The Brakes: A Tale of Expense and Effectiveness

We've got a great set of brakes here, and I'm super impressed with how they work. I mean, who knew it only took some more aggressive pads and a little better rotors to make such a difference? The main advantage of upgrading your brakes isn't necessarily a shorter stopping distance. It's resisting brake fade. Brake fade is when your brakes get so hot that they become less effective or even fail completely.

These brakes are definitely gonna fade quicker than those. So, their brakes literally cost 10 times more, but I don't think they're gonna perform 10 times better. We ran the 60 to zero test over and over to put as much heat and stress on our new brakes to see how they affected the stopping distance of each car.

Oh, you guys! You got him, you got him, you got him. They definitely faded, but I don't know, these are the worst circumstances you can throw at brakes, and they were pretty damn consistent. So, for what we paid, yeah, you can't really be disappointed. Yeah, can't be mad about these.

Look at Nolan's First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth is down here, and then it got kinda consistent, I guess after awhile, and well, you saw what happened on the last one. So with our 60 to zero test, we were able to shave off about five feet from the stock brakes. Which only goes to show that upgrading your brakes doesn't really make you stop sooner.

Which is why we also did an endurance test. One marker, pretty consistently after about five laps, and then on the sixth lap, Aaron stood on the brake, and we stopped like 10 feet past. We're like, oh, it's about to happen. And then a couple of laps later, we caught on fire. So when they go, they go. We had to replace the pads after that torture test because we completely dusted them.

High car did not catch on fire. Nope. The brakes barely faded at all. All right, so does more expensive mean more better, James? Absolutely! In this case, 1,000%! So yeah, obviously, the Wilwoods are better. Way better. Way better, I mean...

I wanna acknowledge the aesthetic gains from those big brakes. We had some really cool wheels on the high car, but seeing those big old beefy boys behind it, it's like, oh man, that dude knows what's up. One negative about the Big Brake Kit is you can't do it and keep your stock wheels. It's just one more thing to consider.

Nolan, which brake kit would you buy? The Wilwoods are too expensive. They're so, so good, but that's too much money. Honestly, just the rotors, pads, and the steel braided lines on my car made a big difference, and I don't feel bad about saying that I wouldn't get the more expensive one.

If this episode gets 10 million views, we'll give Nolan a raise so he can start answering the would you buy it question a little bit more honestly. No, this is honestly. I don't have any money to buy this (beep). You don't either, so.

Nolan's like, I wouldn't buy lunch! So I would go with the cheaper brake kit, the low kit, if you will. Solid upgrade, solid, solid upgrade.

The high car is now, right in this episode, where the disparity really starts to become apparent. I mean, they're two different cars now. Right now, we have way more tire and way more brakes than we do power. So you can just drive the piss out of that thing and stay out of trouble. And you're fine.

It's so fun to drive right now. I can't wait till we run it with more power. More power, baby! In the next episode, we're gonna see what's the difference. A nice aftermarket LSD or welding your differential together. If you haven't seen the first two episodes of this show, make sure you go watch 'em.

We did wheels and tires and coilovers. Make sure to tune in every Monday for the next however many Mondays. If you like this, send it to your friend. If you hate it, send it anyway, it doesn't matter. Follow Donut @donutmedia for all that sweet, sweet BTS and the dankest memes in the automotive world!

I love you. Be nice. See you next time. We can't nail this. You start, you said be nice.

