Upgrading Breaks On A 93-97 (e10/ae101)

April 24, 2005

Lo all,

I currently have a 1.3 (4E FE) 93-97 type 3 Door 'Rolla with 15" wheels. I'm looking to improve the braking performance and I was woundering if there was another Corolla (or any Toyota) I could source the parts off, rather than going after-market.

Does the 1.8 have the same brakes as the 1.3? What about the model with all of the body kit and colour coded electric mirrors etc (think it was one of the last models GTi maybe?)

I'd also like to know if I could source the ABS kit and how hard it would be to install (I.E the process) and Finally I was woundering about fitting rear calipers (If I put bigger ones on the front could I use my old front ones on the rears?)

Cheers for any advice

Panzer

April 25, 2005

Any E10 Corolla equipped with 14 inch wheels has the same 255 mm front brakes. To go with bigger brakes on a Corolla without going aftermarket, you will have to go with AE101/AE111 Super Strut front brakes, which I've heard is possible to do without changing the whole suspension, but can't confirm this. Knowlson will be the one to ask about a full super strut conversion, as he's done this on his AE111 SR. Being an EE101, your car doesn't have rear calipers, as it has drum rear brakes and not discs. Don't despair, as mine came with the rear drums too. I have since swapped them out for a set of 266 mm rear disc brakes from the AE101/AE102/AE111/AE112 with rear discs. The bespoilered model you refer to is the AE102 GXi, which came with the 255/266 brake combination. The later AE111 G6R and I think the ZZE112 SR came with the rear discs in the UK, too. And yes, you can certainly use your current rear brakes with upgraded front brakes. I've found that the Corolla brake proportioning is less than ideal, as the rear brakes do absolutely nothing... And before anyone counters with the "the front brakes do 85% of the braking..." argument, what I mean is that the front brakes lock up long before the rears do, which is not what a properly proportioned system is supposed to do. The rears are not allowed to do their 15% of the braking. They should be the first to lock, because that allows the driver to maintain some steering capability while braking.

April 25, 2005

Thanks for the info Red, that has helped a lot!

I had always wondered about the difference between normal and SuperStrut.

So If I found a Superstrut model and took the calipers from that how easy would it be to put my current front calipers on the rear axel and replace the drums, what did you have to do exactly?

You mentioned that the fronts lock up before the rears, whats the story with ABS, surely that would compensate for it?

I had my speedo dials out the other day (fitting white dials) and I noticed that there is an ABS warning light its just not connected. I'm assuming therefor that there is a model with ABS but again I have no idea about how it would be fitted.

Thanks again Red.

*Edit* Just thought of something else, if I got the front brakes from a SuperStrut would they fit under my 15" alloys?

Cheers

Panzer

April 26, 2005

ABS is extremely difficult to add later on... there are miles of additional brake tubing required, different valving, different brake master cylinder, brake booster, and a LOT of wiring. And no, it's simply not cost effective to swap discs to the rear from the front. You need the full axle carrier on both sides from the rear in order to do it. Super strut brakes will fit under 15" alloys, as that's what models equipped with super struts came with. Super struts only came on Japanese E10/E11 models. I, too have the white dials from an AE101 Si model (part of it from Germany to fit my LHD car, and part from UK for the mph speedometer).