Need advice: A remedy for poor brakes on my 2006 Maruti Baleno

The stock brakes are just there because a car needs brakes. I always felt they were inadequate and they still are.

BHPian ron_9191 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have been living with my 2006 Baleno VXi for about 17 years as my primary car and if there are two things I could change on it, one of them would be the brakes and the other would be a gearbox with better ratios by retaining the second and the third gears.

Lets talks about the brakes. The stock brakes are just there because a car needs brakes. I always felt they were inadequate and they still are. It always reminds me of a sustain pedal from a piano. All I am doing is sustaining the speed than stopping the car. And after trying out many other modern cars, I felt the need to stop in time and that mean I needed better brakes to start with.

I have been searching the interweb for options but I now know that I need some amount of expert advice.

My plan is to go for a better set of brakes than the current setup which is mostly discs in the front and drums in the rear. I am planning to go with discs on all the 4. Particularly, move the current discs to the rear and go for bigger discs on the front. The car currently runs a 15 inch alloy and I am planning a future upgrade to a 16 inch. Requesting all the petrolheads here to help with your suggestions.

Here's what BHPian sagarpadaki had to say on the matter:

Are you able to lock up your wheels at say 60kmph when you apply sufficient force on the brake pedal? If yes you need better tyres and not better brakes.

If you are not able to lock up the wheels at around 60kmph,then look for semi metallic brake pads. They will offer better coefficient of friction which translate into better brakes. It is suggested you go for new rotors or turn your existing rotors if they are thick enough

Here's what BHPian Kosfactor had to say on the matter:

Replace the rotors and pads, rear drums , wheel cylinders, liners etc inspect \ service the full brake system, hand brake cable etc.

Now if your tyres are in good condition, the brakes should work just like a brand new car.

Here's what BHPian balenoed had to say on the matter:

I drive a 19 year old Baleno with close to 2L kms on ODO and have myself driven more than half of those kms.

Trust me, the brakes are the least thing that I would complain about. I have never even thought that it had a problem until seeing this post. And honestly, I never crashed because of a poor brake.

So, are you sure it is the brake assembly that is the problem and planning to do this complete modification? And is it worth to do on such an old car? I’d rather spend it on some cosmetic changes - new paint, skirting, creative head lamps and make the car a stunning one.

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