My Upgraded Brake Setup (ST185, ST204, AT200 components) Options

[Coomer]

I've had some people ask me, so here it is...my notes on my recent (well, at the time I wrote this, it was recent ) brake upgrades.

Front Setup
Stock AT200 spindles/hubs and backing plates
OEM ST185 single-piston calipers, caliper brackets, and unknown pads
Brembo ST185 OEM-replacement rotors (part number 25440)
Stock AT200 brake lines

Rear Setup
Stock AT200 spindles/hubs
OEM ST185 backing plates
OEM ST185 internal e-brake components
OEM ST185 e-brake cables
OEM ST185 single-piston calipers
Satisfied ST185 ceramic brake pads
Brembo ST204 OEM-replacement rotors (part number 25162 I think...may have been 25163)
OEM AT200 front brake lines

For the front, the rotors do not fit without modification. The AT200 hub has a center bore that's 54.something mm, 1mm larger than the ST185's center bore. The rotors will slide on, but they won't go all the way flush against the hub, which is how they need to be. I used a drill with a round sanding bit and bored out the rotors. I think it took approximately ten minutes per rotor. Once I did that, the rotors slid on perfectly. Then the caliper and caliper bracket bolt right up. The stock brake lines do get pulled fairly tight if you bolt them to the strut using the factory short bolt. I found a longer bolt and used several spacers between the strut and the brake line mounting tab to give the brake line more slack. This is a temporary fix, as I'm going to get ST204 stainless steel brake lines soon.

For the rears, the ST185 backing plates with the internal e-brake components bolt in just fine. I used the ST185 e-brake cables, with mounted up to the bottom of the car just fine. I do believe I used the cable splitter (that hooks the single cable from the e-brake handle to the two seperate e-brake cables) from the ST185, but I can't remember for sure.

Once the backing plates and internal e-brake components are on, I mounted the rotors and adjusted the e-brake mechanisms so that the rotors locked up equally. The rotors go on just fine. Once the rotors were on, the calipers went right on as well and bolt up just fine. I didn't have the ST185 brake lines, so I used some front AT200 brake lines from a parts car, which work just fine.

I don't abuse my brakes enough (well, at all typically) to notice a huge difference, but my car does stop plenty well, and the few times I've been on high speed canyon road runs I've had no problems whatsoever. If you've got questions, just ask...hopefully this thread will be helpful.

By the way, here are a couple pics...the front is from a few days ago, after a couple thousand miles on the brakes. The rear is from a while ago, and now the calipers are painted yellow (the same shade as the car.)

Attached image(s)

 

[Coomer]

The ST185 single piston calipers and larger rotors are supposedly a better performing option than the ST165 dual piston calipers and smaller rotors. I had both sets of calipers and rotors and chose to go with the larger, supposedly better performing option.

From what I've heard, some early ST185s came with the dual piston calipers and smaller rotors, probably because Toyota had leftover calipers and wanted to use them up. My single piston calipers are actually from a JDM ST185.

And Batman, the ST185 and ST204 brakes, both front and rear, are very, very similar from what I've read. I doubt there's any performance difference between them at all.