Brake upgrade on standard 17"s

scib4

scib4

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I am after some new stoppers for my S3 running on standard 17's before it goes into Star for a remap. Mainly for fast road plus hoping to get a few tracks days done this year.

I know the Brembos are good from what i have read but they are expensive plus will they fit under standard wheels?

Is there any discs and pads i could go for or am i wasting my money going in that direction?

Cheers Mike
 
I lot of people seem to be keen on the leon cupra kit, is that the same as the brembo kit?

would you get away with just fitting the front disks and calipers?
 
I think it is a very similar set up between the 2, could be wrong. Not sure what you mean by "would you get away with just fitting the front disks and calipers?" mate?
 
scib4 said:
I think it is a very similar set up between the 2, could be wrong. Not sure what you mean by "would you get away with just fitting the front disks and calipers?" mate?
Click to expand...

my point is if you are concerned with price you might get good results with just fitting the LCR front breaks as apposed to an all round set up.

I'm pretty sure the LCR break set up is a hell of a lot better, have a search of the forum, people speak quite highly of it.

its what i'll be going for after getting a star remap.
 
It is the same setup. Keep an eye on eBay as they come up for sale pretty regularly - either as the Brembo Junior GT kit or as the parts from an LCR. I paid £400 for mine which included callipers, calliper carriers, discs, pads and brake lines. They fit under the 17inch Avus wheels no problem.
 
Might also be worth taking a look on leon forums ....CupraR drivers also upgrade to bigger and better things. I almost bought a set earlier in the year for £550... but then got a great deal for a new Brembo set £800

Considering that I would have wanted to put new padss n disc with the CupraR setup the extra £250 for me was a no brainer.
 
scib4 said:
Is there any discs and pads i could go for or am i wasting my money going in that direction?
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same last night. I'd love a set of Brembo's but can't afford best part of £1000 at the moment. I've had my car remapped for about 2 months now and really need that extra stopping power.

Has anyone just gone for a pad and disc upgrade on their S3 and noticed a big difference or would it be better looking at the LCR kit?

I'm off to the ring in June so really need the brake setup before then - don't fancy a little crash bang wallop.
 
Might be worth looking at Ess_Three's performance testing in the sticky section - he went through quite a few pad/disc combos from memory.
 
Def go for the brembo set up on the S3, I did!

Also tried the aftermarket pad.disc setup before this and compared to the Brembo set up they were crap!
 
Aky said:
I was thinking the same last night. I'd love a set of Brembo's but can't afford best part of £1000 at the moment. I've had my car remapped for about 2 months now and really need that extra stopping power.

Has anyone just gone for a pad and disc upgrade on their S3 and noticed a big difference or would it be better looking at the LCR kit?

I'm off to the ring in June so really need the brake setup before then - don't fancy a little crash bang wallop.
Click to expand...

Pad and disc upgrade is a good interim measure.... Black Diamonds and Predator pads is what I did.
 
S3_MCD said:
Pad and disc upgrade is a good interim measure.... Black Diamonds and Predator pads is what I did.
Click to expand...

But then you bought the GT kit, so obviously not that cracking. I'm going to try and get the LCR kit cheap. I've been quoted £850 for the GT kit which I'm not prepared to spend.... one will come my way one day
 
Scib4.. If your off to Star, have a chat with Jim. He has got a lot of knowledge and accasionally some part ex stuff in the workshop...

I wanted a set of Brembo's that he had in but they wouldnt fit behind 18" RS4's.. but he did sort out a reasonably priced set of drilled/grooved and uprated pads...

HTH

Rick
 
Cheers everyone:icon_thumright: , i will have a chat with Jim to see what he has lying around. But it is looking like the LCR setup. Will these fit under 17's? Will they fit straight on?

What about the rear as i need pads anyway?

Cheers Mike
 
Go for the Brembos....
They just work, and work well.
You can spend more to get fancy 2pc discs and callipers with Porsche on them...but they don't work any better and will only lighten your wallet by a larger margin.
Brembo make the Porsche stuff anyway...so unless you want to spend £500 to have Porsche on your callipers and potentially less brake feel due to master cylinder missmatch, go for the Brembo GT Jr kit (LCR stuff)

They will fit under standard Avus wheels OK.

Grooved discs and aggressive pads work OK...but not a patch on the 4 pot Brembos.
Black diamond discs work well...but I thought their pads were awful...as are EBC Reds...the greens better, but they self destruct!
I'd probably opt for Ferodo DS2500s or something from the Mintex range...
But you'll still not get close to the Brembo stuff.

I ran uprated discs and pads for years before going to Brembos...and you just don't realise how you can lean on the Brembos until you have them.
 
I wouldn't bother doing rear pads...just fit standard stuff.

You don't need any bigger rear brakes on an S3...they do next to ****** all anyway on a front engined, predominantly front wheel drive car...they just add weight and mess up the brake balance!

My old S3 used to lap Knockhill all day long using std rear pads and the Brembo upgrade on the front, and never once had an issue with braking.
 
Cheers Glen, do you know what the difference between the GT kit and the normally Brembos kit?

Would i be cheaper of buying a set of LCR brakes from Seat or GT's from Jim?


I was never interested in having "Porsche" stamped on my brakes. One of main things i like about the S3 is how discreet it is compared with a Evo or Scooby.
 
I think the Brembo GT jr kit is the same as the Leon Cupra R kit...

But, the LCR comes with plain faced discs, whereas the Brembo kit comes with drilled or (rarer!) grooved discs.

If you get the choice, go for grooved as the drilled WILL crack over time.
Mine did.

The only grooved set I've ever seen was on Grants (ImolaS3) car...and never seen any since.