All right. Be nice. I love you. See you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(engine revving)- Oh, you got it,keep going, keep going!- $450 break upgrade kit--- Versus $4,400 Big Brake Kit.- Does more expensive mean more better?- Let's find out.I sure hope so.(laughing)(exciting music)- Hey, guys, we made ashow called Car Wars.The Donut gang going againstsome of your favoriteYouTubers, like ChrisFix.Loser had to eat a very spicy chip.Very spicy but very fun to watch.The hardest challenge wasthe VR third-person driving.I almost threw up 'causeI got motion sickness.(gags)(laughs)(beep)We bought twoalmost identical Nissan 350Zsand we've been modifyingthem to be fun daily driversthat you can take to the track.- My Z gets a ton ofreally expensive partsand Nolan's car getsa bunch of cheap ones.- We're gonna test them side by sideand see which components are worthspending your hard-earned money on.- So far we've installed coiloversand new wheel and tire comboson our twin 350Zs, and today,we're movin' onto the brakes.We wanna see what kinda results we can getfrom a really basic butstill good brake upgradeversus a full monty, daddy I'mgoing into credit card debtfor this brake kit brake kit.Look how much biggermy pads are than yours.- And these are my front pads.Size comparison.That's pretty enormous.The Big Brake Kit doesn't necessarily meanmore braking power, it'sjust that you'll be ableto do harder braking for longerbecause the heat is being distributedover a larger area than mine.With these tiny little guys,I think I'm gonna have somepretty gnarly brake fadeafter stepping on 'em a lot, many times,a lot of many times.- Also look how much bigger the vents areon the Wilwood kit versus Nolan's.A lot more air's gonna pass through thoseand it's gonna cool thebrakes a lot better.We're just fightin' heat andwe are gonna come out on top.- Honestly, I think his baller-ass setupis gonna blow mine away.- This is honestly thebest day of my life.- No contest which is better.(laughing)- You never know!I mean, yeah!Looks like mine is almostcertainly 1,000% better,but let's just wait andsee if the Wilwood kitis really so much betterthat it's worth thosethousands of dollars.(hiphop music)Brakes.- Big or small?- That is the question.- Today we have the answer.- We're gonna find out.(beep)- Whenupgrading your brake kit,there are a handful of different piecesyou can opt to replace.Rotors, pads, calipers,brake lines, and brake fluid.On high car, we'reswappin' out all of those.In the low car we'll do thesame, except for calipers.Because new calipers are justtoo dang expensive for Nolanand his poor team.- And all that togethershould make our brakes firmerand more consistent at the track.Upgraded rotors can help dissipate heatwith more effective venting, added slots,and/or increased surface area.- Know what I mean?- Power tools, baby!- Me, I'm just a car boy.(tool buzzing)(laughs)(tool buzzing)- You got what, 12 bolts here?- I can't keep track of thatin my head so as we torque 'emwe'll mark 'em and then well,once they're all marked,they're all torqued.My brake rotor won't fit withthis dust shield on there.To get it off we can eithertake the whole hub offor do some custom engineering.(tools buzzing)- The other part of being biggeris that a larger friction ringallows you to run a larger pad.- Upgraded pads can be madewith more heat-tolerant materials,and bigger pads also dissipate heat easierwith their larger surface area.But in order to have biggerpads, you need bigger calipers.- It needs force all across it.This is a single-piston caliper.If you're pushing on the backof this pad with one piston,you don't have any force on the sides,so you need a big circle?No, you can't do that!So you do a few little circles.So this has pistons on both sides,inside and behind that pad, andsince this is a fixed rotor,without the sliding piece thisthing doesn't flex at all,so you get a really firm,really consistent brake pedal.- Got the new Wildwood 10.Hold on, hello?What's up, babe?I'm at the shop.Yeah, the boys are here.Yeah, we're kickin' it,yeah we're havin' fun!Yeah we're building the HiLow Zs.Oh.(laughs)Ooh, maybe.Well, I think we can arrange that.(laughs)Yeah, I'll be home late.(kisses)(upbeat music)- With all this other stuffwe also replaced the brake lines,that's usually a partof the Big Brake Kit.Because stock lines areoften this soft and durableand flexible rubber, whichis great for daily drivingand it's great for longevity,but it's not great for performance.Over time these can bulge,especially with reallyhigh, heavy braking,and that gives you a squish in your pedalwhere you shouldn't have one.So to correct that, most Big Brake Kits,including this Wilwood kit,come with stainless steel lines.- Once you got your other line in place,you break lose the OEM hard linewith the line wrench right here,and then as quickly as possibleyou're gonna shove it back on.So the reason I leavethe old line in thereis because it's good tohave reference points.If this line actually goes on the front,it could be too long andthen it could get tangledin some of the workingsuspension components,causing some pretty bador catastrophic failures.- All right, so we gotall the brakes installed,all the lines on, we'reready to put our new fluid inand bleed 'em.- So since wechanged the brake lines,you're gonna have to bleed the brakes.- Yeah, 'cause all thatbrake fluid you sawdrippin' out of the lines hasto be replaced by somethingand that something is usually air.Every time I press the brake,Aaron's gonna be releasingair from the system.We do that on all fourcorners and then our systemwill be free of air andwe can drive this thing.