brake upgrades for a3 1.8t??

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tezmanian devil

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morning all,

im new to audi's and im just wondering what brake upgrades are available for my a3 1.8t?
at the moment the car has 19" wheels fitted and the brakes look pretty stupid and lost behind the wheels so is there any bigger brakes i can use?
idealy id like something that isnt going to be a mission to fit, but will fill my wheels abit better...

any help would be great, and pics would be awesome!
 
312mm set up. from TT, VRS, S3, ect...

used the same calipers as the standard 1.8T just need new discs and carriers. straight swap so easy to fit and doesn't cost a massive amount to upgrade.

think i paid £100 for drilled and grooved disc with mintex pads. and £80 for carriers, all from ebay
 
cheers dude, but is there nothing bigger? i was thinking more along the lines of what i had on my old escort rs2000

c021b5c6.jpg


they wer 325mm and the wheel's wer 17"
i dont really fancy spending silly money on hi-specs again, but want something that will fill the wheels better like above...
 
only upgrade bigger then that is the brembo's off the LCR. but looking at around £500 to get what you need

my 312mm behind 16" wheels
DSC_0380.jpg
 
ah, ok, 312's for now then, to close to christmas to be spending out on big brakes :(
i dont supose you have links to the bit's you mentioned above do you? i have no idea what im looking for tbh.
 
Couldn't you fit r32 discs Calipers and carriers and they are 334mm discs iirc

There is also many variants of Porsche set ups available but these will cost you more money

There is a thread on brakes think it ie called "definitive brake guide" but am on my iPhone so can't post link
 
tezmanian devil said:
i dont really fancy spending silly money on hi-specs again, but want something that will fill the wheels better like above...
Click to expand...

The amount those sacks of **** flex I'm not surprised you don't want to spend the money again! Brembo FTW.

The best brakes to go for are either Leon Cupra R Brembo's.

brembos.jpg


Or Porsche/Brembo .425 .426 996 calipers, with DaveB 330x28mm discs.

34363_421370956776_501476776_5037310_2897807_n.jpg


20864_421371231776_501476776_5037328_3984021_n.jpg


Those are Prawns brakes, and they truly hurt my face under braking!

Both setups will give little change from £600 to do properly.

Otherwise it's the 312mm brakes from an S3, and to be brutally honest S3's are under braked. The 312's are adequate on a remapped A3, but for any spirited/track use you will quickly find their limits.

I am currently running 312mm's and having used Prawns Brembo's and done one track day on them I will not have them by the end of this year. They don't have the thickness to get rid of the heat. Look at the color my discs, then ask yourself if you are happy with your brakes getting that hot -

2011-11-06121628.jpg
 
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Will RS6 brakes fit an S3? they are 365mm 6 pots aren't they? Or are Cayenne Turbo's a better bet?
 
Have got cayenne turbos on mine and with carriers that are available from quite a few places can run them with the r32 334mm discs but personally if i did it again would get the 6 pots with the smaller pistons which can be mounted to the same discs just different carriers
 
JoeD said:
Will RS6 brakes fit an S3? they are 365mm 6 pots aren't they? Or are Cayenne Turbo's a better bet?
Click to expand...

:keule:

You pair are funny.

MASSIVE over kill and frankly retarded, a Cayenne is 2.6 TONS, thats TWICE the weight of an A3. And don't forget the monster addition to unsprung weight that is going to destroy the handling and feel of the car.

I would love to be wrong, because I love big brakes. But I can't help but think that a 6 pot caliper and monster discs off a Cayenne or RS6 is just FAR too much for our cars.
 
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It was to cheap to pass on as fell into the trap of buying 911 rears before it was pointed out a bad upgrade only cost me £20 to go from 911 rears with worn discs and pads to the 6 pots with brand new discs and pads but if they hadn't fell at my feet would have probably got 911 turbo fronts 
 
16Klappe said:
:keule:

You pair are funny.

MASSIVE over kill and frankly retarded, a Cayenne is 2.6 TONS, thats TWICE the weight of an A3. And don't forget the monster addition to unsprung weight that is going to destroy the handling and feel of the car.

I would love to be wrong, because I love big brakes. But I can't help but think that a 6 pot caliper and monster discs off a Cayenne or RS6 is just FAR too much for our cars.
Click to expand...

