Brake upgrade - approx cost?

[The Doctor]

Hi guys,

The discs & pads on my S3 are due for a replacement, so whilst I have the opportunity I figured I may as well upgrade them.

Options I am considering are either Black Diamond grooved discs with Predator pads, or EBC (either USR or GD discs) with Red Stuff pads.

Questions are:
Anyone running either of these set-ups?
What would you recommend?
Roughly how much ££ am I looking at to get these fitted (fronts & rears) at an independent specialist?

Cheers.

 

[s3gav]

hi mate a couple of years ago i had black diamond on my rs and they went ****** and rusty in no time
not sure what there like now but i won't use them again after my experience and ebc i found they were crap around town when they had no heat in them but again might be beter these days

 

[9099]

Green stuff pads are the best for road use. They don't require heating and also don't dump mega amounts of powder on the wheels.

 

[Westy]

A fast road/track setup that people on here tend to go with are black diamond discs and Ferrodo DS2500. This isn't the cheapest setup going as i'm dure the front pads are about £130 for the pair!!

I'm upgrading my brake lines to Hel braded lines next week and putting in Motul dot 4 racing fluid, then the above setup when funds allow.

 

[badger5]

forget EBC pads imho..
DS2500's and grooved disks work a treat..

 

[Olly P]

http://www.jbsautodesigns.co.uk/category/1/brakes

:thumbsup:

 

[JD09]

DS2500 and drilled disks were God's gift to track cars when I was in ClioSport.net. Have heard some very very good reviews about them, in terms of braking power on and off track.

I intend to replace mine in September with the above (MOT time and might need them).

 

[Matt82]

ive never noticed a performance benefit with drilled discs tbh

get some decent brembo or ATE plain discs. personally ive stuck with ebc yellows over the past 3 years or so and have nothing but good to say about them

a good brake fluid is absolutely essential too. i currently use ATE super blue

 

[Westy]

Ive heard tales of drilled discs getting clogged with brake dust and cracking. I'd go for grooved only

 

[Matt82]

i have a set of grooved brembos on now, reason being the old plain discs did end up with score marks on by the time the pads had died. because of the scores i replaced the discs too because new pads would not have made good contact with the discs

with grooved discs the wear is much more consistent.

... plus therye proper bling innit

 

[S3 Rav]

ive got tarox g88's with ferodo ds 2500,goodrich braided lines. stops a treat. not the cheapest set up but an area i wouldnt want to skimp on money. Tarox g88s were the priciest, but im sure you can get cheaper discs thatll do the job just as good.

 

[Piester]

Aviod drilled discs at all costs! The holes end up being heat concentration points which can crack the discs after hard use. The only reason people used drilled discs is to reduce unsprung weight which is great for race cars where they are replaced every few races, but are pretty pointless for road cars.

These are mine at the moment. Just had to pay £470 to get some new ECS discs shipped over from the States in order to pass my MOT. Had to wait an extra few weeks to make sure they were just grooved discs this time as I'm not forking out that much again in a hurry.

Also just upgraded from EBC Yellows to Ferodo ds2500's (front) and ds's (rear) with Motul RBF600. Hopefully shouldn't have a problem stopping now once it's all sorted next week.

 

[Matt82]

wow. thats impressive. whose ECS? never heard of those before

 

[Piester]

ECS are a US company that among other things do Porsche big brake conversions. I wouldn't really recommend them though as it's ******
expensive getting new custom discs. My new front discs arrived this morning, I paid £406 for the discs then just got stung another £80 on import duty!!!

You can also buy them in the UK but again, if you want new discs then they still have to be ordered from the States.

They will be awesome once I've got the new pads, discs and fluid replaced but really only reason I've got them is because they came with the car.

Front - http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-TT_MKI-Quattro-225HP/Braking/ECS_Stage_2v2/
Rear - http://www.ecstuning.com/Audi-TT_MKI-Quattro-225HP/Braking/ECS_Stage_1R/

 

[The Doctor]

Thanks guys, I'd also heard about the risk of cracking with drilled discs, hence only looking at grooved. Sounds like there's a lot of different set-ups out there. DS2500s sound like the dog's danglies, but at £130/pair they're pretty steep. What's the wear rate like on them? I know this depends on how heavy your braking is, but in general are they long lasting or am I going to eat them up in 15k?

Also, would you recommend upgrading the fronts & rears or only the fronts?

 

[S3 Rav]

i think wear rate does really depend on how hard your using them. i've had them for about 10000 miles n still going strong but i mosltly do motorway miles. as for the rear i have tarox discs and standard pads. unless you want to squeeze every little amount of braking its quite costly to upgrade for a little extra performance.

 

[Effect]

I've found my DS2500s wear about the same as normal pads to be fair.

I've also found they arent that great stone cold, however once you have a bit of heat in them they are miles and miles and miles better than standard.
Now when i say a bit of heat if you did one full brake stop from 50 to zero that would get them warm enough, they really dont need much work to get them to full operating temperature.


James.

 

[jdas03]

I got ebc turbo grooved and yellow stuff pads for the front. around 250 for the lot, maybe slightly more.
Found them really good, and have got better as they got older.
Took them on a track day and they were fantastic, no loss of braking even after half an hour of heavy use!

Definetly recommend them and i dont find that they suffer from being cold, stillget good performance round town.

However i can only compare to standard set up.