Powerstop-Z26 Street Warrior Brake Kit??? Or similar???

talontsiawd

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Long time member but have been out of the modding scene for a long time. First and foremost, I am currently on stock alloys and I do not want something that cannot fit stock wheels. I could see myself putting 17's back on, probably not my old ones, but it is very important I am not stuck with brakes too big. Secondly, I had zero interest of actually upgrading my brakes. I had Hawk HPS pads (I think, it was a long time ago) and though they seemed to bite better, they didn't seem to stop much better, just the initial bit was better than the no name pads I have. They were super dusty and I honestly didn't like the trade off.

I have a warped front rotor that I only notice at freeway speeds. If you remember me, my car is really low mileage for a daily driver, I just hit 90,000 recently. However, these came up on Instagram and looked into the price, $250 seems like a great deal if they still are as good as I remember people saying they were. That is 4 rotors and pads unless I am missing something.

I just wondered if anyone was using these and if they felt they were better than OEM. I see amazing reviews on Amazon, which often, leads me to be more pessimistic than optimistic because people are often reviewing a first upgrade, or just replaced terrible brakes and may not know if they are better than stock because they never experienced stock brakes in good condition.

Anyway, just wondering if this is a good upgrade, or even just as good as stock with zinc plating. I only need the front but to me, it makes sense to buy it all now and do the rears when I choose to. I am open to other options, I don't care if they are drilled, slotted, but I like the idea of zinc coating, assuming it holds up. I am perfectly willing to do regular break job if that is a better route with quality. I now have an S2000 for my "fun" car so I don't need anything wild, just something quality and hopefully better than stock as I always felt my 4cyl brakes could be better, the V6's I test drove way back always seemed to be better (I definitely don't want to go 5 lug or do a junkyard swap).
 

T.$.Racing

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I've looked into them before, but always drew the same conclusion. For a bit less money, and most likely better performance, I just stick with regular parts store rotors with EBC or Hawks pads. The EBC Greenstuff pads are very good for the street.

A friend of mine always buys the whole kit from EBC for his daily driver's. I've never used their pricey ass rotor's but he swears by the bluish hued Cryo'd rotors.

Just my 2 cents....
 

talontsiawd

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I've looked into them before, but always drew the same conclusion. For a bit less money, and most likely better performance, I just stick with regular parts store rotors with EBC or Hawks pads. The EBC Greenstuff pads are very good for the street.

A friend of mine always buys the whole kit from EBC for his daily driver's. I've never used their pricey ass rotor's but he swears by the bluish hued Cryo'd rotors.

Just my 2 cents....
I haven't priced it out but because I need one rotor, which means two, this actually may be cheaper. Definitely cheap enough to not worry about cost differences if they are an improvement. I don't think the rotors will be, but if the plating holds up, that is a plus.
 

Adhmuz

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Unfortunately I don't have much to compare to but on my 08 6MT I have power stop Z26 on all 4 corners and have been very pleased with the performance, I did the front last summer and rear this summer; rotors, pads and calipers. The front have held up very well, pad wear is about as expected with after 18k miles and the rotors still look good other than some minor rust due to winter driving the car. They've been exceptionally quiet, give great response and I can hardly notice any fade after several hard stops on the freeway.

Here's the thing, I bought the car 2nd hand and the previous owner had put the wrong size rotors on the front... Naturally any right size rotor would make stopping noticeably better. I've read people complain about the OE brakes not being sufficient for the weight of the vehicle as well, with these brakes I have had no issues braking, even getting the ABS to kick on in the dry a few times, this is also with wider and grippier than OE tires.

I know I probably paid more than other brands but selection is pretty bad in Canada, they priced out comparably to going to a local parts store and buying OE replacement parts, but at least I got powder coated calipers, drilled and slotted coated rotors and better than average pads.


All that being said, on my 98 I just put OE brakes on it for the life of the car and never had any complaints either, I did warp a rotor or two but being a 4cyl with those pathetic drums in the rear almost all the stopping power was coming from the front. I did think about getting something better for the front but never bothered as rotors were pretty cheap and took minutes to replace. Not to mention having over 240k miles on the odometer, it was just about keeping it going.
 
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talontsiawd

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Unfortunately I don't have much to compare to but on my 08 6MT I have power stop Z26 on all 4 corners and have been very pleased with the performance, I did the front last summer and rear this summer; rotors, pads and calipers. The front have held up very well, pad wear is about as expected with after 18k miles and the rotors still look good other than some minor rust due to winter driving the car. They've been exceptionally quiet, give great response and I can hardly notice any fade after several hard stops on the freeway.

