Just wondering how to increase the power of the totally 'Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me'y stock system without converting to five-lug or doing anything too durastic. Thanks.
Some might say that getting new calipers might help.
I'm not sure here, because I haven't done it myself to know. I do know that my stock brakes were better when they were newer, so there might be something to it.
Some things to improve braking would be more accurate tire pressure. I found that 35 lb was too much. 32 lb worked way better. Car felt more stable too. Another would be to retighten all your front lug nuts evenly (to 80 lb, 90 lb starts digging into the wheel alloy). If you never did this or a shop mount your wheels, then chances are they are way off specs and inconsistent. My fronts were 40-60 lb. My rears were at 70-100 lb. Odd how shops would figure such numbers?! In my opinion, they should all be at 80 lb. I also noticed better braking when I changed to newer tires. The old ones were an unknown brand and had internal defects, so they probably deformed incorrectly on braking (hence diminishing braking effectiveness). Good tires will set you back $500, but then it may be time for new ones? The last that comes to mind is idle speed, but it only affects AODs. If your idle is high, for whatever reasons, it will literally pull the car forward during braking and making it tougher to stop. At one time I drove with an idle problem (old carb, not FI) and tried to keep it from stalling as I approached an intersection. I may have given it a little more gas than I thought (while applying brakes), and man was it a lot tougher to stop! For AODs, lower it as far you can, without getting into idle problems.