[Finesse58]

So I've been meaning to do a big brake kit for my 05 9-5 Aero for a while now - esp for track days or very high speed driving where the factory sizes even with good rotors, pads, fluid just can't quite cope as well as I'd like.
Anyway, I found these and am seriously considering pulling the trigger. My Subtotal comes to over $3800 but they'd be 330 mm all around with 4-pot calipers all around with an option to have factory handbrake actuate the rear calipers vs rear drums selected. I may save the $200 or so ny selecting the option for standard rear handrake (still with the 330×28 rotors and 4-pot calipers)
I've always wanted matching brakes for feel!

Maybe I'm just being loony. As far as the piston options I was intending to go with the standard aluminum and for carriers the standard 2 piece. Take a look through their options lists and lmk what you guys think!

CEIKA Custom Big Brake Kit for Saab 9-5 YS3E (98~10)

Custom built with race proven design and technology. For everyday street use up to pro racing depending on the specifications chosen. Why choose CEIKA? Order your big brake kit directly from us, save and take advantage of our high performance extra features! Since 2008 every CEIKA order is...

ceika-store.com

 

[Germaniac]

"Nothing human is alien to me" - Shakespeare (or so)

Sure it's insane, but YOLO. Any intention of adding the suspension kit of Ceika?

(I'm asking for a friend...nah. I'm just curious. Would be nice to install that suspension kit but the chances that it will be approved by the TÜV are rather in the negative area.)

 

[Finesse58]

My mechanic suggested that coilovers can lead 9-5s to swap ends in the rain on uneven road surfaces during spirited cornering.
One might say that's easy enough to avoid and I'm dubious about it, but it's food for thought. So not as of now. It will be more of a consideration when my koni yellows and Vogtland lowering springs need replacement.

 

[Bob12312357]

As far as brake bias are you adjusting that or mainly going with the rotor/caliper hardware changes?

 

[EdT]

I don't know that coilovers have any special ability to introduce snap oversteer. I would assume that any suspension firmly set up with "hard cornering, zero understeer" in mind would be susceptible to losing the back under the right (wrong) circumstances. The coilovers themselves might be part of the setup, i.e. guilt via being there.

 

[Germaniac]

My mechanic suggested that coilovers can lead 9-5s to swap ends in the rain on uneven road surfaces during spirited cornering.

Guess that every car does depending on how spirited the cornering happens.😁 But I know what you mean.

 

[Finesse58]

As far as brake bias are you adjusting that or mainly going with the rotor/caliper hardware changes?

What's the rest of that thought, why do you ask

 

[Bob12312357]

What's the rest of that thought, why do you ask

Asking because the true performance BBKs I've seen will either keep the OEM brake bias through sizing difference of the calipers/rotors front vs rear or potentially need to change the brake bias to keep the car stable under hard braking.

Just wondering if you planned on trial/error or if upgrading to the same size caliper/rotor on the rear is known to require adjusting the brake bias on these cars. I'm not as familiar doing BBKs on front engined vehicles so the F/R weight distribution is very different than what I've seen.

 

[QuiickLime]

I'm also curious what the advantage of this kit is over the 345mm brembo kit that's available. Two piece rotors are cool, but I'm not convinced that's worth the cost, especially on a track car where you'd probably want to replace them often.

Brake bias is a great point as well, not sure 330mm rotors front and back would make sense given the 9-5's weight distribution.

Regardless I'm sure whatever you do will come out sweet!

 

[Finesse58]

It gets squirrelly under braking at high speeds, bigger backs could help even that a touch. Also need to drop the rear slightly, tiny bit too much rake. Just fitted a factory spoiler as well.

I use Rk1s and Rk2s(both 17×8, the Rk1s being pretty light as well) the 345s are too big, esp with their very thick calipers. I've always wanted larger rears as well. Could even do something more common in the front and just rears from Ceika

 

[Bob12312357]

The problem with too much rear bias is that you can lock up the back wheels before maximizing the braking potential of the front wheels, causing squirrelly to turn into insta-360. Mid engine cars have more weight (proportionally) over the rear so the even with the weight transfer under heavy braking they are able to contribute more stopping power. I'm assuming you'd be keeping ABS on but having the brakes react very differently with every touch of the pedal isn't ideal for HPD.

The variations of BBK I've seen used on mid engined cars being front/rear only or all 4 corners...front only requires changing the brake bias, rear only is attempted suicide, & all 4 does not require changing brake bias.