Lol! depends what sort of power your running I suppose...:whistle2:
 
16Klappe said:
I am currently running 312mm's and having used Prawns Brembo's and done one track day on them I will not have them by the end of this year. They don't have the thickness to get rid of the heat. Look at the color my discs, then ask yourself if you are happy with your brakes getting that hot -
Click to expand...

I hate to break this to you, thick discs dont get rid of heat...... thick discs have a higher thermal capacity which means they take longer to get hot but also take longer to cool....

Do you guys not think about ducting to the brakes?

maybe spare a little room in the air flow for ducts onto brake before you start dropping £600 on daft brembos. Trust me, it WILL make a difference!


(and yes i agree, HI-spec calipers are rubbish, but dont go thinking brembo are gods of brakes either.....)
 
eddieantifreeze said:
I hate to break this to you, thick discs dont get rid of heat...... thick discs have a higher thermal capacity which means they take longer to get hot but also take longer to cool....
Click to expand...

Regardless of how much ducting you have a 25x312mm discs is simply inadequate for our cars in anything more than standard road driving. As proven by my bright blue discs, and that is from a stripped out A3 so never mind an S3 on the same discs. I certainly wouldn't be happy doing anything fast road on 312's. But yes I agree with what you are saying as to the thickness of the discs effecting the time it takes to heat up but I strongly disagree in your statement of "thick discs dont get rid of heat" because it is totally wrong. Thicker discs DO get rid of heat because a thicker discs will inevitably have a thicker central vane to allow better cooling.

Ducting is a good and well documented idea, I suggest buying some TT inner arch trims and cutting the vents out of those. There are some great threads on ducting with pictures on UKMK4's.
 
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312's are fine on an A3 for fast road.

Its all about disc and pad combination, cheap discs will turn to cheese but my OEM ones have been fine and they get a right hammering.
 
JoeD said:
Lol! depends what sort of power your running I suppose...:whistle2:
Click to expand...

Not really Joe, Bills ibiza runs 600bhp+, and he uses standard ibiza cupra R calipers, DS3000 pads on i THINK 330mm discs.

My LCR brembos, with decent discs and DS3000 / Mintex 1177 race pads are more than enough to easily overcome the tyres, at which point increased braking isn't going to help at you at all.

bedding in my pads last night I did 20-25 HARD stops from 80mph down to 20, and I could not get the brakes to fade, at all, they're strong enough to bring the ABS in at ANY speed braking in a straight line, and that's with semi slick tyres too, so FAR more grip than your average road tyre.

I still think thicker discs are better though, I don't see how they'd take longer to cool really, the actual 'plates' either side don't seem much thicker, just the air void in between the two parts of the disc, more air flow, has to aid cooling.

Also, many people who have run 325/25mm discs have had issues with warping and over heating, yet the same systems have not suffered when using 323/28mm discs.

Also people, don't be fooled into thinking Porsche calipers are an upgrade over LCR/Jnr GT calipers, I run both on my two cars, and they're very much the same really

I do agree that 312's are plenty good enough for fast road use though, unless you're braking too much!
 
Has anyone used brembos of a megane sport? Seen a few going cheap, been told they are the same as the brembos as the jnr kit, anyone know if thats true? Also are they mono block aswell?
 
Hadders runs Megane Brembos on his S3, and rates them very highly. They felt fairly good when I went in his car too. Drop him a PM and point him in the direction of this thread!
 
Set of Ksports for the £800 mark if you want to get a bit more serious in your spending.
 
Bigger brakes are more for show than anything. It's like winding down the coilies all the way on the car, it's not pratical, but it does look sweet. Well the same can be said for bigger brakes (In my opinion of course). They just look impressive behind some 19's, sure it's a waste of money, but quite a few mods that people do aren't really upgrades, they just change the appearence. I'd rather have nice big carriers with Porsche on them than the standard ones that are on my S3. My appologies tho, for wanting to mod for looks over performance.
 
JoeD said:
Bigger brakes are more for show than anything. It's like winding down the coilies all the way on the car, it's not pratical, but it does look sweet. Well the same can be said for bigger brakes (In my opinion of course). They just look impressive behind some 19's, sure it's a waste of money, but quite a few mods that people do aren't really upgrades, they just change the appearence. I'd rather have nice big carriers with Porsche on them than the standard ones that are on my S3. My appologies tho, for wanting to mod for looks over performance.
Click to expand...

