Hi all, just wanted to throw my two cents in on the TSX brake upgrade. I bought my rotors, calipers and brakes off RockAuto and they fit perfectly. If I think about it and can find them, I will link the specific parts I bought, though my guess is that any will work/fit - I didn’t go off anyone else’s purchase list.
It’s pretty tight around the inner rim of the wheel, but, as others have said, there is clearance and I’ve had no issues after driving it for a couple of weeks now. The only modification I had to do (as you’ll read in every DIY write up of this project I’ve seen), is dremel or bend off an inch or two of the metal guard around the back of the brake area.
The other slightly tricky part that I had either forgotten or never seen, was that the TSX’s calipers sit on the front side of the wheel rather than the back side like the element’s. This isn’t always an issue - I have heard of some calipers that are sold left/right interchangeable without bleeding issues. That may be the case with these, but I did have issues bleeding mine until I switched them over so that the bleeder valve is sitting toward the top of the caliper. If you follow the labels, the valves are on the bottom and gravity/buoyancy seems to prevent a full bleed. [I may have also not had the brake hose connector bolt not screwed on tight enough too, so take all this with a grain of salt.]
My brake fluid was pretty old and the pedal was pretty spongy before, so it’s hard to tell how much of an improvement this upgrade brings on its own. But compared to what I had been driving with, these feel much more grippy. I’m also working on buying a trailer hitch soon for pulling small loads, so I’m sure they will help there too. Just with the element fully loaded I felt it was a little under-braked to begin with. Happy modding folks!
