ASR has been offering their AP Racing big brake kit for quite some time now for specific Honda/Acura 4-lug and 5-lug applications. A break down of this kit reveals a BIG thicc n' juicy 299mmx32mm AP Racing J-hook slot design 60-vaned 2-piece floating rotor, AP Racing 4-piston calipers, ASR designed rotor hats with caliper brackets, and respective mounting hardware with shims.
Attack staff member (Joe) purchased this kit almost 2 years ago for his K-swapped 5-lug converted EK civic and we've finally gotten around to installing it. The included instructions/diagram was misplaced or lost so gears started turning for creating this tutorial. We ran into a few hiccups at the beginning but sorted out some technical confusion regarding the proper fitment with the 32mm and 36mm 5-lug application ASR offers. Luckily, we had access to 32mm 5-lug, 36mm 5-lug, and 4-lug knuckle assemblies to cover in this tutorial.
We will have a video tutorial very soon.
Break lug nuts loose (if power tools are not being used).
Safely raise your vehicle up onto jack stands.
Remove wheels.
Remove your existing brake calipers off the knuckle assembly and rest them to the side for the time being.
Remove the brake rotor Phillips screw and completely remove the brake rotors from either side of the vehicle.
The ASR BBK 2-piece rotors are assembled in the same fashion regardless of lug (PCD) pattern. Take one of the rotor rings, one billet hat, and pack of mounting hardware (8 NAS bolts, 8 Jet nuts, 16 washers) and prepare them for assembly.
As shown, orientate the ASR hat on the ring, lining up the 8 mounting holes. Feed each NAS bolt + washers through the 8 holes. Carefully stand the rotor up, and from the backside, place washers on all of the NAS bolts and fasten all Jet nuts on by hand. Tighten all Jet nuts down manually either by using two ratchets or by using a ratchet + power tool until they are all snug. Once snug, go through and torque all rotor hardware to 18ft lbs. Repeat this process for the second rotor.
ASR offers two kits that are based on hub register bore diameter differences that impact rotor centering offset - ASR-BBK-299 (standard kit) and ASR-BBK-299R (R variant kit). The 299 kit has a 64.1mm register supporting 4x100 (32mm axle nut) & 5x114 (36mm axle nut) applications. The 299R kit has a 70.1mm register and is specifically for 5x114 32mm axle nut applications found on 97-01 USDM Integra Type-R DC2R and the JDM 96-00 Civic Type-R EK9 vehicles.
As shown below, the 299 standard kit has a dual PCD lug pattern rotor hat for 4x100 + 5x114 (32mm) 64.1mm register applications and a single PCD lug pattern for the 5x114 (36mm) 70.1mm register applications.
For the 4x100 kit, the included 4x100 hub spacer(s) are placed onto the face of each wheel hub. It's highly recommended to clean the hub face surface before installing the hub spacers. For 5x114-36mm users, disregard this hub spacer as it is not required.
Next, take the ASR caliper bracket and a pair of the included 17mm bolts and prepare to mount them as shown. Orientate the caliper bracket with the etched 'OUTSIDE' facing outwards (towards you). The included shim set are meant to be sandwiched between the knuckle and caliper bracket. These shims help fine tune the centering of the rotor alignment [within the caliper] as hub and knuckle variances differ on everyone's vehicle - there's a chance you might not need to use them, so test fitting IS required.
Rotor centering may require some repeated disassembly/re-assembly of the bracket and caliper, so patience is required! An indicator if the rotor is perfectly aligned is if the brake pads slip easily into place on either side of the caliper with little to no effort. Later, once centering is dialed in and the shims are set, torque the 17mm bolts to 60ft lbs. For now, snug the 17mm bolts firmly.
Take the assembled rotors and place them onto each of the wheel hubs. Use a pair of lug nuts and snug them down to help hold the rotors in place on either side. This helps when installing the calipers since there is no provisions to reuse the OE rotor screws.
Now pre-fit the caliper onto the caliper bracket. Make sure the bleeder screws are facing upwards (facing downwards is incorrect).
As previously mentioned, rotor centering is required and we are at that point now. With the caliper pre-fitted onto the bracket firmly (without the HEX socket bolts in place), take a look at how the rotor is aligned within the caliper's rotor pocket/cutout. Eyeball the gap spacing on either side and determine if shims need to be removed or not to correct the centering. Spacing should look even on both sides. If it looks even-steven, remove the brake pad retaining pin (5mm + 7mm socket drive or box wrench) and try slipping the pads in on either side as a test. If the pads slide in easily, with very little effort, the rotor is centered and good to go. The two big caliper 8mm HEX socket bolts w/washers can now be installed and torqued to 30ft lbs. The pad retaining pin can be torqued to 14ft lbs.
Next, you will connect the brake line to each caliper with the provided banjo bolt and crush washers.
Torque to factory spec: 26ft lbs.
Once both brake lines are reattached, double check all bolts are torqued on both sides of the vehicle then proceed to brake bleeding the vehicle per factory suggested bleed pattern. The AP caliper bleeder valves use a 7/16" box wrench (11mm also works). When bleeding is complete, wipe off any excess brake fluid off the calipers and give the rotor faces a once-over too.
At this point, the installation is complete!
Certain 15" wheels clear the AP calipers without issue, some don't. The bigger the wheel the better the clearances it will probably have. Wheel spoke + barrel design along with offset play a major roll in caliper clearances. For example, we had two sets of 15x8 Volk Racing TE37SL's on hand. One set had a +35 offset and the other a +32 offset. Both required wheel spacers to give a decent amount of spoke to caliper face clearance (a 7-8mm spacer for +35 and a 5-6mm for +32). If these wheels had a +28 offset they would clear without issue.
