Brakes

[Duex Lexi]

I'm looking to replace the entire brake system. I know it is a heavy car and made for luxury but I want more of an abrupt stop. My car seems to gradually but slowly stop. This causes me to hit the brakes early. Any suggestions would be great.

[Exhaustgases]

They are normally used to stop and slow down the car. And great spelling since most people don't know how to spell it.

They use BREAKS, that is a restful type of deal.

[Duex Lexi]

thanks bob i edited the post to give more information

[landar]

Justin, the LS400 has some pretty 'beefy' brakes right from the factory. You may not need to replace the entire brake system.

I would start by examining and replacing pads, first on the front (which do the "heavy lifting") then on the rear.

Examine not only the brake pads but also the flexible hoses and calipers. Perhaps the hoses are partially collapsed or blocked? Perhaps a caliper is sticking. It will usually pull to one side. The rotors could be shot. Don't know but possible.

Also, consider your master brake cylinder and the vacuum assist. Perhaps a vacuum hose is leaking which would increase the amount of force required on the brake pedal or maybe the master cylinder is going bad.

Many things to check but to save money, I would focus on these main components. Do the simple things first, then if that has no effect, more onto the others.

Are the brakes 'spongy' at all? Or does the steering wheel vibrate when you step on the brakes?

[sha4000]

Not really much you can do. It's a big and heavy car. You can upgrade the brake lines and choose better pads. Some ppl have upgraded the calipers to the Supra ones but the LS calipers are more than sufficient for the job already. Try flushing the old fluid if it's never been changed.

Edit: I see landar gave very good advice already.

[1990LS400]

95-up LS400 brakes are incredibly good if they are operating properly. Braking hard should seem like throwing an anchor out of the car. You may have a potentially dangerous problem.

90-91 brakes were horrible to the point of dangerous. Only one or two vehicles in Road & Track's "Road Test Summary" had longer stopping distances from 60 and 80 mph and one was the Yugo. I wish I was kidding but I'm serious. Braking in my 1990 LS400 was scary even when it was new. The 90-92 brakes are the ones that some people have upgraded to use brake calipers and discs from the Supra.

92 brakes were improved and slightly better than the 90-91.

93-94 braking was even better largely due to the wider tires.

[VBdenny]

The brakes on my 1990 LS400 were marginal at best. I did increase the tires size to 225/60-15 which I can't really say helped the braking at all. For a car that can go over 150 mph, the brakes were inadequate. My understanding is about the same as our friend from the prairie, that being that a 96 should have pretty aggressive stopping power out of the box. Me? I'd replace the rotors and pads with some good stuff, flush things out and I think you'll be amazed. Rotors and pads both glaze with time. I generally always replace pads when they reach half life because after that point they become so hard they just glaze the rotors.

Pretty cheap and easy fix. If your BRAKE light isn't illuminated, you don't have an issue mechanically.

Denny

[Duex Lexi]

The brake pedal is spongy. I would like to replace the rotors and the pads with quality parts. I had the brake fluids flushed last year when I first had it checked out. Any suggestions?

[landar]

A spongy feel to the brake pedal is not good. In fact, it can be downright dangerous. The first thing you want to do is get the brakes properly bled to remove the air in the brake system. Do that then re-evaluate how well they stop.

Here are some basic procedures to most of your braking needs(these are 90-94 models) -> http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/brake/