Brake upgrade

[Mollygoogle]

I’ve asked before and didn’t get far so I’m trying again.

I’m looking at brake upgrades for my A6 and want to know my options for upgrading within the Audi range.

On my old A4, it was as simple as changing the carriers. Is the same true of the A6?

 

[Mollygoogle]

So no one knows how the front calipers are fitted? Or whether the same caliper is used for the different sized disks?

 

[odonald]

I think you can fit an Sline twin pot or R6 callipers to the A6 3.0 ltr or above.

 

[Mollygoogle]

But how do you fit the larger brakes that aren’t from the S/RS?

 

[odonald]

well i'v been told that Sline calliper carrier are 146/7mm from one bolt hole to the other, which seems to be the same as the carriers on the Audi 3.2fsi.
But best bet if there not Audi brakes that you fitting is to ask Brembo.

 

[Mollygoogle]

The whole point is that I want to fit Audi brakes. The standard cars come with various sizes of brakes. I want to fit bigger ones than I have.

Do all none S/RS cars use the same caliper with different carriers?

 

[odonald]

I'd measure between your calliper carriers bolt holes and get who ever your buying brakes from to measure theres.

 

[Stickystuff]

Unfortunately after searching the forum myself I didn’t find too much. I know that the Quattro brakes are slightly larger then non Quattro models. The V8 A6 uses an even larger disc on the front and I’m pretty sure larger rear disc too.

I’ve wctually got the V8 front disc(350mm) fitted under the 6piston callipers from a Touareg on the front of my A6. I’ve not got round to upgrading the rear yet but some V8 or S6 rears are what I’ll be fitting.

Here’s a pic of mine fitted. Not the best pic but you get the idea.

 

[Mollygoogle]

What was needed to fit the Touareg calipers?

 

[Joxford2018]

Hi I am currently running the Audi A8 D3 360 mm frount setup on my A6 C6 Avant, this is a really nice setup for fast Road use, it is basically a strait swop apart from the solid brake hose which will require shortening and the brake line/wire carrier which required a modification, but it’s easy enough to do.
Try searching for.
Audi A8 D3 V6 V8 Front Caliper For 360X34mm Discs 4E0615123
The Calipers are a sliding twin pot design, the pads are huge compared to a standard setup, its a bargain for a very good upgrade, and some of the best brakes I have fitted to a road car.
If your are after a track setup that can get expensive quickly.

 

[Mollygoogle]

That’s some great info. Thank you. So, the calipers are a straight swap and the carriers stay the same?

 

[Joxford2018]

Calipers and carriers need to be replaced these are a straight swap. Minimum wheel size is 18 inch.
Here is a picture of my new Red Stuff pads vs the original pad from the 345mm disk set as supplied on my car, as You can see they are a huge pad, even though I have only increased the disk size by 15mm, the difference in braking is very impressive.
The reason I have a set of EBC pads waiting to go on is I over enjoyed this setup after initially fitting it to my last car, and went through a set of standard Brembo pads in less than 10k, as it took awhile for my cost effective supplier to get these in I had to fit another set of Brembo standard pads.
Again for the money this is a very good upgrade.

 

[Mollygoogle]

That’s excellent info. Thank you. My discs are 321 so quite a substantial upgrade for my. I have 9x19 speedlines so plenty of room for the upgrade

 

[Joxford2018]

I think your car has the same brake setup as my previous A6 2.7 Tdi Quattro, 321mm vented front with 302mm solid rear disks. In the end for that car I fitted the A8 360mm setup as above and used the 330mm vented rear disks calipers and carriers from the A6 3.0 Tdi Quattro. If you only do the 360 mm front upgrade you will cook the rear solid disk setup very quickly, and will end up with braking problems, due to over heating after useing the brakes in anger.

What is slightly frustrating with the 302mm rears is that the calipers will accept the 20mm vented disks. At first I sourced the 330mm carriers but then found that the hole distance on the carriers is wider than the 302mm brake Caliper so it was not possible to bolt the calipers to the carriers.. So if you go down this route try to find some 3.0 Tdi rears with the carriers , However having a quick look it seems that the breakers are catching onto this and now selling them separately.
I think the part numbers for the calipers are:
AF0 615 403 H. Left side
AF0 615 404 H right side
From memory I think the 330mm vented rear setup cost me more than the 360mm front.
If you do wish to upgrade the rears I have a spare set of 330mm carriers available.

Upgrading the front & rears at the same time will give you a huge improvement, for which you won’t be disappointed. When I did my original upgrade I also replaced all of the brake hoses using new standard like for like hoses with a good quality Dot 4 brake fluid, I’m not exaggerating as soon as I took the car out of the garage to start the bedding in process, the brakes felt immediately firmer and more responsive and egur to slow the car down, with less brake peddle pressure being applied unlike before the upgrade.
Another interesting side effect after this upgrade was how little the ABS would kick in, before when braking heavily the brakes would snatch quite quickly and the ABS would be going on and off like mad, and after the upgrade it virtually never kick in unless you absolutely stamped on the brake pedal.

 

[Mollygoogle]

Thank you for yet more excellent information!

Makes a great deal of sense to do the tests as they already get ******. I do indeed have the set up you describe above and they simply aren’t up to the job of stopping a tuned 3.0.

What price for the rear carriers?

 

[Stickystuff]

I’ve messaged you about the Touareg upgrade. Sorry for the time delay

 

[Allroad22]

Hi I am currently running the Audi A8 D3 360 mm frount setup on my A6 C6 Avant, this is a really nice setup for fast Road use, it is basically a strait swop apart from the solid brake hose which will require shortening and the brake line/wire carrier which required a modification, but it’s easy enough to do.
Try searching for.
Audi A8 D3 V6 V8 Front Caliper For 360X34mm Discs 4E0615123
The Calipers are a sliding twin pot design, the pads are huge compared to a standard setup, its a bargain for a very good upgrade, and some of the best brakes I have fitted to a road car.
If your are after a track setup that can get expensive quickly.

Hi Joxford,

I know this post is from a few years ago but do you remember what size or reference did you use for the solid brake hoses?

Thanks.