Hi,

I have lurked on these threads for years and I usually find what I am looking for, but after years of being frustrated with my brakes I feel the need to post. I have a base model crossfire and live in an urban area where most drivers brake excessively, and unfortunately it seems like my Crossfire cannot keep up. I have ceramic pads on from back in 2007 when I bought the car (not sure if this is contributing to the problem) but to put it bluntly, the braking performance is terrible.

That being said, to avoid slamming into other drivers, I would like to upgrade the brakes on the base model to out perform the majority of other drivers that are out there. I would like to spend ~1k or less on this if possible and I am open to suggestions on how this could be best spent.

I looked at SRT rotors and calipers, and although bigger, I saw a few threads stating that the base model still out-stops the SRT; so that doesn't sound like a reassuring investment.

I also saw upgrades to the MB / Brembo brakes, although I am not sure how people are upgrading both the rear and the front brakes and keeping the balance between the front and back; or if these would even be simple bolt ons and clear the stock rims, etc. I do not need anything flashy here, I am simply looking for straight performance, not style.

Some assistance please? Atleast point me in the right direction here.

 

To save money I would look at the brakes that you have. I thought my biggest problem when stopping fast were the people behind me.
Have someone try your brakes, because as they fail we gradually become used to them and do not realize that they are not as good as they once were.
Maybe a change in pads and new rotors will be required, if the pads are glazed they will not work too good at all. Some pads glaze too easily, and another type may solve your problem.
Most of all keep a safe distance between you and the car in front, this has two benefits. The first gives you more stopping distance which in turn gives the car behind you more distance even if he is tailgating. It is the car behind that you have to fear in most stopping situations in traffic.

 

I agree with 180..... check your pads and rotors and maybe use something different for pads.... too many options to list.... I have had very good performance from the DiscItalia kevlar titanium pads... Hawk, Centric, Posi-Quiet....

Also, when was the last time the brake fluid was changed???? May be overdue.....

 

^^^^ This is the most commonly skipped maintenance that really should be done every 15-20k miles on performance based cars. And if you are hard on the brakes, I would stay closed to the 15k mark.

 

The stock brakes with decent pads can surpass the grip of the tires easily. I'd visually inspect the brake pads and rotors. No problems? Bleed the brakes or have them bled. My guess is the fluid is saturated with water and air or the pads are junk.

Les

 

My car is a limited, but I'm sure there is NO difference in the Base and Limited as far as brakes go. I had 68000 miles on mine when I got SICK of the dust AND wanted better pads. My brakes faded badly from, even, 45 mph.

I replaced only the front pads with Hawk HPS's. A few days later, I had to do a panic stop from 80+ mph. I hit the pedal and the car STOPPED. A toyota Camry was in the lane next to me, I THINK he hit the brakes when I did - I swear my car stopped in well under 200 feet. The Camry took almost twice the distance - and yes, we both stopped in time. I was impressed - my car did not swerve, the brakes did not fade ONE BIT.

Others kept telling me I didn't need a brake upgrade - and they were right.

 

the main difference between the limited brakes and the srt brakes arent the calipers but the rotors. limited have 300 front and 273 rears and srt has 330 mm fronts and 300 mm rears. larger rotors allow for more braking capacity.
1000$ wont get you much in the braking dept, but you can get a set of srt calipers and rotors fpor that with hps pads will feel the diff.

 

Then please tell me why the limited has a lower number in braking distance than the SRT6? It has been posted numerous times in these forums.

 

cant tell you why maybe less weight? also maybe the posts were from the same engineers that insist the ironing board spoiler has no more downforce than the electric wing. what i can tell you is that the n/a cars that ran with the s/c cars in the dragon had brakes that were cooking by the end of the day.

 

srtss do weigh quite a bit more than the limited's. And I think it is only 3 inches longer braking distance with the extra weight. So you would think that the srts brakes setup on a limited would be a nice upgrade.

How much do a set of used srt6 calipers for anyway? I have not wanted to make an offer to anyone because I for the life of me can not figure out what a decent offer is.

 

Thank you everyone for the input, I'll change out the pads to something else, perhaps Posi-Quiets, and change the fluid and get back to you on how well it goes.

 

The SRT6 coupe and roadster are each 156 & 154 lbs heavier than the the equivalent Limited.
That's according to the estimated weights in the spec sheets in the SRT documentation collection.

 

I have the base roadster, looks like I am double screwed. Smaller brakes and heavier.

 

The Base cars are probably lighter than the Limited models. The seat alone saves weight.

 

I think he thought you meant that the roadsters were heavier. When I am pretty sure you were saying the Srt6 Coupe and Roadster weighed more.

You would think that the base roadster would be the lightest of the Xfires.

 

I would bleed the system (if you were near D.C. I'd offer to help), resurface the rotors/buy new rotors and put on some real good pads... I've had real good experience with the Hawk HPS pads as well (they're currently installed on my lady's 2007 malibu and my moms 2007 accord and on both those cars they have made a HUGE improvement over the stock pads)

You mean base coupes would weigh the least of any of the Crossfires as the Roadster has extra support beams in the rear for rigidity...

 

I forgot about those support beams. I wonder what the weight difference between a base coupe and base roadster is. Actually it would be nice to know how they all compare together.

 

Yes.
But those braces are not all the difference as they appear to be pretty light. The top and its mechanism weigh quite a bit.

If you want to go faster then you have to lose weight. Danica Patrick had a big advantage over Paul Tracy, better looking as well.

 

This could be an option for you:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ds-n-srt6.html

and you would be supporting a forum member

 

How do the Hawk HPS do as far as brake dust? It looks like they're Ferro-Carbon, but I'm not familiar with that. Originally I was looking for some ceramic brakes because I'm getting TONS of brake dust on the front wheels. I was looking at Posi-Quiet and Rotex Gold but haven't been able to find them for the SRT6. It seems all the links that have been posted to them are now broken or the part is not offered anymore. If someone can confirm that the Hawks significantly reduce brake dust like ceramic brakes do, then I'm a happy camper.