Looking for opinions on braking for the Fiesta ST MK7

[PTPTRafa]

Hi, im Rafa

Looking for opinions on what shoud i buy braking wise for the fiesta st mk7, im not a track guy, (can´t afford it), i use my car on the back roads just to have some fun, but i feel that my brakes dont hold on very good.
Hope you guys can help me out with that, looking for opinions on brake disks, brake pads, brake calipers, brake fluid, and other recomendations.

My car is completely stock:


Thanks.

 

[Capri to ST]

One thing to check is which OEM brake pads you have. At least in the US, there were two OEM brake pad options on new cars. If your car came with the optional all-season tires, it also came with lower performance lower dusting brake pads. If your car came with the standard higher performance summer Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tires, then it came stock with higher performing higher dusting brake pads. If you have the lower performing pads, then switching to the higher performing ones should provide a lot of extra braking power.
They came with my car when I bought it new because it also came with the summer performance tires, and when I had to replace the brake pads I specifically made sure the shop ordered the higher performance pads. I like them a lot and they provide a lot of braking power, which is what you are looking for.
I don't have a part number, but other people may be able to chime in with that.
Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

 

[PTPTRafa]

Hi thanks, for the opinion, the braking is good the thing that is happening is that the brakes get very hot and start to fadigue.
My tires are the michelin pilot sport 5 in all four wheels.

Thanks again.

 

[WannabeST]

Hi thanks, for the opinion, the braking is good the thing that is happening is that the brakes get very hot and start to fadigue.
My tires are the michelin pilot sport 5 in all four wheels.

Thanks again.

Have you changed your fluid recently?

Once you put fresh motorsports fluid, brake pads and lines you should be set to tackle almost anything short of an endurance race.

If you are over heating your brakes before your PS5 tires, you are most likely over using the brakes.

 

[WannabeST]

My personal setup is oem brake lines and etc.
Castrol SRF fluid (comes factory in many GT3 cars and supercars)
and Hawk HPS compound (street compound)
This is plenty for the car. I do lots of mountain driving and this setup has also gotten me multiple time attack podiums.
My braking system is also much smaller than yours there for it gets hot faster.

Once you have good fluid and pads. You should be able to achieve glowing rotors like this with little to no fade. My rotors have been glowing multiple times. On or off the track and I experience slim to no brake fade. I usually felt my tires (200tw) overheating and then afterwards would realize my brakes were glowing.

 

[Downsy]

Previous owner put EBC sloted rotors and Hawk 5.0 pads on my 16 ST. I've noticed no fade on spirited back road driving, but it is winter time here. Also even when the brakes are cold if I want to stop right now, it can.

 

[Stubborn Approach]

I agree with everyone that fresh fluid & pads does a great job on most vehicles but I also feel that the torque vectoring system does tax the braking system in a canyon road environment, especially in sport/normal mode. My street rated pads would overheat long before the tires, but the pads that I use on track do not ever come close to overheating before the tires do.

So I would add that pad compound is critical & I don’t have any recommendations for OP in that category because my street setup overheats even with a LSD installed in sport mode and you wouldn’t want to DD my track setup. Trying out the aggressive OEM pads for a street setup is what I plan to do next time.

 

[FlordPerformance]

A set of dimpled/slotted or drilled/slotted rotors will set you back 200.00 USD Pair, then add in some Powerstop carbon Fiber/ceramic pads another 80.00 USD for the full set.. done.

 

[WannabeST]

A set of dimpled/slotted or drilled/slotted rotors will set you back 200.00 USD Pair, then add in some Powerstop carbon Fiber/ceramic pads another 80.00 USD for the full set.. done.

I wouldn’t recommend drilled rotors. You get less surface area which makes the job of stopping harder for your pads. Minimizing the surface area also gives you less thermal capacity.
plus drilled rotors cause too many hot and cold spots on rotors. It is very easy to get them to crack. I have seen people be stranded at the track or had a very sketch drive home because of this scenario.
blank rotors are best for the majority of drivers.
but slotted rotors can be beneficial for a few.

 

[WannabeST]

I agree with everyone that fresh fluid & pads does a great job on most vehicles but I also feel that the torque vectoring system does tax the braking system in a canyon road environment, especially in sport/normal mode. My street rated pads would overheat long before the tires, but the pads that I use on track do not ever come close to overheating before the tires do.

So I would add that pad compound is critical & I don’t have any recommendations for OP in that category because my street setup overheats even with a LSD installed in sport mode and you wouldn’t want to DD my track setup. Trying out the aggressive OEM pads for a street setup is what I plan to do next time.

I honestly forgot about traction control/ stability type systems. that did used to demolish my pads on my Mustang. After killing two sets of pads in one day. I just drive it with all assists disabled, it’s been so long I forgot they existed lol.

 

[Stubborn Approach]

I honestly forgot about traction control/ stability type systems. that did used to demolish my pads on my Mustang. After killing two sets of pads in one day. I just drive it with all assists disabled, it’s been so long I forgot they existed lol.

Even with the TVS supposedly turned off in Forscan (my ESC button doesn’t do anything now) I could feel the TC side of things kicking in during those wet morning sessions in cotton corners out at Buttonwillow last month. I wish we could turn it off fully on these cars without pulling the ABS fuse but we don’t get that luxury on the FiST, so that makes it hard to forget it exists.

 

[WannabeST]

Even with the TVS supposedly turned off in Forscan (my ESC button doesn’t do anything now) I could feel the TC side of things kicking in during those wet morning sessions in cotton corners out at Buttonwillow last month. I wish we could turn it off fully on these cars without pulling the ABS fuse but we don’t get that luxury on the FiST, so that makes it hard to forget it exists.

My fiesta and mustang both had a similar issue. My solution in both was to pull the traction control fuse. In the mustang it only disables traction control so that works out perfect. In my fiesta, the abs and traction control are tied together, so I had to lose ABS to fully disable traction/stability control.