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I had no intention of doing this as my stock brakes were perfectly adequate except for excessive dust & some pad knock-back due to excessive lipping on the rotors but...
A guy was clearing out his garage & had GTI calipers, carriers, pads, rotors & braided lines that he wanted to get rid of & I offered him the equivalent of a case of bear for them & he said yep. It was a no brainer when the pick-up was 5 minutes from work.
There isn't a lot of visual difference between the shopping trolley brakes of the Elegance/Ambiente & the GTI/vRS/Jetta 147 version except the disc rotor diameter is increased from 288mm to 312mm. Both are 25mm thick.
Caliper dimensions & functionality are identical but the caliper carrier has slightly longer legs on the GTI to accomodate the bigger rotor.
Brake pad profile is identical & I assume the material is the same as they both dust up like mofos & wear the disc away at the same rate.
Surprisingly, even at 312mm most OEM 16" rims will fit over the calipers.
The rotors were badly lipped & not worth sending to the machinist. I attacked them with the angle grinder. They look like crap now but will probably work - at least until the pads wear away. No photos - too embarrassing.
The calipers & carriers were disgustingly filthy. I don't intend to use the calipers as I couldn't be arsed having to break into the hydraulics & bleed the system afterwards so I'll stick with my stock calipers until the next brake flush is due & then probably just fit the braided lines.
The carriers were also disgusting & I want to keep this car OEM looking. Staying with red was out of the question so a spray job was needed.
As purchased - filthy.
Clean up in degreaser & detergent & stiff bristle brush.
Painted carriers drying in the sun
I haven't fitted them yet as I want to change out the rubber bushes that the caliper slide pins sit in. These have a habit of going hard (or soft) after a few years & causing uneven pad wear, poor brake response, etc. You can buy new rubber bushes for about $30 but I was thinking about getting a TyrolSport Brake Caliper Stiffening Kit
But they are USD95 plus postage which seems a bit OTT for what it is. I've started looking into what is available in stock sintered bronze bushes locally or OS. I think I'll be able to achieve a similar outcome without need for machining for a lot less money.
I'll update as things develop...
A guy was clearing out his garage & had GTI calipers, carriers, pads, rotors & braided lines that he wanted to get rid of & I offered him the equivalent of a case of bear for them & he said yep. It was a no brainer when the pick-up was 5 minutes from work.
There isn't a lot of visual difference between the shopping trolley brakes of the Elegance/Ambiente & the GTI/vRS/Jetta 147 version except the disc rotor diameter is increased from 288mm to 312mm. Both are 25mm thick.
Caliper dimensions & functionality are identical but the caliper carrier has slightly longer legs on the GTI to accomodate the bigger rotor.
Brake pad profile is identical & I assume the material is the same as they both dust up like mofos & wear the disc away at the same rate.
Surprisingly, even at 312mm most OEM 16" rims will fit over the calipers.
The rotors were badly lipped & not worth sending to the machinist. I attacked them with the angle grinder. They look like crap now but will probably work - at least until the pads wear away. No photos - too embarrassing.
The calipers & carriers were disgustingly filthy. I don't intend to use the calipers as I couldn't be arsed having to break into the hydraulics & bleed the system afterwards so I'll stick with my stock calipers until the next brake flush is due & then probably just fit the braided lines.
The carriers were also disgusting & I want to keep this car OEM looking. Staying with red was out of the question so a spray job was needed.
As purchased - filthy.
Clean up in degreaser & detergent & stiff bristle brush.
Painted carriers drying in the sun
I haven't fitted them yet as I want to change out the rubber bushes that the caliper slide pins sit in. These have a habit of going hard (or soft) after a few years & causing uneven pad wear, poor brake response, etc. You can buy new rubber bushes for about $30 but I was thinking about getting a TyrolSport Brake Caliper Stiffening Kit
But they are USD95 plus postage which seems a bit OTT for what it is. I've started looking into what is available in stock sintered bronze bushes locally or OS. I think I'll be able to achieve a similar outcome without need for machining for a lot less money.
I'll update as things develop...
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