Looking to upgrade the brakes on my 04 TDI 2wd and was wondering if the rear brakes from the S3 will fit straight on, Calipers, Discs, Back plate etc)? Has anyone done this conversion? Would just upgrading the fronts effect the ABS etc? Thanks.
S3 Rear brakes on 2wd?
- Thread starter locost47
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to be honest, doing the rears wouldn't really be needed as most the braking is taken care of by the front set, the back do a minimal amount and just help to balance the car
to do the change tho, there is quite a lot to do, you need the callipers, carriers, pads, disks, dust shields, may as well get some braided hoses on at the same time, and importantly you need some S3 hubs! if you msg benskin07 on here he will tell whats involved as he is in the process of doing this to his
to do the change tho, there is quite a lot to do, you need the callipers, carriers, pads, disks, dust shields, may as well get some braided hoses on at the same time, and importantly you need some S3 hubs! if you msg benskin07 on here he will tell whats involved as he is in the process of doing this to his
I bought the whole lot off a 2010 S3 to do this to my FWD A3, only to find upon removing my original brakes that they hubs were wrong. A few weeks later, I discovered that S3 (or possibly any 4WD) hubs were needed. So if you do fancy doing it, I have a set of front and rear calipers, plus front and rear discs of a 2010 S3, plus brand new genuine front brake hoses for the S3 (rears fit apparently), brand new genuine front splash guards for sale! Drop me a message if you like 
I was thinking along the same lines as you, and didn't particularly fancy huge brakes up front and nothing at the back. 345mm at the front, 280mm at the rear if I recall correctly.
I was thinking along the same lines as you, and didn't particularly fancy huge brakes up front and nothing at the back. 345mm at the front, 280mm at the rear if I recall correctly.
doubt any 4wd hubs would work as, well if its purely that matter then any fwd would work as well... possibly the hubs off a 3.2 would work as they run the same brake set up as the S3, but thats just me guessing and not based on any facts
Heeman, I cant recall where we got with this discussion, but it shows 2 hub types tbh in say 07 & 10, do you know your hub sizes or part numbers as there are approx a 49mm & a 54mm & for some strange reason they both show for fwd & 4wd, so can only imagine for some reason you're unlucky to have the other size that the car they came of didnt, do you know what exactly didnt fit, in what way I mean mate?
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Dean's A3
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I got s3 brakes on both front and back on my TDI. Didnt need to change hubs. Went straight on no probs.
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Yes and no problems just better braking
Cheers guys, I'm I right in thinking both of your A3's are non quattros? Have you both got S3 shields on your rears?
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Sorry, been off the forum a few days! The reason I couldn't fit my fronts was that the disc appeared to be too large a diameter when the caliper was fitted. That is to say, the caliper was mounted too close, radially, to the centre of the hub. On its own, the disc fitted fine. On its own, the caliper fitted fine, but the two could not be fitted together. Looking at all the sickening replies above, even the FWD owners were fortunate enough to be able to slap the whole lot on with no issues! VERY annoying!!!
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I trial-fitted the S3 caliper using the S3 caliper carrier. It's months ago now, I can't remember any details; the caliper mounting lugs on the hub are cast in aren't they? Or can they be unbolted from the hub assembly and swapped out for S3 lugs? The S3 calipers are about twice the size of my standard calipers, so I can't imagine being able to interchange parts between the calipers.
If by "hub carriers", you mean the whole cast hub carrier, I don't have S3 parts. My A3 is my daily car, and I no longer have a proper workshop in which to carry out a job like swapping hub carriers as well as discs/calipers, which is why my brakes are for sale. I'm able to borrow a bit of workshop space for a couple of hours, but can't have everything in pieces for a day to do a bigger job like that, which is gutting.
Indeed, I don't know why they won't fit to mine either. As I say, I can fit the disc on its own, or the caliper on its own, but the caliper won't fit over the disc and bolt up, because the disc is effectively too large a diameter.
Heeman, so we can get an answer, whats your vin no. then can check what your car has & maybe find a reason, I'll check if any S3 fronts have been superseded, but dont think so, in meantime any part numbers of the fronts you cant fit.
As for rears, I see no point fitting them, as most the braking is done by fronts & my stock rears are plenty good enough to use as both my cars are setup as.
As for rears, I see no point fitting them, as most the braking is done by fronts & my stock rears are plenty good enough to use as both my cars are setup as.
NHN - PM sent.
