Hi all,

Bought an STI yesterday and absolutely love it just one question though are the brakes meant to be really sharp as soon as you touch the pedal or have you got to push really hard to get it to stop. My Z4M Coupe were very powerful without pushing too hard. Surely Brembos all round should give you a confident powerful feel when you push the pedal. The cars only done 12,000 miles so I'm sure it does not need discs or pads yet.

 

for the better pedal feel fit some braided brake lines

... also depends on what pads you are running.

 

The BMW will have over servoed brakes in comparison.

Hairdressers probs cant press the pedal that hard................!

 

Yes thought it might be the servo. Might try the braided hoses. Is it worth doing? Yes BMW do like powerful servos.

The wifes going to drive it so wouldn't mind them a bit better.

Pads must be original as it's such low mileage

 

The over-braid prevents the flexi hose from bulging, thus keeping a lot more hydro pressure in the lines and so delivers more pressure to the piston/pad interface and therfore, ultimately, more clamping pressure on pad/disc interface...

 

Thanks will look into replacing them with braided hoses. Bit disappointing though. Thought the brakes would have felt so different to my bugeye WRX but to me it still feels like they're a bit weedy.

 

The Impreza brake system is well known for being inherently ineffective.

Only bigger calipers (more pots) and larger discs/better pad compound can mask its inherent weaknesses (i.e. the greater the clamping area/more leverage are the 2 most influentual things for better braking performance).

 

They really need to have a chat with BMW on how to do brakes. Calipers was just an opposing piston on a 1660kg car and still stopped well

 

Yeah, to be fair, the basic system still has its roots from 1992! As we know, tyre and brake technology has moved on apace since then, and continues to do so.

That said though, they are crap compared to other marques' contemporary braking systems of the time (bearing in mind the car's performance!)