[santosh.s]

What I meant was that rear drums could be "adequate" (not necessrily better)... "excessive" braking at rear wheels is undesirable (be it drums or disks), front wheels need to be improved instead. We don't need disks at rear as badly as front wheels. I have given valid reasons why I think so for non- ABS/EBD cars. Why other higher end models prefer disks even at rear is something that I am trying to find out! May be the answer lies in having ABS/EBD, or may be something else. If you know it then please share...

One thing I know is that fishtailing is used to their advantage by skilled racer guys to take real quick turns at high speeds, but that shouldn't be applicable to normal drivers, I suppose! Those people need disks all over.

[santosh.s]

@honda, if you don't believe me then here are a couple of links from the same site as mentioned by viper (it happens to be a company selling brake upgrades!). They have not specifically talked about drum versus disks, but the importance of front and rear brake balance is explained in great detail, they have also expained why it is not all that necessary to upgrade rear brakes.

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...formance.shtml
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...upgrades.shtml

[5u3zEr0]

If you think Rear Drums are better than Disc then please explain why do cars like Skoda, Accord and other cars in their segment have rear Disc....

A small correction, The Octavia does not have rear disc brakes but drums. The Corolla, Elantra have disc brakes.

Santosh.S disc brakes are the standard on most cars abroad and they are definitely better than drum brakes in the rear.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by 5u3zEr0

A small correction, The Octavia does not have rear disc brakes but drums. The Corolla, Elantra have disc brakes.

Santosh.S disc brakes are the standard on most cars abroad and they are definitely better than drum brakes in the rear.

Correction to your correction -

The petrol octavias have rear discs.

cya
R

[santosh.s]

Originally Posted by 5u3zEr0

Santosh.S disc brakes are the standard on most cars abroad and they are definitely better than drum brakes in the rear.

That is a known fact, but that is not enough to say that all disks will always be better. If you think of single brake alone, disk may have more advantages over drums than disadvantages. But for a whole system of 4 wheels, it is most important to have right front to rear bias. When manufacturers put disks on all wheels, they must be doing all the analysis required and come up with optimum bias. But when you are replacing stock drums by disks, you can not blindly say that its going to be better. See the first link in my previous post, the last figure (figure 7) explains how braking distance can be increased due to too much of bias either towards front or rear. How do you make sure that you are not spoiling your braking distance, though you are sure that you are going for "better" brakes? There is a good chance that after mods, the braking distance becomes more than what it was with inferior stock drums.

[Rehaan]

Very well said Santosh.s,

What seems better in theory might not always work out better in reality.

Thats why i asked Turboindia this. (still waiting for a reply btw...)

cya
R

[Ford Rocam]

Ya it has to be effective or else no point lets wait for turbo india's reply infact it should be tested with gtech pro if possible.

[Rehaan]

No doubt that when set up correctly it will be more effective that drums at the rear, but its not just as simple as throwing them on and then seeing a greatly improved braking performance.

Hopefully turboindia can share if he had any teething problems while getting them set up right, and also whether they made a 5% difference or a 50% difference.

I guess a simple way to get it right would be to have a simple bias valve (basically a tap on the line to the rear brakes) and tweak it whilst testing.

cya
R

[5u3zEr0]

Correction to your correction -

The petrol octavias have rear discs.

Thanks for correcting me, Rehaan and this is surprising. Why the hell does Skoda short change the Diesel, then??

@ Santosh.s : You have a good point there. Did not think of it with respect to aftermarket upgrade to rear discs.

[turboindia]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Very well said Santosh.s,

What seems better in theory might not always work out better in reality.

Thats why i asked Turboindia this. (still waiting for a reply btw...)

cya
R

Hey sorry guys. Was a bit tied up.

OK so on my Honda city the rear disks made atleast a 15% difference. OK and the difference was the most in high speed braking. I had got the whole kit that comes on the City TYPE II in Thailand and that included the bias valve. I remember them telling that the percentage of pressure send to the front and the rear for a car with the drums and one with the disks were different and hence the valve had to be changed. This was not an adjustabe one so we did not get to tweak it.
Overall the car just did brake much better especially when we were pushing it hard.

Unfortunately I dont have any images of the install,

Hope this helps