Are you going to school to be a mechanic? I have a lot a respect for anyone who attempts to work on their own cars, so there are no stupid questions. We all had to learn at sometime. Most of us that do all our own work find successfull "work arounds" to avoid ever having to go to a dealer service dept, unless there is a warrenty.

 

DickBee7631:
I have done hundreds of brake jobs in the past 40 years, and recently on my Crossfire. You do not have to remove the brake lines to do a pad job front or rear. If you're familiar with standard practices involving brake jobs, the Crossfire poses no different challenges.
BTW I used Posi-Quiet Pads front and rear with excellent results, thanks to Lantana TX for the recommendation. Used the G2 caliper paint kit with great results too. (red)
Cheers
Paul

 

I thought I read somewhere in the forum that someone had to drill a hole in the the pads for some sensor? Does that make any sense? I plan to install Rotex Gold when my car needs pads. I will also install slotted rotors at that time and then will have the OEM rotors turned by a shop assuming they still meet specs. That way, the next time I need pads, I'll have "fresh" rotors to install.

 

DickBee7631:
The Posi-Quiet pads I got had the senors holes drilled already.
Not sure about the Rotex Golds. Easy to do if needed though.
If you have not bought the pads and rotors yet, I would consided the savings of the Posi-Quiets. And don't go to "SwissCheese" on the rotors,
although it looks good, it weakens them to a fault.

Paul

 

No drilling with Posi-Quiet ceramic pads. They are all predrilled just like OEM replacements and the front AND rear pads come with anti-squeal shims. Not sure Rotex comes with front a rear shims. Some of us on here have tried Posi-Quiet and love them. Dust is no issue. Your car will car will be filthy before your wheels will be. You can also do all four wheels for the price of just Rotex fronts. Posi Quiets are made by the same company that makes Stoptech rotors and big brake kits, as well as Axxis brake pads, and Centric Rotors. You should give them a try.

 

Great tips...Thank you! I'm filing a copy of this so I can order the pads at a later date.

 

By "swiss cheese" do you mean grooved and drilled? Do you recommend a brand or make?

 

When I was selling brake kits, I suggested plain or slotted only. Drilled and slotted gives more bling but drilled rotors are like cheese graters to your pads and there is always worries about cracking. I would stay away from drilled and go with slotted only or plain. Centric makes some nice rotors for our cars and can be found on Ebay. Ebay user "Rotorworks" sells these rotors as well as having the best price on Posi-quiet Ceramic pads. Posi Quiet also makes metalic pads which cost even less. Be sure you get the Ceramic pads.

 

I would say that this rotor:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...spagenameZWD1V

is WAY to drilled, if you have 60+ holes in your rotor, you've gone a bit overboard IMHO. Half that should give a nice look without compromising the integrety of the rotor. This is more like it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chrys...spagenameZWD1V

Surface slots aren't as critical to the structure as holes, but you still don't want to take to much of the mating surface away either.

I didn't change out my rotors this time, so I can't recommend a brand, again just use good judgement when choosing between style and function.

Lantana TX said it best, Centric makes a very nice rotor, sold at Rotoworks, I bought my pads from them.
Swirling slots only, with NO holes drilled is the strongest, and still has the style.

Paul

 

Thank you so much for the helpful response. I'll definitely check out Rotorworks for pads and rotors.

 

Based on your recommendation I went with the Posi-Quiet pads. I am very pleased with the pads. Very little dust. However, I will say that on occassion when I back up and hit the brakes, I get a fierce squeal.

The Rotex pads I put on my first XFire did not have the hole drilled and the installer had to drill one. It bothered me that the Rotex pads didn't come as a direct replacement with being modified.

 

I just read some other feedback on the Benz forums and someone else said they had an ocational squeel when braking in reverse. That seems kind of strange. I have also heard some Rotex users complain about some noise. Could be caused in either case by the differences in the condition of the rotors and if the pad grease was used maybe. As long as my car stops great, quietly, with clean wheels while going forward, I am pretty happy.

 

Hi, Further to the earlier valuable coments on this subject; the calipers can be painted without removing them from the car. Just use a little wire brush to clean them up first and use one the many brush-on heat resistant paints available for this job. To remove the calipers from the car is easy and allows more detailed cleaning and of course pad change over, BUT there is no need to disconnect the brake pipes! Simply suport the calipers on something so that they are not hanging on the flexible brake hose. To bleed the braking system is a big job which will be need to be done at all four wheels, needing a certain level of skill, and a brake bleeding kit. Hope this helps, I'm an experienced motor engineer and have been involved in racing car preparation for some years, I'm pleased to offer any input to our members problems of questions about our Xfires !

 

Yeah, I go to Universal Technical Institute in Exton, PA. Working towards sponsorship by BMW into their STEP program, Mercedes for their ELITE program, or Jaguar into their PACE program. Every class I bring my car into the garage to do something as simple as a fuel injector pulse on an o-scope everyone crowds around my car. I gotta show it off, although there's so many retards out there that don't know the difference between a Chrysler Crossfire and a Saturn Skye.

I got into it after seeing the school on the Speed Channel and figured I'd check it out. I've worked so much on Jeeps lifting them, I figured I'd learn about the rest of the auto. When I traded in the Rubi for the XFire, now it's just a show off thing. I get told a lot I'm too young to be having a mid life crisis.

In doing my own brakes on the lift I had so many people offering to help but I'm so paranoid about my baby (And the Skye remarks) I let no one touch, I mean no one. But I still like to show it off. If only I had an SRT.....

 

When I traded in the Rubi for the XFire, now it's just a show off thing. I get told a lot I'm too young to be having a mid life crisis.

This is the first winter I have been without a jeep. I have had a cherokee, wrangler, and a Grand. I didn't lift the grand but I thought about it. My family is friends with the guys at Burnsvilleoffroad.com. They put the lift in the cherokee you should check them out if your into jeeps, ohh and SRT8, and SRT10 wranglers lol

 

I'm happy with the Posi-Quiet pads, I figured there may be some kind of seating adjustment that is taking place to marry up the rotor and pads. It was pretty cool here today and no squeal when backing up and hitting the break. So who knows....