Falcon BA XLS ute Brakes

[ED77]

Hi, I was referred here by another member after I asked the following question on another forum. From this person told me, this would be the right place to ask them! I hope it's ok.


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First, a little background information on the car, if you're not interested, just skip to "my questions are"!

I drive a 2003 Falcon BA XLS (LPG), the car is not equipped with ABS and I use it mostly to take my race bike to and from the track other than running the odd errands here and there. I only did 16.000 kms on it since I bought it a couple of years ago!! I don't abuse it at all, I hardly ever speed. The heaviest load it has to carry is a 160Kg race bike + gear... so maybe 250kg max! The car is well maintained and despite showing 160K on the odometer it has had all the services done on time and the logbook (and overall condition of the vehicle) reflects that.

The problem is, since I bought it, the brakes have always give me grief. They'll shudder like crazy and then fade REALLY easily (yes, I had the fluid flushed/replaced at least once a year). On one occasion, one of the brake hoses let go and next thing I knew I had no brakes and the brake pedal didn't return after I pressed it. Thank God it happened whilst parallel parking.

I took the car to a mechanic and he installed a new hose and told me I would need new brake pads soon. That was like 8.000km ago... but, because the brakes sucked so much, I figured I'd just wait for the pads to finish, ditch the OEM setup and then replace the whole thing for something decent.

My questions are :

1- What should I replace the current brakes with? From what I read, most ppl seem to recommend DBA rotors over RDA but there was no consensus on what model (i.e. 4000 etc) or pads to use with them. Can you guys point me in the right direction?

2- Do I need to replace both front and rear rotors at the same time and do they need to be of the same model and use the same model pads? The reason I ask is because I don't even know if I'd benefit from using something like DBA's 4000 series, so I was wondering if I should/could use 4000s on the front and just standard DBAs on the rear? Would that be ok or even recommended?

3- Can anyone recommend a good/cheap place in Sydney to provide me with a decentsetup? I'm not very familiar with the whole car scene (like I said, I race bikes... please don't hold that against me! ) so I'm not sure what's out there. However I won't be racing/track daying or even driving this car in anger at any point in time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you!

Ed"