I had this upgrade in my mind long time ago and I was very lazy to do it... it was mainly intended to be done on dad's car since the days I used to use that car... now that I have acquired my own woo (that turned out to have worn out rotors) I decided to go for the upgrade right away.
as most of you know I am now married so I am pretty much short on cash so I decided to do this upgrade as economic as it can be, I have got used Nubira rotors and pads from a friend as well as buying used 1.6 Lanos front calipers... the intension here was to test fit every thing and make sure the setup is working fine before spending any real money on brand new parts that might turn out to be useless.
I surfaced the Nubira rotors to make them ready for the installation, I know the Nubira rotors got different offset than the Lanos one so I was intending to use spacers to adjust the location of the caliper bracket in relation to the rotor, when trying to fit the rotor I found out it hit the protection shield that is at the back of the rotor... I removed it to make more space but I found out another issue... the rotor's offset is too big (6mm) that it hit the suspension member and was not going to aligned with the hub surface... failure at step one
I figured out that the only way to make this rotor fit is to custom make a ring that sits between the rotor and hub to realigns the rotor in relation to the suspension member but I discarded the idea as this would mess up the distance between the front wheels and put more strain on the wheels bolts... I am upgrading the brakes to get better safety so it is not wise to sacrifice safety elsewhere
I decided to go for 1.6 Lanos used rotors (again for test fitting) as the brand new Aveo rotors - that are typically the same as 1.6 Lanos - cost twice as much as new 1.5 Lanos rotors and a bit less than twice new Nubira rotors... surprisingly the set of rotors that the mechanic got me were in very good condition that they are not even rusted and don't need resurfacing... I got them for less than half the price of brand new ones so it was a good deal after all.
the rotor was fitted with no problems whatsoever... I put back the protection shield and still their was enough space for the rotors to roll freely... also this would mean that the caliper bracket would fit without the need of spacers or anything, actually I was not fond of the spacers idea as I hate to do such (work around) specially when it comes to safety.
I gently rubbed the little rust that was on the friction area of the rotor to avoid squealing noises and loss of grip at the initial test... the rotors were in a very good condition knowing that they were used. During that I compared the caliper from the 1.6 Lanos to the one in the 1.5... It seems they are both interchangeable as the only difference I could visually see is the piston's size... I will have a question about that at the end of my post for you guys.
the brackets were fitted and their was no spacing required at all and I was happy for that... the mechanic scared me of the idea of spacers claming that this might cause too much force on the threading and the studs might get ripped off
...after fitting the caliper I found out one issue... I got a Nubira piston on a Lanos bracket at the left wheel... they are both the same size and measurements but the only difference is the place were the brakes oil hose gets connected to the caliper.
the Lanos hose ends up with a square end and their is kinda stopper on the caliper to prevent it from tilting during suspension movement and this stopper is simply a straight line protrusion at one of the sides that gets aligned with this square end, the Nubira on the other side got circular ends and the stopper is kinda two blocks that holds the metal pipe connecting the ring to the rubber hose... I had to buy a Nubira brake hose to overcome this problem and that hose is some 1.5 inch longer than the Lanos one... I had to use a zip tie to hold the brake line to the suspension member at the bottom to prevent it from rubbing into the wheel in case the steering wheel was at a full lock to the right side.
I installed the pads and bled the system... time for some bedding then a test drive... my first impression was that the brakes pedal wad more movement distance... this is normal and was expected with the OEM master cylinder and the upgraded pistons... the 1.6 Lanos master is 2mm thicker than the Lanos one so their is nothing strange here the bedding process didn't take too long and I started to feel real braking.
aside of the more pedal travel: at normal driving conditions it will not feel any different than the OEM setup but at hard braking it really shows... with the OEM setup their is that point in the pedal were no matter how far you press past it the car will not brake any harder... I sometimes got to almost floor the brakes and not get a wheel lockup... now the more you press the more you brake... kinda feels like driving a car with brakes that actually works
it is a well known issues with our Daewoos here that our brakes suck and that’s why I wanted this upgrade more than anything else and now I am happy that I finally did it... I do need the bigger master to get rid of the extra pedal travel and that will come as soon as I get some money
I have one question regarding the calipers: what if I can fit back the OEM 1.5 calipers on the 1.6 bracket?? Will this affect the braking power? I know it will solve the pedal travel issue but what about power and reliability??... As far as I remember the 1.5 piston is 17mm and the 1.6 is 19mm or so... got any comments on this idea??
MMamdouh
