why dont people change the rear brakes?

[edward_harris]

ive heard the rear brakes on the s3 on take about 5% of the braking power, but has anyone changed them to a set of brembos or anything? are thet alot better?

 

[jojo]

I have a set of ECS stage1 rears waiting togo on the rears of my S3, but I would have though that the rears would probably do about 30% braking in reality, with the fronts doing around 70% of course.

 

[edward_harris]

sorry yeah that might have been what i heard!! lol

 

[Ess_Three]

My guess is that Edward is nearer the truth...
Heavy, front engined, predominantly FWD car...I'd guess the rear brakes only do 5-10 % of the work on hard braking.

 

[jojo]

My guess is that Edward is nearer the truth...
Heavy, front engined, predominantly FWD car...I'd guess the rear brakes only do 5-10 % of the work on hard braking.

Under hard raking, with the weight transfer, then the 5-10% may stand, but that's proper stomping on them, which is probably in line with your driving style Ess.
Modern VAG cars with brake force distribution, I find, makes more use of the rear brakes during normal fast road driving in m opinion.

 

[ChriS3]

I'm pretty sure the brake bias on the S3 is supposed to be 72%front, 28% rear. Read it on the ECS site somewhere.

I have the stage 1 rears and I like them.

 

[dultanur]

chris did you put on the rears after the fronts? what i mean is did you feel a difference?
i think when i get brembos up front, i'll just put on some nice pads to the rears and thats that

 

[jcs356]

This may be a stupid question - but hey, that's not stopped me asking them before! Anyway, if you upgrade your front to a set of Brembo Junior GT kit, you are left with a set of calipers which will take a 320mm or so disc.

Surely a cheap upgrade on the rear would be to recycle your front callipers onto the back and fit some larger discs? Or does that scupper the handbrake?

 

[simch]

Interesting Idea..... I suppose it depends id the the proportioning valve may not even move the bigger pistons on the bigger front calipers if you put them on the back...!?

 

[jojo]

This may be a stupid question - but hey, that's not stopped me asking them before! Anyway, if you upgrade your front to a set of Brembo Junior GT kit, you are left with a set of calipers which will take a 320mm or so disc.

Surely a cheap upgrade on the rear would be to recycle your front callipers onto the back and fit some larger discs? Or does that scupper the handbrake?

Along with not being able to use your handbrake, the standard front calipers are waaay too big and heavy for fitment to be used as rear brakes. The ECS stage1 rears takes the standard(I think it's 256mm?) to something like 308mm, you definitely need an uprated front before doing the backs though, to keep the brakes more front biased, or the car may increase in stopping distances. Saying that though, the LCR uses Brembo GT's up front and standard S3 size at the rear, so not sure if the stage1 rear will benefit my setup... only one way to find out though.

 

[fasteddie]

I'm with jojo on this one you do not want to "better" the rears that much or you will be in trouble

 

[nky_84]

imo rear big brake kits are a waste of time. Ive got a racing mini with a bias valve fitted and u sure as hell dont want the rears to be locking or even thinkning about it.

A friend of mine even put a ball bearing in the rear brake line to shut them off completly