- We don't have a bleeder here in the shopso I went ahead and made one out of a canand a clear tube that wehad here just lyin' around.And we're tight.That should be it.How does it feel?- Ah, dude, it's like...It's so solid.It's like, yeah,I shouldn't be jammin'it like that, should I?(funky music)- After your new padsand rotors are installed,you're still not done.You have to bed in the brakes.- Oh no.Here we go.- Start at 60 miles an hourand lightly press on yourbrakes to get them up to temp.Then get back up to 60 andstand on the brakes harddown to around 10 miles per.- Oh wow.- That's better.- Wow, that was really great.- Then get back up to 60and do it again about 10 times.- Oh hell yeah, dude.- Wow.- This thingfrickin' gets down.- Your brake rotors andpads are gonna get super hotand smell, just like Nolan.If you don't bed in your brakes,you run the risk of havinguneven pad deposition,which makes your rotorsfeel like they're warped.(funk music)Well Nolan's out thereracing S Chassis already.- Makin' friends.- Makin' friends.He's already part of the JDM community.- This might be another con.Your time.- Yeah, for sure.- If you wanna go outand hang out with your friends,maybe don't do big jobs.But hey, we made it through,we're almost to the other side,we'll be out theremakin' friends very soon.- Yeah, we're gonna beout there making friends.(hiphop music)- So for the test wedid the same 60 to zero testfrom the last episode to seeif there's any improvementin stopping distance.- Ah, the brakes feel really good,I'm super impressed with how they work.I mean, who knew it only tooksome more aggressive padsand a little better rotors, man?- The main advantageof upgrading your brakesis not a shorter stopping distance.The main advantage isresisting brake fade.Brake fade is when your brakes get so hotthat they become less effectiveor even fail completely.- These brakes are definitelygonna fade quicker than those.- So their brakes literallycost 10 times more,but I don't think they'regonna perform 10 times better.- So we ran the 60 to zero testover and over and over toput as much heat and stresson our new brakes to see how they affectedthe stopping distance of each car.(hiphop music)- Oh, you guys--(laughs)Oh, you got him, you got him,you got him, you got him.- They definitely faded but I don't know,these are the worst circumstancesyou can throw at brakesand they were pretty damn consistent.So for what we paid,yeah, you can't really bedisappointed.- Yeah, can't bemad about these.- Look at Nolan's.First.Second.Third.Fourth.Fifth is down here.And then it got kindaconsistent I guess after awhileand well you saw whathappened on the last one.- So with our 60 to zero testwe were able to shave offabout five feet from the stock brakes.Which only goes to showthat upgrading your brakesdoesn't really make you stop sooner.- Which is why we alsodid an endurance test.- One marker, pretty consistentlyafter about five laps,and then on the sixth lapAaron stood on the brakeand we stopped like 10feet past, we're like, oh,it's about to happen.And then a couple lapslater we caught on fire.So when they go, they go.We had to replace the padsafter that torture test'cause we completely dusted 'em.- High car did not catch on fire.- Nope.- The brakes barelyfaded at all.- All right, so does moreexpensive mean more better, James?- Absolutely!In this case 1,000%!- So yeah, obviouslythe Wilwoods are better.- Way better.- Way better, I mean--- I wanna acknowledge the aesthetic gainsfrom those big brakes.We had some really coolwheels on the high car,but seeing those big oldbeefy boys behind it,it's like, oh man, thatdude knows what's up.One negative about the BigBrake Kit is you can't do itand keep your stock wheels.It's just one more thing to consider.So Nolan, which brake kit would you buy?- The Wilwoods are too expensive.They're so, so good, butthat's too much money.Honestly, just the rotors, pads,and the steel braided lineson my car made a big differenceand I don't feel bad about sayingthat I wouldn't getthe more expensive one.- If this episode gets 10 million views,we'll give Nolan a raiseso he can start answeringthe would you buy it questiona little bit more honestly.(laughs)- No, this is honestly.I don't have any money to buy this (beep).You don't either, so.- Nolan's like, I wouldn't buy lunch!- So I would go withthe cheaper brake kit,the low kit, if you will.- Solid upgrade, solid, solid upgrade.- The high car is now,right in this episode,is where the disparity reallystarts to become apparent.I mean, they're two different cars now.- Right now we have waymore tire and way more brakethan we do power.So you can just drivethe piss outta that thingand stay outta trouble.- And you're fine.- It's so funto drive right now.I can't wait 'til weruin it with more power.(laughing)More power, baby!In the next episode, we'regonna see what's the difference.A nice aftermarket LSD, or--- Or welding your differential together.- If you haven't seen the firsttwo episodes of this show,make sure you go watch 'em.We did wheels and tires and coilovers.Make sure to tune in every Mondayfor the next however many Mondays.If you like this, send it to your friend.If you hate it, send itanyway, it doesn't matter.Follow Donut @donutmedia forall that sweet, sweet BTSand the dankest memesin the automotive world!I love you.- Be nice.See you next time.We can't nail this.- You start, you said be nice.- All right.Be nice.- I love you.- See you next time.(funky music)