump down your throat sir. after market rotors, i have had some exper. on cryro rotors and pads and some special classes on svt cars and common upgrades customers tend to use, ive grown up around sprint cars and track cars . but we were talking about a best money spent for part. i have had exstinive training on causes and fixes for the focus braking system. the trottle bodie is junk it most like would cause more problems than help it went in the trash. "back on track robbie." the factory rotors are to soft for any sort of havy driving, unless you have the rear discs to help out, the vaving in the focis master is set to use the rears to keep the car straight and like 70-75% to the front brakes

So I'm in the prosses of getting some motocraft rotors soon. Trahma, what type of pads are you running?

BTW thanx for ur input guys

focinite wrote: i dont know how many brake jobs ive done on foci, but if you have rear drums make sure they are adjusted at all times or warping will occur.

is there a way I can adjust them, if so, how?

use the e brake more. or if you have never used the e brake dont cus it will stick. take the wheel off use a med 3/8 extention and a 13mm swivle socket to remove bolts from the back of the spindal( the hub nut is one use only) you may at this time look up some swear words cus the drums dont like to come off, onec you have used every bad word you can get the drum off. now looking at the hard ware you will see a long flat gray bar that is your adjuster, adjust then reassemble in reverse order as dissassembly

When the time comes, I will be going hawk bake pads, braided lines, and OEM rotors.

Cermic grinds the shit out of your rotors really quick.

Slotted eat pads.

Cross drilled are worthless unless your running a super car.

Your wheel shakes bad because of a few things:
Your rotors are warped
Your tires are out of balance
Some jerk at the shop used an impact on your lug nuts.

Impacts are bad because of the hammering action, this is how an impact works. Aside from loosening nuts, I truly belive there really is no reason to use an impact. The hammering action causes the rotors to warp.

I was reading somewhere that you can put a heat sink compound between the rotor and rim. The heat sink compound will help transmit heat to the rim to displace. This makes sence. And, since there is not as much heat generated, your bearings/brakes last longer.

A good quality pad and an OEM rotor, when properly worked with, should be the best you can get. If you want to stop sooner, I would look at a stronger calaiper, or, a larger diameter disk and corrisponding caliper.

Cross drilled where good to cool down the pad and allow gases to escpae, but, since asbestose is no longer used, there is not a lot of gas to vent.

Slotted are designed to eat off a little bit of pad with each swipe to eliminate glazing.

Good information sc0tty. Honestly for the majority of people the bat inc or focus central kit should be perfect. I got a good laugh at some people when I told them I bought my brakes for MAM and they asked me if I bought slotted or cross drilled rotors.

When I order my next set of pads I intend to order the Hawk HP Plus. The pads are a little more expensive but I'd rather grip when I need to, especially with all of the money into my front end.

hay scooty im very interested in this heat sink thing i think it woul work for me. and the impact , it over torqes the hub causing waves, a good set of tourqe sticks can be inspected by the tool guys, i have mine checked every onec and a while . but yeah for a car the size of the focus a good vented rotor and a set of good pads will make a night and day differance

sc0tty8 wrote: Cross drilled where good to cool down the pad and allow gases to escpae, but, since asbestose is no longer used, there is not a lot of gas to vent.

Good point, that is why i run undrilled and unslotted.

Even with torque sticks, you will fubar rotors. I use a 4-way lug wrench to tighten my lugs, and, if I am feeling really special, then I will pull out my torque wrench.

It is the constant hammering action, if you ever seen a sword been forged, it gets the shit beat out of it with a hammer, same applies with an impact.

On top of being over torqued, then the rotor is stressed so when it heats, it forms irregularly on cool down.

Another reason to avoid cross drilled is because they get hot and cool too quickly. I have heard stories about the rotors shattering because of this.

When I had my tbird and was going to do brake upgrades, the general rule of thumb was buy a the OE brembo rotor from the mustang, along with the mustang dual piston caliper, and get a bracket. The rotor was slightly larger then the stock unit, teamed with the dual piston caliper, it was suppose to be a nice setup, I never tried it though, I was a bit leary about the extra holes that had to be machined into the rotor to change the bolt pattern from 5x4.5 to 5x4.25. But some just changed thier cars to mustang spindles anyways

ok, so fun time is over with the brake situation. Today I was stopping at a red light and my brakes were grinding like hell. It doesn't sound like the ABS style of grinding but it's not pleasent none the less. I'll be replacing the rotors and pads within the week, but does anyone know more about what might make this noise?

Sublimetime86 wrote: ok, so fun time is over with the brake situation. Today I was stopping at a red light and my brakes were grinding like hell. It doesn't sound like the ABS style of grinding but it's not pleasent none the less. I'll be replacing the rotors and pads within the week, but does anyone know more about what might make this noise?

Sounds like your pads are toast, your rivits from the pads are grinding into the rotor, if you look thru the rim you should be able to see the gouges.

time for rotors and pads my friend ,, a walk in the park. just dont srip out the torqs bit screws in the caliper( not like ive ever done that)