Oh no, not at all, I quite agree, big brakes DO look awesome!

I just wanted to get across the point that beyond LCR brembo 4 pots, none of the bigger setups offer any huge performance increase, when compared to the massive jump in performance from 312's up to brembos.
 
Points taken,

apologies for wrong end of the stick, yes bigger better vented brakes will cool quicker. no idea why i was talking as if they were solid discs - nobody uses them anymore!

If you were serious about ducting for trackday use i would just suggest running some proper ducting (70mm diameter ish), cable tie under the car, not too close to the front corner incase you get kerb happy and run it along the bottom arm pointing onto the disc. i know this isnt practical for road use but it would definately help on the track.

At the risk of asking a stupid question, (im not trying to put anyones noses out of joint) with any standard brake setup, you will struggle to get much more than 10-15 min runs of seriously hard braking on a circuit, how long are the runs that your doing? (i know the ring is different) Also are you doing a proper cooling down in lap?

sorry if i sound like an ****, just trying to help....
 
no that's a perfectly good question to ask mate!

I've found that with my LCR brembos and proper race pads, I can do a 20 minute track session without any braking issues at all, I don't know how long I could continue this, but I've certainly not got them to fade on me yet!

At the ring I've comfortably done 3 back to back laps, all around 9 minute pace without suffering from brake fade, so that's 27 minutes of solid abuse.

When running 312mm S3 brakes, even with DS2500 pads and black diamond discs, I couldn't complete 1 lap of the ring without experiencing fade. back to back laps were totally out of the question.

I always cool off my brakes after a track session, at the Combe action days where you're sessioned I come off the track, keep moving all the time, then go for a 2-3 mile drive on the road without braking at all to let them cool. I do the same after a lap of the Ring if I'm not doing 2 on the bounce.

At an open pitlane day I do 1-2 coasting laps to let everything cool down (turbo as well as brakes) before coming into the pits and switching off. handbrake never goes on either, as that's suicide!
 
fairplay mate - you do everything right!!

i wont forget doing a bmw day in the fiesta xr2 (it is a race car but still only 125bhp). some bloke in a brand new M3 CSL who obviously couldnt drive was not happy at being caught by a shed of a fiesta, kept on and wouldnt let me through, i got bored and came in to pits just as it seems he discovered brake fade on his carbon ceramics - he pulled straight in the pits, stopped and had a lovely pair of discs catch on fire - the idiot.....
 
thanks for all your replys, seem's like there's quite a varity of brakes then...

im not after anything amazing for track use, purly to fill the wheels better as the standard brakes just look silly behind 19's. and it would be nice to have them there just incase i do ever have a bash on track...

so with the seat cupra brembo's, are they a direct fit without needing any alterations?
 
s3dave said:
There is no need to do the rears as they seem to be very heavy on the fronts....
Click to expand...

I've got S3 rears.

They make **** all difference but they do balance the car out better, here's a picture of 312's so you can imagine the difference -

3060816-2.jpg


2011-09-18145131.jpg
 
leon cupra R brembos are a direct fit yes, you'll need the calipers, carriers, all bolts, discs, pads, and lines.

You'll also need minimum 17'' rims, and depending on the rim style, wheel spacers to clear the brakes too.

for the rears, if you want to upgrade and keep the balance, you can fit S3 / LCR 256mm vented rears, compared ot the standard 232x9mm sold rears you have now
 
Expect to pay£4-500 for brembos, plus possibly discs and pads depending on condition, then around £100 for an s3 rear setup, plus discs and pads again.

Brakes arnt cheap, my setup front and rear cost just over a grand! And some people pay twice that!
 
Quick question while I'm here my rear calliper thread was leaking last week and couldn't be repaired so upgraded to s3 256x22 rears both sides with new callipers as I'm getting 312 fronts next month but now the brakes are s##t they fade in to a decent stop but not very good at all compared to before they would stop instantly as a brake should any idea I've bled them 5-6 times with an eazi bleed the pedal feels better than it did before nice and firm no air inside any chance this would have changed the brake bias or do they just need bedding in? No change to the front brakes so that confused me, any help much appreciated gentlemen.
 
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