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[theolodian]

Has anyone tried to upgrade the front brakes on their Omega?  The g/f and I would like to go to the 'ring next year and I don't think that the front brakes will last more than a few turns even taking it a bit easy.  I'm not looking for anything crazy, putting bigger rotors with the same calipers and 16" wheels would be ideal.

What are the front calipers anyway?  I noticed that the rears are opposing twins.  

[TheBoy]

Front is single piston, free floating type. Rear is same IIRC.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Fronts are single piston free floating and dam big....

Rears are twin piston with later units being vented.

Not much you can do to upgrade the brakes as they are pretty good anyway unless you fit fancy drilled discs and fancy pads.

[theolodian]

Fronts are single piston free floating and dam big....

Rears are twin piston with later units being vented.

Not much you can do to upgrade the brakes as they are pretty good anyway unless you fit fancy drilled discs and fancy pads.

Cheers.  I like slotted but not drilled.  Then I started really not liking drilled after I extruded my pads through them like pasta on the track.    

[Kev]

Drilled and grooved discs with green stuff pads fitted both front and rear. Excellent.  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Markjay]

Had grooved disks with pads to match on an Astra many years ago, worked very well (the original brakes were fading - I had a 1.8 engine in a 1.6 car, and the 1.8 came originally only in the GTE that had vented front disks while the 1.6 car had solid ones, also the 1.8 engine and 5-speed gearbox were making the front much heavier than the original setup).

However, they needed to warm-up before grip developed - try a panic stop 30 second after staring the car and the result is very eerie. Also, they were noisy regardless of the copper grease and the filed front edge on the pads - which I was told was normal for performance disks/pads. But I never had brake fade again on the Astra.

Having said that, unless you actually managed to fade the brakes on the Omega, which is very hard to do, I don't think uprated disks/pads will make much difference. Good tyres will however.

[omegaV6CD]

Drilled and grroved discs are not very good as there is stress concentration occuring due to the surface not being smooth which cause the discs to crack. First thing would be to change the fluid and upgrade with a racing spec fluid.

[Kev]

Never had any problems with my drilled and grooved and they've been on the car over a year. The advantage of the green pad over the other variants is how long it takes for them to reach optimum, and they achieve it quicker. They are not a true 'track' pad but more middle ground. Even from stone cold the brakes are still far more responsive than the standard setup. They are also quiet during operation, they don't squeel.

With regard to brake fade, i could achieve that very easily with the standard setup. It's the 3.0 Auto i've got, a heavy beast anyway, but being the Elite, even more so, which had all round vented discs as standard, all genuine Vx, but still suffered very badly with fade, especially when braking heavy at speed. Hence my decision to upgrade, and honestly, i've not looked back.

But like they say, the choice is yours, just giving you my experience with 'em.  

[Markjay]

Never had any problems with my drilled and grooved and they've been on the car over a year. The advantage of the green pad over the other variants is how long it takes for them to reach optimum, and they achieve it quicker. They are not a true 'track' pad but more middle ground. Even from stone cold the brakes are still far more responsive than the standard setup. They are also quiet during operation, they don't squeel.

With regard to brake fade, i could achieve that very easily with the standard setup. It's the 3.0 Auto i've got, a heavy beast anyway, but being the Elite, even more so, which had all round vented discs as standard, all genuine Vx, but still suffered very badly with fade, especially when braking heavy at speed. Hence my decision to upgrade, and honestly, i've not looked back.

But like they say, the choice is yours, just giving you my experience with 'em.  

If you managed to fade the brakes then you must be driving the Omega in the same way I was driving my Astra 20 years ago  

[MikeDundee]

Recently fitted grooved EBC front discs to my omega and put EBC red stuff pads all round, have to say the difference is quite noticable, I am impressed. However, my local garage just round the corner fitted the discs and pads for just £40 quid, and re-sprayed my calipers. But he fitted them opossite direction as shown on the instructions, asked him e.g., u sure you fitted them the right direction/way round. He said yes this is the best way, he used to develop discs for TAROX etc.,, and also work with rally team, now he has his own place round corner from me. He is very good, and knows his stuff.

[Andy C]

I must admit there are times when my Omega's brakes are less than inspiring.  I've been wondering about upgrading them, as I think the 2.0 rotors are 280mm items, compared to 290 on the V6 models.  I have thought about seeing if Hi-Spec or someone like that would be able to supply 315mm items, ideally with a four pot caliper.  Rears are probably fine though

[MikeDundee]

I did'nt do the rears as EBC do not do rear discs for the omegas, only front. But rears are available but I have'nt come across them on any websites or mags. But courteney sport do them, based in Norwich.

[theolodian]

I must admit there are times when my Omega's brakes are less than inspiring.  I've been wondering about upgrading them, as I think the 2.0 rotors are 280mm items, compared to 290 on the V6 models.  I have thought about seeing if Hi-Spec or someone like that would be able to supply 315mm items, ideally with a four pot caliper.  Rears are probably fine though

I am thinking about looking for stock discs off of another car that would be a little larger but still fit and move the calipers out on a small bracket.  I am not worried about the rears.  It is all sort of OK for daily driving, but not confidence-inspiring.  I would certainly be unhappy at the 'ring, even just goofing around and taking it easy.  I guess no one has tried this on an Omega?

On other cars I have run various combinations of performance pads, drilled rotors, and slotted rotors.  I have also had 330mm floating rotors with large 4-piston calipers (70K and pads less than half worn, discs perfect).  Drilled rotors should be chamfered but can still crack.  Slotted are ok if done with a ball endmill or decent corner radius.  In the end, anything will crack.  Best you can do is big, good metal, and floating.  Everything has its use, but I am very sure about what I want as described in the paragraph above.  

[theolodian]

The discs look like 290mm, and looks like they'd fit under 15" wheels.  I have 16's and it looks like there is enough room for 315mm rotors under there.  Now to find some that might fit the hub . . . . it may be a looong time until I have more info on this  

Btw, mini-facelift 2000 Elite 3.0 and non-vented rears.  Would have been nice, but not worth messing with.

[Omega-MV6]

Try www.potn.com.. it's a Mod site, and they have the upgraded rear rotors for the Omega, also the 3G Front Rotor pair, and obviously EBC Stuff too.There are some good Brake upgrades on that site.

Cheers.

Matt