I seem to recall it's cheaper buying the full kit from Brambo...or any of their agents, rather than SEAT.

Jim fitted mine...he should be able to get you that at a decent price.
 
Aky said:
But then you bought the GT kit, so obviously not that cracking. I'm going to try and get the LCR kit cheap. I've been quoted £850 for the GT kit which I'm not prepared to spend.... one will come my way one day
Click to expand...

...true. I but went for black diamonds as by fitting them myself they were cheaper that OEM dealer fit... and a vast improvement over standard.

A little like you was waiting for the LCR kit, but u have to get the calipers and carriers very cheap to make it worth while (unless ur happy to use the 2nd hand pads and discs that they will come with).
 
here's my Brembo GT Kit, fitted it on Friday and even already can feel the difference

dscf0236ab7.jpg
 
Ess_Three said:
Go for the Brembos....
They just work, and work well.
You can spend more to get fancy 2pc discs and callipers with Porsche on them...but they don't work any better and will only lighten your wallet by a larger margin.
Brembo make the Porsche stuff anyway...so unless you want to spend £500 to have Porsche on your callipers and potentially less brake feel due to master cylinder missmatch, go for the Brembo GT Jr kit (LCR stuff)

They will fit under standard Avus wheels OK.

Grooved discs and aggressive pads work OK...but not a patch on the 4 pot Brembos.
Black diamond discs work well...but I thought their pads were awful...as are EBC Reds...the greens better, but they self destruct!
I'd probably opt for Ferodo DS2500s or something from the Mintex range...
But you'll still not get close to the Brembo stuff.

I ran uprated discs and pads for years before going to Brembos...and you just don't realise how you can lean on the Brembos until you have them.
Click to expand...

Agreed!!!!

The Porsche discs are nice for a little extra bling, but the piston sizes appear to be near identical (and they have a big Brembo stamped on the back). Slightly bigger discs, but no better all-round performance. And the porka's won't fit a standard rim without spacers.

Standard sized grooved/drilled discs won't help all that much as you loose effective braking surface on the disc - they help the pads but not much else.

The best bang-for-buck upgrade is the LCR/Brembo GT set-up. If you've got the cash, then that's where I'd go. Otherwise just upgrade the pads for now.
 
jonS3 said:
here's my Brembo GT Kit, fitted it on Friday and even already can feel the difference

dscf0236ab7.jpg
Click to expand...

looking good, how easy? time?? anything I need to watch out for???

...going to be doing mine very soon :)
 
took 2 hours, but couldve been done quicker,

I bought new carrier bolts, thought may as well. its all bolt on/bolt off stuff, but make sure you get the bleeding of the brake fluid done properly, it can be done by the normal pump/lock off/release pedal but requires 2 people. also the front left pad has a wear indicator so make sure you keep that plugged into the connector so it doesnt brake the circuit or you'll have a warning light on your dash

i'd say if you don't know what your doing get someone else to do it who does
 
:) Just picked up a new second hand Brembo GT kit for my S3 :)


Slight problem through, the guy bought them in silver and decided he wanted them to be red, so he took the paint of them and then painted them red, was not happy with the Finnish, took the paint of again, and then got banned :faint:

So my question is what is the best way to paint them red again or can i just leave them black?

Mike

Edit, will they fit under standard 17" wheels? Will i need spacers?
 
scib4 said:
:) Just picked up a new second hand Brembo GT kit for my S3 :)


Slight problem through, the guy bought them in silver and decided he wanted them to be red, so he took the paint of them and then painted them red, was not happy with the Finnish, took the paint of again, and then got banned :faint:

So my question is what is the best way to paint them red again or can i just leave them black?

Mike

Edit, will they fit under standard 17" wheels? Will i need spacers?
Click to expand...

Will fit under OEM 17" s without spacers.
U could get them re powdered?
 
audi upgrades
scib4 said:
A diy job or by a company?

Any tips for fitting?
Click to expand...

DIY. really an easy job, nothing to really confuse.

Tips - disc locater screws, likely to shear off or at least be F'd by the time u get them out. Use an impact driver or a little heat from a chefs blow torch to loosen them, replace with new screws with copper grease.

- modify dust shields in situ with a dremel and cutting disc, simply cut the lip off to the flat surface to ensure disc clearance

- for me i felt the new braided hose was a little on the short side, its not really just needs to be well set up and tested on full lock to make sure it doesnt snag etc.

- bleed well, keep resevoir well topped up. do one side till no bubbles left, move to other side and repeat. tighten both bleed screws pump peddle well, which should now be firm and re bleed.... i did this 2-3 time before all trace of tiny bubbles were gone.

- get urself a good torque wrench, mounting bracket need to be set to 110 nm if I remember correctly.

- finally careful when putting wheels back on, u dont wanna bash ur new caliper and scratch them up.

took me 3.5 hrs, which included re trhreading the holes for the disc retaining screws. if i was doing it again, u could do it in 2 i reckon.

good luck
 
My mate is fitting golf R32 discs/calipers to his golf gti, think this could be a good option to, and if you buy the parts from gfs it only comes to a few hundred £££££
 
R32's arent 4pots are they?

...for me the point of upgrading was to get that bite and even braking feel, which I think can only be achieve when u have got 2 or more pots acting on each side of the disc.
 
Hmmm good point, no i dont think they are. So you prob will not see much difference than stock. I think its just the disc which is bigger.
 
WKDLAD said:
Hmmm good point, no i dont think they are. So you prob will not see much difference than stock. I think its just the disc which is bigger.
Click to expand...

There is a big difference over stock,334mm discs and twin piston callipers(both on one side)not as good as the brembo's though.
 
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