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Well, after originally buying a 996 rear setup from DaveB around 3 months ago, I had to sell them at short notice after my Mini decided to try and cold weld a valve head into the piston crown:
Ouch- luckily, things went my way, and I've managed to source a cracking new engine for silly money.
So, still needing brakes for the A3,II decided this time that I'd go bigger again, and get something really cool. After speaking at great length to Dave once more, we decided that the ideal setup for me would be the 996 front setup, using 330x28mm discs.
I sourced the calipers, from a 2002 996 911 carrera 2, and sent them off to Dave. Dave rebuilt them with new pistons and seals and had them powder coated and applied new decals. he also sourced everything else I needed, and gave me a very good deal on a set of part worn Pagid RS19 track pads
Here's the kit as it arrived from Dave:
My mate rob came round to give me a hand fitting them, he likes to watch when I do all my mods, and if they work we end up doing the same to his Leon. I think he wants some porsche brakes:
Here's our work station, wedged into our little courtyard, my old A3 still blocking my parking space until I can fix it and get it gone!
Before we started, here are the standard 288's that came off:
With the old brakes removed, it was time to mount the new setup.
First, the carriers went onto the hubs. Escuse the poor pics, the light wasn't ideal
Then I offered up the disc, Dave supplied two mounting studs to make it easier to get them on
Then I bolted the caliper on, only hand tight for now, and slotted the pads in.
I was amazed at how easily the pads fit in, they just slot into the top of the caliper, then a steel pin goes through the top of the pads and is secured with an R-clip
Here's the finished setup, I fitted the HEL braided lines, and made sure they had a decent route not interfering with anything.
All that's left at this point is to repeate the process on the other side, then bleed the brakes
Sadly, my new iphone decided at this point that it'd had enough of sitting in the warm car, so stopped working:
Whilst we waited for the phone to cool, I got out the EZbleed, and set it up using the spare tyre at 20psi to pressure bleed the system.
We decided to bleed the whole system to get a really good pedal. We bled the fronts first as normal to get them working, then went to the the back and did all 4 corners in the correct order, furthest to nearest, so the fronts were bled twice. We also bled the master cylinder just to be sure all the air in the system was gone
The organised mess
The master cylinder bleed nipples are pretty well hidden, I wasn't able to get a spanner small enough, and ended up surrounding the nipples with a Rag, then undoing them with a socket whilst the system was under pressure. I let each one bleed for 5-6 seconds and did them up again.
Much to my delight, I found the pedal feel was brilliant. If anything, stiffer than the OEM pedal on an old bleed. so that's great news
Here's the finised setup with the wheel back on:
and finally,tThe lucky car to recieve these stoppers:
All in all, I'm incredibly happy with these brakes, I've only put about 40 miles on them so far, but the pedal feel was great from the offset, and the brakes worked instantly without any bedding in. I'm taking it easy until they're bedded properly, but already the stopping power feels immense, with almost no pedal input there's a really nice bite to them, with plenty of modulation.
Seriously good upgrade in my opinion. The calipers are monoblock, so not only stiffer, but also ligther than the brembo GT kit, also larger discs are a bonus, and being Porsche front calipers, there's a truly excellent array of pad choices out there.
Massive thanks to DaveB for these, I can't believe how smoothly the fitting went, and they work perfectly straight away!
For anyone that's interested, Dave can be contacted through UKMKIVS, where his username is DaveB1970
Cheers
Nick
Ouch- luckily, things went my way, and I've managed to source a cracking new engine for silly money.
So, still needing brakes for the A3,II decided this time that I'd go bigger again, and get something really cool. After speaking at great length to Dave once more, we decided that the ideal setup for me would be the 996 front setup, using 330x28mm discs.
I sourced the calipers, from a 2002 996 911 carrera 2, and sent them off to Dave. Dave rebuilt them with new pistons and seals and had them powder coated and applied new decals. he also sourced everything else I needed, and gave me a very good deal on a set of part worn Pagid RS19 track pads
Here's the kit as it arrived from Dave:
My mate rob came round to give me a hand fitting them, he likes to watch when I do all my mods, and if they work we end up doing the same to his Leon. I think he wants some porsche brakes:
Here's our work station, wedged into our little courtyard, my old A3 still blocking my parking space until I can fix it and get it gone!
Before we started, here are the standard 288's that came off:
With the old brakes removed, it was time to mount the new setup.
First, the carriers went onto the hubs. Escuse the poor pics, the light wasn't ideal
Then I offered up the disc, Dave supplied two mounting studs to make it easier to get them on
Then I bolted the caliper on, only hand tight for now, and slotted the pads in.
I was amazed at how easily the pads fit in, they just slot into the top of the caliper, then a steel pin goes through the top of the pads and is secured with an R-clip
Here's the finished setup, I fitted the HEL braided lines, and made sure they had a decent route not interfering with anything.
All that's left at this point is to repeate the process on the other side, then bleed the brakes
Sadly, my new iphone decided at this point that it'd had enough of sitting in the warm car, so stopped working:
Whilst we waited for the phone to cool, I got out the EZbleed, and set it up using the spare tyre at 20psi to pressure bleed the system.
We decided to bleed the whole system to get a really good pedal. We bled the fronts first as normal to get them working, then went to the the back and did all 4 corners in the correct order, furthest to nearest, so the fronts were bled twice. We also bled the master cylinder just to be sure all the air in the system was gone
The organised mess
The master cylinder bleed nipples are pretty well hidden, I wasn't able to get a spanner small enough, and ended up surrounding the nipples with a Rag, then undoing them with a socket whilst the system was under pressure. I let each one bleed for 5-6 seconds and did them up again.
Much to my delight, I found the pedal feel was brilliant. If anything, stiffer than the OEM pedal on an old bleed. so that's great news
Here's the finised setup with the wheel back on:
and finally,tThe lucky car to recieve these stoppers:
All in all, I'm incredibly happy with these brakes, I've only put about 40 miles on them so far, but the pedal feel was great from the offset, and the brakes worked instantly without any bedding in. I'm taking it easy until they're bedded properly, but already the stopping power feels immense, with almost no pedal input there's a really nice bite to them, with plenty of modulation.
Seriously good upgrade in my opinion. The calipers are monoblock, so not only stiffer, but also ligther than the brembo GT kit, also larger discs are a bonus, and being Porsche front calipers, there's a truly excellent array of pad choices out there.
Massive thanks to DaveB for these, I can't believe how smoothly the fitting went, and they work perfectly straight away!
For anyone that's interested, Dave can be contacted through UKMKIVS, where his username is DaveB1970
Cheers
Nick
....
