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[Dylan]

_{From NASIOC.}

To start, you can put almost any set of Subaru brakes on any other Subaru. If you want WRX brakes on your L or something you pretty much just have to buy some and bolt them on. There are some exceptions, however, mostly relating to the rear, which are explained later on. And also in this thread

Additionally, the 05+ sti has a different bolt pattern (5x114.3 vs 5x100) so those rotors are not compatible with other models.

If your car has rear drum brakes, a disc swap is fairly more involved. I'm not entirely sure on the process but there are more details farther down.

I would also be wary about trying to exchange stuff with the 08s. The rear backing plate is completely different so to the best of my knowledge nothing is interchangeable.

So, if you're wondering what brakes you have and what other brakes are out there, I've made this big list of most of the different brakes found on modern Subarus. The information came from a lot of places like the DBA catalog (click the rotor size for spec sheets provided by DBAsteve), cars101, and various threads/FAQs here and on scoobymods. This is mostly just about US model cars. Generally brakes were the same around the world but there are a few little special exceptions that are linked to later on.

Disclaimer: While I have tried to make this post as accurate as possible, there are some mid year revisions. I also can't be positive all the year ranges listed are correct, especially for pad shapes. In some cases, it is necessary to call a dealership with your VIN number or physically compare parts.

Front Brakes

242x16mm
Smallest Subaru front brakes, found on FWD non-abs Imprezas (93-96). The caliper and bracket are similar to those for early 260mm brakes with a shorter bracket and they use the same pads. These things fit under 13" wheels.
Applications:
93-96 Impreza 2WD.

260x24mm
This is the most common front rotor size before 2000. It was found on many Imprezas and Legacies and uses a single piston caliper and bracket. Somewhere around 96/97 the caliper/bracket/pad design changed. These fit under 14" wheels.
Applications:
90-99 Legacy non-turbo/-GT/-Outback
93-01 Impreza AWD (non RS)

276x24mm
This uses a two piston sliding front caliper and there are three caliper/bracket designs. One for the 91-94 Legacy SS/TW, an early Legacy 2.5GT/Impreza RS bracket (~96-99), and a Later RS/GT bracket (03+). It's possible to exchange some of these calipers onto taller WRX brackets.
Applications:
91-94 Legacy turbo
96-02 Legacy GT/Outback
00-04 Legacy non-GT
98-07 Impreza RS/TS/2.5i
98-02 Forester

294x24mm
295x25.4mm
This is the WRX front rotor. It uses a two piston sliding front caliper or the Subaru fixed 4-pot. The sliding caliper, bracket, and pad were changed in 03 and that's something you need to be aware of when upgrading from RS brakes or purchasing pads. The 4-pots are only on the 06-07 WRX in the US, though they were on many older non-US STis and WRXes (the black calipers with Subaru across them). Generally 16" wheels are required with these brakes but there are some 15" wheels out there that work. Also 16x6.5 Subaru wheels do not clear 4-pots.
Applications:
01 Legacy GT LTD
02-04 Legacy GT
01+ Outback
02+ Impreza WRX (including 08, which uses 2-pots)
03+ Forester
Baja

There are three WRX DBA rotors, here is Steve's description of them from the bottom of this thread:

650 was the original light weight WRX replacement rotor

4000 - Was developed for production car racing with the 4 pot WRX caliper. (before the USA WRX was released). The 1999 to 2001 WRX had a sintered ABS tone ring mounted on the hub so the mounting bell profile could not be altered to suit the USA caliper. This one is for the rest of the world.

4650 - Is a modified 4000 to suit the 2 pot USA WRX caliper. Only the mounting bell shape is different to clear the support bracket on the USA caliper. Still don't know why Subaru spec'd the two pot caliper.....

What that means is the 4000 rotor will not work with the 02-05 brakes, and maybe not on any car with the abs sensor in the knuckle. It would be best to get the 650 or 4650. The 650 is 24mm thick (same as OEM), and the 4650 is 25.4mm thick (mmm.. beefy. Might have to leave out the shims at first).

