B5 brake upgrades

[-scrupes-]

Hi guys, could any of you who have upgraded your B5's brakes give me a bit of info on what you have fitted, where you sourced the parts, aprox costs, additional work involved in doing it etc. I really could do with an upgrade!

I would also be interested in buying any brake parts that you may have lying around????

PAUL

 

[aragorn]

The most common upgrade (and about all you can do cheaply) to non-S model B5's is to fit a set of TT caliper carriers and 312mm disks from a B6 A4

It gives a mild improvement over stock and the biggest expense is the caliper carriers (i paid £50 delivered for mine from ebay) You just use normal B5 pads and the disks are about £30each which isnt much more than the 288's

From there you can goto S4, RS4, or B6 S4/RS4 parts, however to fit these you will need to change the front uprights for S4/RS4 items as the caliper bolt spacing is different, and afaik you'll need S4/RS4 driveshafts too if you go down this route.

You dont say what car you have or what kind of use you plan for it, nor how much power you have.

I suspect a 312mm upgrade plus a set of good pads (Mintex 1144 or Ferodo DS2500's) will go a long way to taming a road car driven briskly, but if your running BIG power or looking at trackday use you might find the B6 S4 or RS4 route is the way to go.

 

[-scrupes-]

Thanks for your reply mate!
After posting this i did a search which came up with loads of info on upgrades, I think the one i'll be doing for now is the 312mm disc jobby with tt carriers.
My car is a 2.6 quattro a4 saloon and the intentions of use are something which dont fade away as quickly when blatting around some b roads
Oh and power.... 150 piddly pony's
I'm thinking of getting some 312mm brembo grooved discs which for the price difference will certainly add to the asthetics Wha d ya reckon??

 

[aragorn]

I'm of the opinion that your just as well to fit some standard motorfactors disks, and spend the money on pads and brake fluid as those are far more important.

I'd be using M1144's, Motorfactors disks, and either flush the system thru with DOT5.1 or get something more special like ATE Blue or Castrol SRF (although these more specialised fluids will need changed much more often than DOT5.1)

 

[redevo1]

I've gone from the 288mm set up on my Golf to the Anni 312mm set up and it is a marked improvement.

 

[Mr K]

i have been looking at doing the 312mm brake upgrade, http://vagparts.com/ do the carriers for about £100 new i think, if you have any trouble getting them second hand.

you can use porsche calipers like so:
http://www.purems.com/products/product.php/II=1432

if you can find the calipers, 312mm discs, and then get some of theese, it should be a lot cheaper:
http://www.purems.com/products/product.php/II=1310

 

[-scrupes-]

I was just about going to order the carriers from vagparts but their site is down, Well the shop side of it is??? is there anywhere else online which sells these?

 

[voteforpedro]

You say TT carriers for non-S? Do you mean non-Sport models? Mine's a Sport; can I not go down that route?

 

[voteforpedro]

While we're on the topic, how about the rears?

 

[-scrupes-]

You say TT carriers for non-S? Do you mean non-Sport models? Mine's a Sport; can I not go down that route?

Non-s as in not a S4, I think it means??? as the hubs are very different on the S4 and RS4 they have a wider bolting pattern than all other A series hubs.

which is why you cannot simply fit S4 and RS4 brakes to an A4. which would be the easiest solution to the poor brakes on the cars!

re: the rears. dont even know if they'd be worth the hassle of bothering with??? since the front wheels take most of the load of the braking force anyway. but hey, i'm no expert on these things.... any other views on this????

PAUL

 

[Oranoco]

Not sure on these cars specifically but typically in a FWD application the back brakes can do as little as 10% of the braking. I know on my Escort I never bothered changing from the drums as even at the levels I'm at they are deemed up to the job. Mate runs 400bhp through a Fiesta with standard rear drums and that stops surprsingly well

 

[aragorn]

Upgrading the rears helps to keep the car more balanced under braking, stops some of the forward weight transfer and suchlike, however go overboard and you'll lock the rears under heavy braking.

B5 S4 used 321mm fronts and 256mm vented rears, so going to 256mm rears with the 312mm fronts would probably be ok, however they wont fit a FWD A4 as the hub and disk are integrated into one on the FWD b5's. I've looked into using A6/Passat hubs which might work, but without getting the parts and trying them on the car its hard to tell. If your interested i can dig out the exact parts i think might work and you can see if you can get hold of them...

by non-S i meant S4/RS4, the Sport models have the same brakes as the SE models.

Theres another thread about vagparts closing up shop, so your likely out of luck there. I got mine my emailing everyone on ebay thats breaking a TT for a few weeks and finally managed to procure a set. Some of the larger breakers on there tend to sell the carriers and calipers complete as an upgrade "kit" for Golfs etc, and as such want big money for them, but if you keep looking you'll find someone willing to sell just the carriers.

 

[-scrupes-]

:icon_thumright: Cheers Bud, I'll give that a try!

 

[jcb]

I have some adapter plates for fitting Porsche cayenne 4 pots to stock A4 uprights if you want them! they just need drilling and tapping

 

[-scrupes-]

I have some adapter plates for fitting Porsche cayenne 4 pots to stock A4 uprights if you want them! they just need drilling and tapping

Mmmm, I'd have to just go and check on a few things first but perhaps you may already know....

How big are the discs on a cayenne? will they fit under 17's? are these for the front or rear calipers?

 

[Andy.B]

The discs on a cayenne are huge and would prob have issues getting under 18's.

My MovIt brakes just clear 18' wheels with 365mm discs off the B5 RS4.

 

[-scrupes-]

Cheers for that Andy, I figured they'd be big brakes on them.