Converting Rear Drums to Discs on an EG Honda Civic

Hi All,
I currently own a 1995, 1.5 litre, 4 Door, EG, Honda Civic and I am
looking into replacing the rear drums with discs and I was wondering:
- What Parts I would require to do this?
- What sort of labour would be involved?
- If there would be any difference in braking performance?
Regards,
Michael

 

i wrote about the swap here.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.autos.makers.honda/msg/b5ab135b36d1a9f7?hl=en

performance? with the big fronts as well, stops on a dime with no fade.
if you're doing just rears, better fade resistance & [maybe] slightly
more linear stopping force, but the serious braking is still done up front.

 

not worth it. especially for a 1.5l 4 door.

 

Thanks for the info jim beam & SoCalMike.

The main reason why I am looking into the conversion is because I hate
adjusting the drums every 10,000km and the last service I did I think
the brake material was slighty thinner and over the 10,000km it has
created a lip on the drum surface making it very difficult to remove
and re-install the cover when adjusting them and also I get a false
adjustment.

I also think the car does to much braking at the front and it needs
more proportiong to the back to make it fell better. i.e the car brakes
nicely when I first adjust the rear drums but give it a few thousand
km's and it feels like crap.

I thought it would be quite a simple opperation as the australian spec
vti came with rear discs so I thought I could just get the parts off
that and put them on, correct me if I am wrong.
ML

 

are you currently running after-market brake pads/shoes? i know some of
us tend to sound like "honda-only" blow hards on this forum, but brake
linings are one thing i have a strong opinion on, especially as i used
to live in san francisco, and quickly discovered just how bad some
brands of pad material fade.

if you feel there's too much front/rear differential, i'd definitely
suspect that the front pads have a slightly different friction
coefficient to the rears. honestly, switching to oem front or rear will
cost no more than a $5 premium here in the u.s., so the saving of
non-oem is just /not/ worth it. honda brakes resist fade very well, are
quiet, resist dust and don't scrape up the disk/drum.

regarding drum adjustment, you should not be having to do that by hand.
honda are self-adjusting. if the mechanism is not working, it's
either assembled wrong or is fouled up in some way, for example, using
anti-sieze on the threads on the adjuster mechanism increases friction
just too much for the very small force the adjuster exerts.

regarding the lip, again, that points to non-honda brake material. i've
had hondas with over 200k on them, oem brakes, and the lip is
negligible. others, less mileage, the drums scored & badly worn.
normally, drum brake shoes last well over 100k miles as their usage is
so low. the drum /should/ be ok. if not, you may need to replace. you
could likely get a pair from a junk yard in good shape, clean everything
up and start again.

the aduster mechanism is very effective. when working, you can hear it
click each time it ratchets. after you do the brakes, reassemble, then
pump the brake repeatedly. each time you release, it should click. if
it doesn't, you have one of the problems described above.

regarding rear disk conversion, sure, it's not too bad a job. if you
want to do it, do it! typically though, the junk yards charge a premium
for that stuff. afaik, the disk rears are the same for civics &
integras. i have integra. personally, i wouldn't bother without the
bigger fronts, and you need to have 14" wheels for those - suddenly the
job starts getting much more expensive than a pair of newer drums, a
couple of cans of brake cleaner fluid, a sunny afternoon & a set of
honda brake linings...

 

:

Almost always assembled wrongly.

A little anti-seize actually HELPS where I live.

It also points to rust. In my neck of the woods, it is unavoidable that you
will get a rust ridge that locks the drum onto the shoes. The only way of
preventing this is to remove the drums every year and sand/chip/grind that
ridge off. If you do not do this, when removing the drums it will be
necessary to back the shoes off completely to get them under that ridge.

 

Nope.

The rear brakes on a road-going FWD car do about 15-20% of the braking.

Rear discs on a FWD car are there for the brag factor, nothing else.

You can do it if you wish, but you're doing it to make yourself feel
better. There will be no other positive effect resulting from the
conversion.

 

I must agree that the OEM Honda Brake Linings are better. I have had
the aftermarket ones on my car now for 10,000kms and they have killed
my drums. I think I will look into geting some originals on the next
service.