Performance (Aftermarket) Disc Brake Kits. Look Good And Stop Good

    Performance (aftermarket) disc brake kits (also called Big Brakes) could be found and purchased at any performance supplier. Such a kit would be necessary or recommended if the increase of your cars horsepower is 15% or more. The vehicles brakes are designed to give maximum performance and safety ONLY with the stock horsepower or a little increase. For example if your car puts out 135 horsepower at the wheels and you have performance modifications adding 20 more horsepower, you are probably going to be OK with your stock brake components. Any more than that and you are gambling with your and others safety.

 Most of the performance disk brake kits provide all the parts that are needed to make the transformation. Going with a kit takes the guesswork away and also eliminates the danger of mismatching parts if you try to do it yourself.  Performance (aftermarket) disc brake kits are also available if you want to convert your rear drum brakes to disc brakes. Disk brake kits come with a variety of brake rotors. The brake rotors can be vented cross drilled, slotted or flat. The size of the rotors also depends on the car make and model. They are always bigger as the name suggests. The size of the rotors can be anywhere form 12" up to 15" sometimes 16 inches. Bigger size brake disk provides more braking surface therefore the stopping time is largely reduced. Front wheel drive cars have bigger brake disks on the front wheels. That is because the braking is mainly done by the front wheels (about 80% of it). The same applies for Honda Acura disk brake kits, the front rotors in the kit are going to be bigger than the rear ones. The brake calipers also vary depending on the brake kit and manufacturer. They can be two, four or six piston calipers. Usually the front wheels are with four or six piston calipers. The rear wheels are with two or four piston calipers normally. The brake calipers are made of aluminum and they have a much better braking power than the stock ones. They are also lighter weight. Some brake kits can work with the stock calipers. They simply supply a mounting bracket that relocates the stock caliper so it fits the larger rotor. The brake kit components normally work fine with DOT3, DOT4 and most of the racing brake fluids. The manufacturer of the brake disk kit typically specifies what type of brake fluid is best. The kit will have performance brake pads sometimes included in it and that makes your brakes even better. Others does not include or require performance brake pads. Four wheel disc brakes are the best looking from performance and safety point of view but they are usually found as standard equipment only on sport or performance vehicles. That’s were aftermarket brake kits come very helpful. Disc brakes have a number of advantages over the drum brakes. The advantages are better cooling; better fade resistance, little or no wet fading in wet weather, reduced weight and complexity. Performance brake kits could be use for race and street driven Honda Acura at the same time. Expect up to 35% decrease in the stopping distance of your Honda Acura with big brake kit.

Performance (aftermarket) disc brake kits could be expensive depending on the materials used to make mainly the rotors and brake calipers such as steel, aluminum, titanium and other, the manufacturing process and who the manufacturer is. The kit contains all the parts such as rotors, brake caliper, stainless steel braided brake hoses, hardware, performance brake pads and other necessary components. They are fairly easy to install and usually come with complete installation instructions. If you are going to do it yourself you are going to need automotive tools and a repair manual specifically for the make and year of your Honda Acura car. The manual is needed for the right torque specifications of all the fasteners. A repair manual is always a good idea to have no matter of the work you are doing to your car (performance or non performance related). You will also have to bleed your brake system. Make sure that there is no air trapped in the brake lines or the brakes will not work. Use only flare wrench for the bleeding screws and brake lines. Any other wrench will strip them. When installing Honda Acura big brake kit you will have to remove the brake shields behind the stock brake disks. They can not be reused with big brake disks. There only purpose is to keep road debris and dust away from the brake disks. Nothing is going to happen to your brakes without them. The only other "disadvantage" of big brake disk kits is that they require 99% of the time bigger wheels usually 16, 17 inches. 

Performance disk brake kit could be installed on any Prelude, Civic, Integra, RSX or any other model Honda Acura. The brakes will improve the barking and handling on any performance Honda Acura candidate. They also look super cool with bigger wheels and performance tires. The brake calipers and the rotors hat are often painted in many different colors such as red, blue, black, yellow, gray, silver and gold. Sometimes the brake calipers are in two color paint job or they are covered in chrome. Good performance brake kits are made by Brembo, AEM, Baer, Power Slot and Spoon. 

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