Here's the thing, I bought the car 2nd hand and the previous owner had put the wrong size rotors on the front... Naturally any right size rotor would make stopping noticeably better. I've read people complain about the OE brakes not being sufficient for the weight of the vehicle as well, with these brakes I have had no issues braking, even getting the ABS to kick on in the dry a few times, this is also with wider and grippier than OE tires.

I know I probably paid more than other brands but selection is pretty bad in Canada, they priced out comparably to going to a local parts store and buying OE replacement parts, but at least I got powder coated calipers, drilled and slotted coated rotors and better than average pads.


All that being said, on my 98 I just put OE brakes on it for the life of the car and never had any complaints either, I did warp a rotor or two but being a 4cyl with those pathetic drums in the rear almost all the stopping power was coming from the front. I did think about getting something better for the front but never bothered as rotors were pretty cheap and took minutes to replace. Not to mention having over 240k miles on the odometer, it was just about keeping it going.

Although I understand it is far from an apples to apples comparison, I do appreciate the input. First, I will be surprised to even put 18k miles, give I have owned my car since 2003 and just hit 90k, so about 82k in 16 years so that is like 4 years almost for me. Secondly, I am glad the coating has held up well, these were the rage for DSM's before I bought my Accord for a stock brake replacement with extra features (not necessarily an "upgrade) so I didn't know if the quality was still up to par 20 years later.

I don't have drums on my 4 banger (EX trim) but I did warp my front rotor for the second time. My OEM brakes (I know they were factory) faded enough before my first brake job that I actually had to run a stop sign on some seriously weird down hill roads in Berkeley, CA. I had just driven in the hills with some major curves, normally I hit the freeway but went another way, and with already hot brakes and steep downhill blocks with stop signs, they just completely faded. I didn't warp the rotor that night but it seemed to happen shortly after. Not sure why my rotor warped again, and much less, only noticeable at 60+ MPH, but I need new rotors up front. I have not driven a 4 cylinder 6th gen with drums (I have driven earlier gens though), but I feel they all fade and I expect that even with these, it will be nice if they don't. However, this is just the DD now, so I don't need anything better than stock, I just like the idea of these and may price out similarly for quality replacement parts. I do know I want more grippy pads as my OEM and whatever part store pads I have now brake perfectly fine in an emergency, they are underwhelming under light braking. My Hawk pads felt so much better around town, my current brakes go from 25% to 30% until the pedal is mashed, then it stops quickly. Looking for something that is better half pedal down.

Anyway, though it doesn't tell me the performance, I thank you as this is useful information.
 

Adhmuz

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I don't have drums on my 4 banger (EX trim) but I did warp my front rotor for the second time.
Is it the same rotor you warped last time? Have you considered replacing/rebuilding the calipers? Checked the pins to be sure they slide smoothly and the caliper returns when you release the brakes?

If you keep warping the same rotor to me that sounds like a caliper issue more than anything else, or a pressure imbalance from side to side, pinched line somewhere perhaps?

I always thought the 4cl only came with rear drums and the v6 with 5 bolt wheels had disc brakes all around? Maybe this is only in Canada.
 

talontsiawd

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Is it the same rotor you warped last time? Have you considered replacing/rebuilding the calipers? Checked the pins to be sure they slide smoothly and the caliper returns when you release the brakes?

If you keep warping the same rotor to me that sounds like a caliper issue more than anything else, or a pressure imbalance from side to side, pinched line somewhere perhaps?

I always thought the 4cl only came with rear drums and the v6 with 5 bolt wheels had disc brakes all around? Maybe this is only in Canada.

I couldn't tell if it was the same rotor, I have owned my car since 2003 so it's hard to remember, and I didn't note which one was warped in my records when I bought a pair. My brakes function fine, I am not worried about to much about the caliper, all have looked really good when I have changed brakes.

In the states, you got rear disks on EX trim, not sure about any below. I believe older Accords were the same, the highest trim with alloys got disks, lower trim with steal wheels got drums.
 

snip33r

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Is it the same rotor you warped last time? Have you considered replacing/rebuilding the calipers? Checked the pins to be sure they slide smoothly and the caliper returns when you release the brakes?

If you keep warping the same rotor to me that sounds like a caliper issue more than anything else, or a pressure imbalance from side to side, pinched line somewhere perhaps?

I always thought the 4cl only came with rear drums and the v6 with 5 bolt wheels had disc brakes all around? Maybe this is only in Canada.

98-00 LX/DX and 01-02 SE have rear drums. all others trim have rear disc
 
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