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308mm Front Brakes & SS Lines Project

3K views 17 replies 9 participants last post by  Passenger 57 
#1 · (Edited)
I decided to rewrite this so that it made a bit more sense and I could address some issues that I had with the install.

A little history… I bought a full set of 308mm front brakes off a 01 9-5 Aero & 300mm rear brakes off a 02 9-5 from EFA, elite foreign auto, and Goodridge stainless lines off 93forum last year and finally got around to installing the fronts on 6/3. I used Dip's DIY write up as a guide and everything went rather smoothly except for the dust shields which had to be drilled to get the bolts off. I prepped the calipers and rotors with some good degreaser and some wire wheels on an electric drill. If you have a vise wire brushing the calipers will be 100 time easier, I didn’t so it took a lot longer. I painted everything except the hats on the front rotors the week before with a kit I got from G3. It uses a 2 part epoxy paint that you brush on. I was very impressed by how easy it was to apply and how much you could cover with such a seemingly small amount of paint. One could easily cover 4 calipers and all 4 hats of the rotors. My only recommendation would be to use a bigger brush than what comes in the kit.
I didn’t prep the hats on the front rotors when I painted the calipers so I had to paint them later. When I did I used some black duplicolor caliper spray paint. This stuff worked great as well!! At this point I cant recommend the G3 kit or the duplicolor caliper paint, we’ll see which one holds up better. I used ATE super blue for fresh brake fluid.
Initially I wanted to do braking distance tests, stock vs. 308mm fronts vs. 308mm fronts & 300mm rears, but time constraints and weather conspired against me. The 300mm rears were installed on Sat. 6/6. It took my friend and me all day to complete this job. We had to do some modify some brackets that hold the E-brake springs in place so that they would work with the new calipers. The pics below show the brackets after we modified and installed them. Another issue we had was the clips that hold the lines in place weren’t that effective. We installed them but you could probably get away with leaving them out. Finally, one of the rear rotors was warped or not true and didn’t spin all that freely, oh well… Also the right front brake pad isn’t contacting the rotor completely as you can see in the picture. I would highly recommend that you get new rotors and pads if you do this upgrade to avoid issues like these. Be aware that 16in wheels will be the smallest you can fit with 308mm brakes.

As far as improved braking and pedal feel, I am a bit disappointed, my pedal is still a little mushy. The car feels like it is stopping better but I was expecting better pedal feel. I may try and bleed all the calipers again to see if it improves, new pads and rotors should help as well. Cosmetically, the car looks great!! The rotors fill up the wheels nicely, especially in the rear.
 

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#6 ·
I ended up buying the kit from GS. Every place I called wanted $200 or more for the rear calipers and carriers used.

$200.00(+/-) for Calipers and carriers
$152.00 for rotors
$67.20 for pads
$63.00 for the custom brake lines
=$482.20

Kit from GS = $589.45 and is brand new parts.
I think it was cheaper when I bought it.
 
#7 ·
nice.....

still newbie to Saab.. i know the 308mm front rotor is essentially Viggen sized..

tell me,i imagine that there should be some sort of new mounting point for the calipers...so, what hardware is needed to adapt this size to a regular 9'3..
and would stock 9'3 calipers still work?

can i go out and just purchase Viggen calipers & rotors and have a bolt in affair?

let me know... thanks !!
 
#11 ·
all you need are the caliper carriers(aka caliper brackets) and the rotors. the backing plates are different, but you can bend your old one back, or remove it.

everything else is the same (pads, lines, calipers).
 
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