Added bonus points: This rotor is also available in 5x114.3 to make it possible to swap an 05-07 STi to the subaru 4-pots for rally. Not sure where to find that rotor but I would start with rally shops.


316x30mm
This uses a two piston sliding caliper similar to the other 2-pots, although brackets and calipers aren't compatible between other 2-pots. 17s are required with them.
Applications:
05+ Legacy GT
Tribeca (5x114.3 bolt pattern)

326x30mm (5x100)
326x30mm (5x114.3)
STi rotor that goes with the 4-piston Brembo calipers. There are two rotors, the 04 has a 5x100mm hub bolt pattern, 05+ uses 5x114.3. The calipers all mount the same way so you can attach front Brembos to other Subarus without trouble. There were some changes to the caliper over the years that involved some sort of stiffening, so from what I can tell an 07 caliper would be slightly better than an 04.
Applications:
04+ STi

A note about the SVX:
The SVX has brakes that are about the same size as WRX brakes and the SVX has 5x114.3 hubs. However, up front, the rotor hat offset (how close or far the rotor surface is from the hub) is different from that on other Subarus. The knuckle also locates the caliper bracket in a different position. That unfortunately means that you can't just buy some 05-07 STi brembos or Tribeca brakes or something to upgrade your SVX. I'm pretty sure that in the rear things are compatible with other Subarus.


Rear Brakes

266x10mm
The most common Subaru rear rotor. It uses a single piston sliding caliper, of which there are a few variations. Early Legacy sedans (non-turbo) and Imprezas have a smaller piston than Legacy wagons and turbos, and there are a few bracket/caliper revisions.
Applications:
90-99 Legacies/Outbacks with rear discs non-turbo
93-03 Imprezas with rear discs
04+ non-Sti Imprezas
06+ non WRX or STi imprezas
Foresters with rear discs
Bajas

274x10mm
This rotor is on most 05+ Legacy/Outbacks. The exception is the LGT and probably Outback 3.0R. Parking brake is 170mm, and I'm not sure on compatibility with other models.

286x10mm
08 WRX rear rotor, which uses a 190mm parking brake and 1-pot sliding calipers. I'm not sure on the compatibility with other cars and would like to see if 2-pots bolt up.

290x10mm
This is well known as the H6 rear rotor. The Legacy caliper is the same as most other 99-07 1-pot Subaru calipers so you can upsize to this rotor simply by purchasing the brackets and correct pads
Applications:
00-04 Legacy/Outback non-brighton
SVX (5x114.3)

Bonus points: SVX bracket + this rotor in 5x100 = old style caliper H6 upgrade (probably).

266x18mm
This is the Legacy turbo rear rotor. The caliper is similar to the other calipers but is wider to accomodate the vented rotors. I hear it was also found on the v1 WRX (93-94).
Applications
91-94 Legacy turbo

290x18mm (170mm parking brake)
290x18mm (190mm parking brake)
This is a new rotor size for Subaru (in the US anyway). It uses either a 2-piston opposed caliper or a 1-pot slider. The 2-pot will not bolt up to other Subarus without something like the Kartboy brackets or having a new backing plate pressed onto the spindle. There are two versions of this rotor, one is for cars with an R180 rear diff which has bigger parking drums.
Applications:
05+ Legacy GT (1-pot)
06-07 WRX (2-pot)
SVX (5x114.3) (only in JDM-land)
Some older non-us spec-b Legacys and wrx/sti models (see rear brake redux)

Note: The LGT uses a different brake line than older Legacies and Imprezas. So I think you need to grind down part of the caliper where the line mounts to get it to work on an Impreza. The LGT lines are a different shape and mount and a different angle and you can't use them.

316x20mm (5x100)
316x20mm (5x100, 170mm parking brake)
316x20mm (5x114)
STi brembos. There are now three versions of this disc. One for the 04 STi, one for 05+, and one with a 170mm parking brake drum. There's an explanation how to install rear brembos on other cars a little farther down.
Applications
04+ STi

320x18mm
Hey that's an odd size now isn't it. I was previously wrong with my thinking the Tribeca uses the same rotor as an STi. It does have the same bolt pattern (5x114.3) though. AFAIK, it uses a 170mm parking brake but don't quote me on that.

