[IcoHolic]

2002 SE
21,000km (13,000mi)

Here's the situation:

- Front rotors are warped (no point in machining them)

- After about 5-6 minutes of town driving, there is a very high pitched squeel when pressing/riding/disengaging the brakes, sometimes the squeel remains for a bit when the brakes aren't enganged.

A few questions.

- Anyone else had Brake issues with the stock Ford things (I kinda knew they'd be subpar)?

- Is there a recommended upgrade of replacement parts that are far superior to Ford OEM. i.e. Does Ford sell upgrades? (im tired of dirty front rims too! any improvement there would be great.)

- Is there a conversion kit to make the rear brakes Rotors instead of drums? (I have no idea if that's even easily possible)

Any suggestion on how I should tackle the repair and upgrading of the braking system would be much appreciated.


Thanks Guys and Gals

Ico

 

[crazymechanic]

those brake problems are very common...welcome to focus ownership

you can upgrade the rotors...lots of people do brembo blanks with a good set of pads, hawk, ebc, mintex, etc. there is a rear conversion kit, but it's pretty costly unless you can source the parts yourself from a junkyard

 

[microtonal]

I had no issues with my brakes and I had +50K miles on them.
The pads were still good for another 10-20K miles.

 

[microtonal]

I recently upgraded to EBC rotors and Mintex pads for $115 at www.batinc.net
for both rotors and pads.

Changing the rotors and pads are pretty easy.
Only requires removing the wheel, two 7mm Allen bolts on each rotor and the disengaging the pad clips.

Making the rears into discs can be done but it's not cheap.

 

[IcoHolic]

Some guidance as to how to do the rear drums to discs would be great. I am having no luck with Google.

 

[05-BLACK-ZX5]

SVT rear brakes are a direct bolt-on. I think you need the hubs, spindles, rotors, caliper carriers, calipers, pads, proportioning valve...I'm sure I'm missing something...basically the whole rear brake system.

 

[HTP Designer]

Im doing the conversion now, I will post some pics tomorrow and that should help. I found everything I needed by taking my time and waiting to come across everything. You can also just go to the local parts store and buy everything you need. It will just cost more since you wont have cores for items such as the brake calipers. Jegs sells the svt conversion kit for a little less the $1000. I think it a good deal after finding out what goes into this process. Its a pain to replace bearings and this and that. Also you can choose your own rotors and pads you would like to run, thats if you buy everything from the parts store and gather it up here and there. I'll get back to you with some pics of what you need