Interested to see how this works out. Btw I'm not sure what your suspension setup is but do you have the ability/have you tried corner balancing the car?

 

[scanialord]

It gets squirrelly under braking at high speeds, bigger backs could help even that a touch. Also need to drop the rear slightly, tiny bit too much rake. Just fitted a factory spoiler as well.

I use Rk1s and Rk2s(both 17×8, the Rk1s being pretty light as well) the 345s are too big, esp with their very thick calipers. I've always wanted larger rears as well. Could even do something more common in the front and just rears from Ceika

First off any BBK is bad *** regardless the car. Build. Purpose etc. love walking out the store some where and catch a sleeper with a kit on it out the corner of my eye.

Sounds like you have a damper/spring or driver issue. I don’t know of a car out there that won’t get squirly with 80% input @ 100 mph. But it helps when the dampeners and springs are working together to control the weight. The slightest road imperfection can offset your contact patch when braking. It’s important to compare on track to off track when diagnosing a breaking issue.

If you do go full BBK and it is a full blown race car. Being able to adjust bias to each wheel on the fly might beneficial. However your likely hood of being black flagged is very high.

I’d slap some 314’s on the front first with new dampers and a corner balance before ordering the BBK. Just my 2 cents. Even tho the size of the rotor is marginally larger the diameter of the caliper piston could effect and help your stock master cylinder.


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[jvanabra]

To me that sounds like penalty pricing on brakes. Like, strip your track car down and cage it and run stock-ish (314 or 345) brakes then take what's left and go buy another 9-5 for the street.

I feel like there have gotta be a whole pile of effective 3xx mm brake swaps you could do for 1/4 that money. I mean, I put 14" C6 brakes on my Fiero for $600...

 

[KevinC]

Agree with above, go with lower cost 345mm fronts. On the back, are you really going to need bigger brakes? Without an adjustment/balancer valve bigger back brakes could even prove dangerous. By way of comparison, only perhaps 1/3 of the 'normal' sports coupes and sedans running in the Nurringburgring 4-hour endurance series races bother with upgraded rear calipers, most just go with great fluid, discs and pad which make a huge difference. Are you really going to use it that hard? Do you know how much abuse a North Loop lap can throw at your brakes, I doubt you could retain your license unless you live in the boonies for long if you drove it that hard for 30 minutes. Save your money for suspension and gearbox upgrades in my opinion,

 

[Finesse58]

Those 2 are already done. The car has several thousands into it. And yeah, I cooked the rears on ebc slotted, yellow stuff pads and motul 5.1 on the track

 

[KevinC]

Same pads/discs in front?

Unless something is out on anything like an OEM setup it should be very hard to cook the rears on track because the fronts will have already caught fire. Only times I have cooked the rears was using the hand brake to bed in race pads.

 

[Finesse58]

I can you, you're mistaken. Everything was setup correctly. Cooked all 4 pads

 

[jvanabra]

IMO EBC is not good. I would start there.

A stock a Stage 1 B5 S4 makes 300hp and has 312mm brakes and you can track that every single weekend. There's no reason why a 9-5 should need anything special to accomplish the same.

As was mentioned in another thread, a possibility is that you don't have enough grip. I would buy some 17x10s and some 245 Hoosiers before I spent even $1000 on brakes. More grip means less braking and faster times. Solved and solved.

 

[EdT]

I have a few random comments.

First, I would make sure that the rear brakes aren't binding. I was having rear brake overheating just driving around. Partly might have been the parking brake, but the shop determined that the rear calipers were binding, and they were rebuilt. These were some parts store "remanufactured" units, maybe Cardone, when I decided that I wasn't going to find a good set of the vented rotor calipers at the junkyard.

If the problem is heating up, of course make sure that airflow to the rotors is optimized. Removing the front backing plates would be much cheaper than a mondo brake upgrade, and might work. Also make sure that the engine compartment isn't venting through the front wheelwells; you cant cool air flowing there, not preheated air.

There are potentially enough differences between a Saab 9-5 and an Audi S4 (which may be a greater step over an A4 than a 9-5 Aero might be over a Linear), including weight, that I wouldn't be too hung up. But at whatever track sessions, I would take a look what other cars were running, hopefully cars with somewhat comparable speed and weight. Especially interesting would be to get pad recommendations from long-time participants.

 

[jvanabra]

Better than removing the backing plates, drill holes and duct air. $100 worth of brake air ducts is surprisingly effective.