For brake pads, Project Mu Club Racers were used. We have always had good luck with Project Mu pads and the CR pads work surprisingly well on the track and don’t dust horribly on the street.
The rear brake pads were also Project Mu CR compound. Remember you need to get the pads for an STI, not a WRX when doing this conversion.
For brake lines, Power Stop DOT approved lines were used. Braided steel lines resist swelling giving you a much better pedal feel. The rubber around the ends of the lines helps the lines pass the DOT whip test that braided steel lines have a hard time passing. The end fittings are crimped in place for long leak-free life and are zinc plated to resist corrosion.
For brake fluid, we chose Motul RBF 600. It has a high wet boiling point and a decent dry boiling point. Before the newer superfluids came out, we used Motul for many years with good results in racing so it will be fine for this mostly street-driven conversion.
Here are the stock front WRX brakes. They are simply pedestrian economy car sliding iron calipers. Nothing cool at all other than that they are on the big side for this size car.
8 comments
aren’t DBA rotors super expensive? like BBK rotor price kinda expensive?
Not the one-piece ones.
For the fronts you have plenty of options like from Centric and it’s child subsidiaries. It’s a standard STi fitment part. DBA is an “OEM plus,” level upgrade.
The rears are of course more tricky. Another option for that is the Kartboy rear brackets (San Diego company, makes all things in-house) , to get to a two pot rear caliper and still keep the dust shield I believe? Going that route nets you not having to buy a special rotor over time.
I’m in the process of piecing together a super budget brake upgrade myself for my VA WRX. I looked at going with OEM STi calipers front and rear but came across a set of brand new Cadillac CTS-V front calipers from a local Chevy dealership for $200 and found a company from that makes brackets to mount them. All in, it should be less than $2,500 front and rear even factoring the rear STi setup. Excited to see how this works out in comparison.
One of my friends has gone this route and he likes how it worked out.
Although not in the same league as the STi brakes, the 2006-2007 WRX had 4-piston front/2-piston rear fixed calipers. The 2002-2005 had the sliding calipers, and the 06-07 package is a popular swap for the earlier years as a mild upgrade.
Love the content and will probably look into getting some used calipers to do this on my 05 Saab 92x Aero! Awesome write up with great details!
Hey I’m driving an Australian delivery 2001 WRX will I have any issues with this upgrade?