jays83gsl

Okay, stupid questions (one of them very commoon sense, but I'm confirming)

I'm trying to figure out all that the original owner had done for htis car. I have receipts, but they're so faded it's not funny. And they're almost as thick as my Hayne's manual.

First, the doors are both the same color on the inside, right? They've both been primered, but the inside of my driver's door is crap sparkley brown, liek the rest of the car was. The passenger door, on the other hand, is sparkley black/grey, possibly tornado. I'm sure this is NOT normal.

I'm not sure what vented disc brakes are. Mine have slots on the sides. IS this vented (I've never had rear discs before, or even worked on brakes before this car)?

Is there a way to see what brand of suspension I have? My car rides lower than others around town, and the guy said they're an 'expensive brand.'

I had more, but I forgot

web777

LOL!

Both doors are supposed to be the same color.

It sounds like u have vented discs.

What color springs do you have?

jays83gsl

I think black?

wae

Either the car was originally black flake and repainted, or it was just the door. Look at the paint code on the door sticker and see what the car's supposed to be. I'd be willing to bet that the pass. door was replaced. You might hunt around on that side of the car for other damage, indicating a collision repair. Usually all of the really obvious stuff gets fixed up, but spots that aren't seen without a lift are left in a damaged or semi-repaired state.

Those are vented discs. There are, basically, four types of brake discs you'll see: Regular, vented, slotted, cross-drilled. Usually they're found in combinations. Regular ones are just a solid disc of metal. Vintage CRXes and Integras are found with these, and some cars with vented front discs go to non-vented ones in the rear.

Vented are the most common, in terms of stock application. That's what the -SE has stock, front and rear, but, honestly, I don't know about the GSL. The rotor basically looks like two metal plates that are held together by a series of horizontal fins, radiating from the hub. These fins help to dissapate the heat to improve braking performance.

Slotted discs have somewhat deep grooves cut into them in, going from the center to the outside. These grooves are there to help shave off any glazing that might occur on the pads, as well as to provide some dissapation of hot gasses.

Cross-drilled have a pattern of holes drilled clear through the rotor. Makes it look like rusty swiss cheese. These provide a place for accumulated hot gasses to go to prevent them from building up under the pad and reducing your braking performance.

Most performance rotors I've seen start out vented, add cross-drilled for the "low end" model, then throw in slots for the "high-performance" expensive option.


In terms of working on rear disc brakes... there's one special tool you'll want to have for this job. Hit your friendly neighborhood autoparts place and ask for a "rear brake caliper piston tool". That combination of words should get a sales clerk to direct you to a little tool that looks like a little metal cube. Each side of that cube works on a different type of caliper and is used to turn the caliper piston back into the cylinder. You'll need that for any rear-disc application, since the rear piston is on a screw mechanism for the parking brake. They also make special tools for compressing a regular caliper piston, but I've had good luck using just a bit of wood and a C-clamp. Come to think of it, you might as well pick up a bleeding kit while you're there. You can get a little $2.99 bottle that works as a "one-man brake bleeder", but spending the $30 for the hand vaccum pump will be well worth it some day -- faster brake bleeding, good clutch bleeding, and a wide range of test capabilities that the little bottle doesn't give you.

Hope that helps.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

Some Eibach's are black (Pro-Kit). If they are still clean and rust free you should be able to find the name printed on the coil or a part #. There will also be a series of #'s that show spring weight.

IanS

iTrader: (4)

My eibach pros on the protege are not a normal stock black color. Not like paint at least. They are more of a really dark gunmetal. I hope that helps you some JJ... Probably not though lol. I suck at helping.

jays83gsl

Thanks for all the help. I have the whole day free tomorrow, so I can check that stuff out.

Sure is good to know that I've got better brakes then what I started with!

As for the springs, they are more of a gunmetal. As a matter of fact, they look tornado, almost the same color as my passenger side door, complete with the sparkleys O_O.

THanks again for all the help, especially the info on the brakes!

IanS

iTrader: (4)

Yeah you have Eibachs if it looks like the tornado gray color.

rotor vs. piston

Not saying anyone is wrong but:

he said he has slots on the "sides". If it's on the sides he has slotted not vented rotors. He has a GSL I'm assuming from his screen name so those are not vented.

On the springs, my ST springs are a dark grey color, so he may not have Eibachs.

Get us some pics so we can stop guessing and help you out.

jays83gsl

I'll take some pics tomorrow. Sorry

As for my description, when I say sides, I mean the skinny side, not the side you see looking through the wheel.

They aren't stock, so, yeah