So, what does that mean? The calipers and brackets should work on an SVX. Unfortunately no front brakes are interchangeable onto an SVX because of the rotor hat back-spacing.

Drums
Some cars have rear drums that are like 9." I don't really know anything about Subaru drum brakes so it would help if someone filled that stuff in.
Some of them are: Legacy and Impreza Brighton models, Some 95-99 Legacy L models, some foresters and I think 02+ Impreza TS and OBS. (I'm not sure exactly)

To swap out drums, at the least you will need new parking brakes, backing plates, discs, calipers, and brake lines. It is usually best to get a whole knuckle/hub/parking brake assembly out of a car with rear discs. If you want to put rear discs on your front wheel drive Subaru, you might have to parts from a 90-94 Legacy, since they might be the only FWD Subarus with rear discs and the FWD rear hubs/spindles/struts/etc are different.

[b]Installing rear Subaru 2-pots or Brembos on a non 2-pot car:

The Subaru and Brembos have the same backing plate, which is different from all the other Subaru rear disc backing plates. So calipers don't swap between the two. Additionally, the STi uses a 190mm parking brake drum. Pretty much everything else uses a smaller 170mm drum. That means if you take a set of rear brembos and put them on your WRX, the parking brake will not work.

However, there are Subaru 2-pot rotors (290x18mm) with a 190mm parking brake hat and Brembo rotors (316x20) w/ a 170mm e-brake so you can put either setup on either car. There are also Kartboy brackets that will adapt the 2-pot calipers to any other Subaru, and since both rotors are available in 170mm parking brake variety, you can swap either one onto any other Subaru. Here's a thread about fitting the brembos to other cars with the new Kartboy brackets and DBA rotors.

Here is the rear brake redux, which has more information about the older rear brakes that came on STis and fancy Legacys in Japan.

[b]Some D-plate numbers

The Friction Materials Standards Institute (FMSI) is an association that assigns numbers to different pad shapes that are used as a guideline for pad manufacturers to refer to, and bring a common numbering system to the brake pad aftermarket. Virtually every pad manufacturer will either use the FMSI number in their numbering system or have a readily available interchange to cross-reference their part number to the FMSI number.

I should note that the caliper bracket, and not the caliper, is what determines pad shape. So while there are a few different pads, in some cases the calipers are the same.

Front 1-pots
1990-1995 Legacy: D470
1996-1999 Legacy: D722
1993-1996 Impreza: D470
1997-2001 Impreza: D722

Front 2-pots
1991-1994 Legacy Turbo: D563
1995 Outback: D563
1996-2002 Legacy: D721
2002-2008 Legacy: D929
2005-2008 Legacy GT: D1078
Tribeca: D1078
1998-2001 Impreza RS: D721
2003-2007 Impreza: D929
1/2002-7/2002 WRX: D721
8/2002-2005 WRX: D929
2008 WRX: D929
See this article for clarification

Rear 1-pots
1990-1999 Legacy: D471
2000-2004 Legacy: D770
2005-2008 LGT: D770
2005-2008 Legacy 2.5i/outback: D1114
1993-1998 Impreza: D471
1999-2002 Impreza: D770
11/2002-2005 WRX: D1004
2003-2007 Impreza: D1004
1993-1997 SVX: D471
2008 WRX: D1114

2006-2007 WRX (and previous Black 4/2-pots)
Front: D1170/D460
Rear: D461

STi Brembos
Front: D 1001
Rear: D 961

I should probably put all the car/rotor/d-plate combinations in a spreadsheet or something. Outback should be the same as Legacy. I'll look into Forester and Baja stuff later I guess. There are a couple of things that I'm not clear on, like exatly when caliper/bracket designs changed between cars or which 00-04 Legacies got the 294mm front rotors. I might also be wrong about some of the forester front brakes. Also I've been meaning to add brembo or oem part numbers for the rotors or something like that.