S4 Calipers on a standard B5
- Thread starter Tooand
- Start date
You also need the uprights from a S4 or later A4 B6 and lower control arms only if going alloy uprights, personally ive heard the stock S4 brakes arent all that great B6 S4's or Brembo 18Z's seem to be everyones choice if your looking at cost of parts when coming to replace discs etc as RS4 Discs are around £250 each iirc and dealer only !!
i got my calipers for £180 posted just need few bits to fit them but moving house (again) and baby due im not that bothered going to wait till new year so after winter and mr frost has been i can slap them on !!
i got my calipers for £180 posted just need few bits to fit them but moving house (again) and baby due im not that bothered going to wait till new year so after winter and mr frost has been i can slap them on !!
Best get the 312mm upgrade with some quality pads- plenty stopping power. If you're still after bigger brakes then as above s4 b6 front brakes will do well, however the s4 discs are not suitable and only work with s4 uprights. Best to get the allroad 2001-2005 front brakes- they are the same caliper as the s4 but slightly smaller disc- more than enough stopping power ! I have them on my 300Bhp audi a6 and they stop the car on a dime, however i need to upgrade them due to cooking the brakes after a hard drive, they do smoke but don't fade at all ! The same caliper has been used on 3.0Tdi and later 2.0Tfsi quattro's from 2005 onwards ! If you need a set of 312 i have one here...
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2008
- Messages
- 18,708
- Reaction score
- 909
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
The issue is that S4, and 2001> A4/A6 models use a larger caliper bolt spacing, so any later brakes simply wont fit.
You have various options.
If you want to keep the stock uprights ("hubs") then the only off the shelf parts that fit are TT 312mm carriers. With these you retain the original 288 caliper (the TT one has smaller pistons so isnt any use) and you fit the TT carrier to move the caliper out a bit, and install the larger 312mm disks from a B6 A4 3.0. This only works if you currently have 288's though. If your car is equipped with smaller brakes, you will need a pair of 288 calipers as well as the TT carriers.
If you want to use S4 brakes (or larger), then you need to replace the uprights with ones that have the wider spacing. The options here are steel S4 uprights, which are a straight swap (also used on early 2.7T A6's and Allroads) or B6 A4/'01-'05 A6 uprights which are aluminium, but to use the aluminium uprights you need to use an '01-05 A6 front lower control arm.
If you choose to upgrade to these later parts, you have various choices open to you, from 312mm, 320mm, 345mm and upwards towards RS4 parts and the like. Personally i'd avoid the B5 S4 calipers, they're not very good. If you want the 320mm S4 size disks, you can use the caliper that chris mentioned above, which is used on some of the bigger engined A6/Allroad models, and is a far better caliper than the B5 S4 one, and uses the same B5 S4 disk.
You have various options.
If you want to keep the stock uprights ("hubs") then the only off the shelf parts that fit are TT 312mm carriers. With these you retain the original 288 caliper (the TT one has smaller pistons so isnt any use) and you fit the TT carrier to move the caliper out a bit, and install the larger 312mm disks from a B6 A4 3.0. This only works if you currently have 288's though. If your car is equipped with smaller brakes, you will need a pair of 288 calipers as well as the TT carriers.
If you want to use S4 brakes (or larger), then you need to replace the uprights with ones that have the wider spacing. The options here are steel S4 uprights, which are a straight swap (also used on early 2.7T A6's and Allroads) or B6 A4/'01-'05 A6 uprights which are aluminium, but to use the aluminium uprights you need to use an '01-05 A6 front lower control arm.
If you choose to upgrade to these later parts, you have various choices open to you, from 312mm, 320mm, 345mm and upwards towards RS4 parts and the like. Personally i'd avoid the B5 S4 calipers, they're not very good. If you want the 320mm S4 size disks, you can use the caliper that chris mentioned above, which is used on some of the bigger engined A6/Allroad models, and is a far better caliper than the B5 S4 one, and uses the same B5 S4 disk.
Last edited:
