My brakes are shot on my '00 Saab Aero Wagon and I need some repair/upgrade advice. This is in the mods section because I figured that I would like to upgrade my brakes instead of just replacing them with the stock ones. Also, my car's suspension is noticeably lower in the left rear after I drive for long distances, although it does appear to fix itself periodically.

Basically, my question is what should I do for brakes and could anyone recommend to me a good place to take the car in the Chicago area. I drive fairly competitively and may at some point take the car to a track day.

Also, while I have it in the shop, is there anything else I should have done to it? Do I need to replace a component of the suspension and if so, what should I be looking at?

Finally, when dealing with upgrades, I have some confidence in my own install job, but I have no good garage and am currently at college so I figure I should bring it into a shop. If I want upgrade parts, am I better off to buy them beforehand or buy them through the shop?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Justin

should this be moved to the workshop section?

No, it's a valid performance question.

There is a lot of improvement from switching to a better ceramic pad. If you want to do a mild upgrade, look for some EBC redstuffs, Hawk HPS, or similar for the front brakes. I would personally keep stock rears in this case because in my experience the ceramic rears have been very squealy.

If you can afford it, there are also the big brake kits (http://www.genuinesaab.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=47_50&products_id=257). These are the only things I would recommend for serious track driving. Note that replacement pads or discs are very costly as well, so the initial price is not the only concern.

Brakes are so easy to do, you might as well do them yourself. You can pick up some new rotors for cheap from eeuroparts.com or genuinesaab. The only challenge I came across was that the tiny bolt holding the brake on to the hub had seized, but using a torch got this out. I did it in the driveway at my parent's house, with a jack borrowed from my neighbors.

99.99995% of the time your prices will be better than the shop. I have seen markup as high as 500% on some items at the dealership. They say this is fair because it is a "premium brand". Pffhht. :roll:

should this be moved to the workshop section?

This is in the mods section because I figured that I would like to upgrade my brakes instead of just replacing them with the stock ones.

:confused:

Thanks for the help. I will look into those. Now, I need to determine how much damage I did to the brakes I have on there. I think I wore through the pads at the beginning of a high-speed 2000-mile road trip I just got back from (I was part of a competitive scavenger hunt - Passing our main rival doing 105 in south dakota was priceless... man did that turbo roar!).

Now the brakes are making an awful sound as soon as they are applied (sounds like engine is dragging on the ground). I think I am going to need new rotors as a result. Yes, I am an idiot for not checking before I left. Now, is it possible that I did more damage than just the rotors? I'm going to go out and check the car pretty soon once it stops raining.

In all likelihood it's just the wear indicators on the brake pads. You can either get new rotors, or have the existing ones machined. Since I can't machine them myself, I normally opt to replace them, since it still ends up costing less than paying the stealership to do the brakes.

i see, i just thought that "Car needs fixin"was a title about fixing your car which would be put i the in the workshop section.