New Brakes are on
it looks like both me and swamppy dont like VWs standard setup for brakes, older members might remember me going on about upgrading them to the larger setup not long after i got the car, i then found out that it already had the larger V6 setup as standard :embarrest:
started doing so research into cheap upgrades last year thinking along the lines of the brembo setup off the leon curpra R but these we going for silly money for the calipers alone -these are the same calipers that are on the ferrari 355 just with smaller pistions
then thought about using the R32 setup these were going pretty cheapish. however the problem comes when you get to the new discs OEM - close to £300
each even a semi decent set seemed to be close to £150 each one. the other issue was the size 334mm does mean that id need new wheels as well as the 17" wouldn't fit over them on top of the weight.
reading up i found that the porsche 996 rear brakes didnt have a handbrake mechanism and could be used as a straight swap on the front (calipers are trailing on the 911 and leading on the bora so no swapping lines over) with just requiring a carrier. this setup allowed me to retain the 312mm V6 discs and actually save weight due to the callipers being monoblock aluminium rather than cast.
there are several companies selling this setup at a rather nice cost of around £1k. spend around a month watching several calliper sets on ebay but there were few off the correct tyre and people were wanting close to £300 for the pair. quick check on ebay.com turned up a breaking 996 couple of emails later the calipers were on there way to me cost just over £200 by the time i had paid customs the vat. was shocked at how good a condition they were in
gave then a quick trail fit to make sure that they would fit without requiring spacers
just
Side by side
seeing as i like the sleeper look having Porsche on each calliper was a bit towards the wrong direction. gave them a quick rub down and painted them grey however i must have had dodgy paint as it didnt dry properly, stripped it back and redone them in hammered black.
Ok on with todays work -excuse the photos as forgot to take my camera so had to make do with the phone
Original setup starting to look tired
pads themselves were in quite good condition however
did run into a problem with the screw on one disc not bad seeing as i would guess these were the original discs will need to a replacement up ( i know these arnt actually needed but its a pain as the disc kept slipping off the hub when i was trying to get the wheel back on
all to geather
dics were nitrac cross grooved disc
pads were mintex M1144 pads - was going to go with ds2500 but changed my mind after getting good reviews on these. however they arnt so good on the track without additional cooling
brake lines were braided ones from HEL
and just halfords 5.1 brake fluid - this will probably be left just now. originally i was going to use it to bleed the brakes then do a full bleed including the ABS with requires VCDS (vagcom)
Quick review
. i didnt get as long as i wanted as left the carputer on while i was working on it and sort of killed the battery and the way it was sitting in the drive was too hard to jump start it normally. ended up using some 13amp wire between the two cars and left it 10 mins - no way was i going to try jumping it with that thin a cable.
1st impressions.
pedal is nice and firm.
much better bite and on the heavier braking periods was actually making me slide forward on the seat. waiting until they are full bed in before giving them a full on stomp
only downside ive found is i did away with the wear sensor so now have an error. this will need to be coded out with vagcom once i find the correct setting
not bad for less than half of what the likes of ECS charge for the same kit
The calipers are still black and it's not something you'd notice unless you looked for it.
