What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - Crainy77
Hi,im hoping somebody on here can help me.Im having the discs & pads changed on my Celica GT 190 2005 due to them driving me mad.What i wanted to know is,can i fit bigger discs without having to mess about having the callipers changed?,im looking at some EBC discs,front is 274mm & the rear 269mm,but i dont know if it can just be a straight swap for the standard ones on my car?,i can do the basic jobs on my car,but i leave brakes etc to a mate.
Any advice i can receive from the knowledgeable people on here will be really appreciated.
Cheers guys.

Gary
Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - gordonbennet

Usually, no, the standard discs will be clearing the inside of the caliper by a couple of mm only, and the pads are designed to fit the disc correctly, if you could get a bigger disc in the chnaces of bigger correct pads fitting is remote and you'd only end up with a wider wear lip.

Why is the present set up driving you mad?

In my experience these fancy named brake materials are same as fancy named handbags, massive incomes for the basically same product that you would get if you bought a well known make, if you're going for drilled/grooved you might not like the effect and they tend to crack up around the drillings over time.

I usually buy Mintex pads/discs in sets online from a place in Cheltenham, superb prices and always do the job they are supposed to, probably 1/3rd or 1/2 the price of the ones you are considering, other makes are available.

Are you track daying the car so need something that can stand repeated cooking?, in which case ignore the above.

Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - Crainy77
Hi,thanks for your reply.I want to change them because when i brake at the min the pedal is really spongy & i get a noise like a rusty old spring on a matress,thats the only way i can describe the noise!!..,its not the usual squeeling or rubbing,and with regards to the spongy pedal,i have tried bleeding the brakes,but still no joy...,there are loads left on the disc & pads,but ive read on forums that the celica is known for having rubbish brakes & to upgrade them if poss.Im at a bit of a loss of what to do really,im not skilled enough with cars to do it myself so im relaying everything i read to my friend who is going to do the work,i cant afford to take them to a garage to be done.I took it to Kwikfit a while back who said it didnt need disc & pads & that they had just greased up the calliper to see if that worked,but if not the pin would need filing down??...,thats all double dutch to me though.
Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - gordonbennet

I suspect the caliper sliders are sticking/seizing and possibly the pistons themselves, KF maybe greased the slider pins in the hope it would allow free movement and they probably are thinking that filing down the slider pin would allow it to do its job...thats what i think but might be a long way off their thoughts.

Maybe the pads are a poor aftermarket copy and a too tight fit in the caliper, squeal is often caused by high frequency vibrations of the pad backing material against the caliper, either vibrating against the piston or the edge of the pad steel backing plate where it rests against the caliper.

Its possible there are anti vibration shims for this if its a known problem for the car, alternatively the odd dab of Coppaslip at the points mentioned often shuts things up too, but don't get carried away with Coppaslip, lubing of pistons and sliders needs proper silicon brake grease which won't damage rubber seals and dust covers..

The most expensive Gucci discs and pads in the world won't cure a seizing caliper or slider, nor a spongy pedal (which might be linked to seizing calipers anyway) unless you're current discs and pads are showing signs of serious wear they might be quite serviceable, but seizing sticking calipers tend to lead to uneven wear and nasty wear grooves in the discs in short order.

You have to use some judgement when reading forums, specific sporty vehicle forums sometimes have sponsors, and the sponsor's products tend to get mentioned regularly as the be all and end all in improving your car, one such forum is always endorsing a certain remap/tuning house, it works on the younger lads but they overegg the pudding somewhat and its soon clear to older or maybe more cynical people whats going on.

You might find you are spending good money for no effect here, the car needs an old school mechanic who believes in lubing parts that need lubing to investigate whats going wrong here, even if it seems terribly out of time these days when many garages idea of a brake service is to peer through for from behind the wheel and squirt brake cleaner in the general direction of the brakes, its utterly pointless.

If you don't know what you are doing, you should find someone who does to bleed the brakes with you, nothing wrong with not knowing how things work, none of us did when we started out, find someone competent and friendly to do the job with you helping and hopefully you'll pick it up as you go along.

A Haynes manual would be a good purchase for you.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/12/2015 at 13:05

Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - Crainy77
Your advice has been really informative & MUCH needed!!!.....,i will start with trying to find somebody who has been doing cars for more than 18mths,(KF) and take it from there.
I really appreciate your time on this,fingers crossed i can find someone half as honest as you to take a look at the brakes for me.
Toyota Celica 190 GT - Changing discs on Celica 190 2005 - gordonbennet

You're very welcome, hope you get it sorted, look after it a nice car indeed.

One other thing, the noise you descibe sounds more like metal to metal contact than normla brake squealing, has someone put a pad in the wrong way round or do you have a worn out pad at the back so down to the metal..indeed i have had a car in before where the pad had dropped out and the car was braking on the piston, which resembled a small boys baseball cap...don't leave it long to get it looked at, cheers.

And by the way, polite posters are always very welcome here..:-)) so welcome.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/12/2015 at 13:29