Three pics I just found on my phone are uploaded below. The stamped part number on the caliper reads 2478CTR, and 981 is cast into the caliper. Perhaps I've bought Civic brakes by accident!
Three pics I just found on my phone are uploaded below. The stamped part number on the caliper reads 2478CTR, and 981 is cast into the caliper. Perhaps I've bought Civic brakes by accident!
Also just found a short video of my trusty and sorely-missed Fiesta rocketship on my phone. The video was playing on my laptop, and I videod it on my phone, so the audio and video quality is simply tremendous! Something to watch while we wait for NHN to solve our mysteries
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The only way you can't retrofit the S3 brakes is if you had an A3 8P 1.9TDi... In this case the hubs are diff as wel as the OEM braking that uses 280mm instead of the 288mm on 2.0TDI...
On the 2.0TDi the S3 brakes are (for sure) a strait fit with no adaptations needed...
Done this conversion on severall 2.0 tdi here in Portugal...
Hope this could help.
Beste regards.
Not possible... You must be doing something wrong... Do you have all the parts from the S3?
What's your stock braking?
The only way, as i said, is if you have 280mm braking... I know the cars that have them also have diff hubs wich cannot support S3 calipers...
If you have 288mm braking thos S3 brakes are strait swap.
As i stated above, i've made maybe 6 or 7 cars with S3 brakes and this is the first 2.0tdi that i hear the s3 brakes don't fit... :S
I've just been out to have a measure through the wheel, using a tape measure. Splitting the disc up into the "rotor" and "bell" sections (cast disc, but roughly translated, you know what I mean).
Measuring in from the outside of the rotor to the bell face was 67mm.
Obviously, the wheel is in the way, stopping me measuring across the face of the bell, so I wrapped the tape measure round its circumference as well as I could, giving me a measurement of 495mm.
Simple maths tells us I've calculated a 291.6mm disc diameter. Although it isn't massively accurate, I also worked out that for a 288mm disc, the bell circumference should've been 483.8mm, which is 11mm less than I measured. However, for a 280mm disc, the circumference would've been 458.7mm (assuming the same 67mm rotor measurement), and it's safe to say I didn't overmeasure by almost 40mm.
So, I conclude that I have 288mm front discs.
Measuring in from the outside of the rotor to the bell face was 67mm.
Obviously, the wheel is in the way, stopping me measuring across the face of the bell, so I wrapped the tape measure round its circumference as well as I could, giving me a measurement of 495mm.
Simple maths tells us I've calculated a 291.6mm disc diameter. Although it isn't massively accurate, I also worked out that for a 288mm disc, the bell circumference should've been 483.8mm, which is 11mm less than I measured. However, for a 280mm disc, the circumference would've been 458.7mm (assuming the same 67mm rotor measurement), and it's safe to say I didn't overmeasure by almost 40mm.
So, I conclude that I have 288mm front discs.
Hi,
So you see 288mm... S3 brakes must go in my friend... If they don't you have some kind of hybrid car lol because the hubs that go with 288mm also go with the 345mm of the S3...
So tell me what on earth does not fir your car? Discs or calipers?
Regards.
I'v seen a few post ago you say the caliper goes in too much to the middle...
Have you measured the discs? Are they really 345mm? Please note that the discs when assembled have little to almost no gap (on the edge) regardind the caliper...
Have you measured the discs? Are they really 345mm? Please note that the discs when assembled have little to almost no gap (on the edge) regardind the caliper...
As I've said matey, the disc fits on just fine, and the caliper fits the mounting lugs just fine, but they don't fit together. If I fit the disc, and slide the caliper over the top, I can get one caliper mounting bolt in, but the disc hits the inside of the caliper and stops the caliper rotating in enough to get the second bolt in the hole. As I also said above, I measured the discs to be 345mm at the time. This wouldn't be the first time I've owned a car with strange mis-matched parts between changeover years, and this A3 has already proven to be different to other 2005 2.0 TDI Sportbacks (grab handles!), but it does seem as though SOMEthing could have gone wrong when I came to install them. All I can think is that some foreign body had found its way in between the disc and the caliper, but I find that hard to believe. Damn I wish I had a workshop still.
Don't really know what to say...
The calipers are two parts, the part that has the brake piston and the part that bolts onto the car... Maybe on Facelift they altered something on the suspension i don't know... I have to check on ETKA if the suspension parts have been changed...
The calipers are two parts, the part that has the brake piston and the part that bolts onto the car... Maybe on Facelift they altered something on the suspension i don't know... I have to check on ETKA if the suspension parts have been changed...
