PORSCHE BREMBO 6 & 4 Piston BIG BRAKE Upgrade Thread (Leon 1m/mk1)

[Leon20vt4]

Hey guys just wanted to put this out there some proper information on upgrading Leon brakes to the big ole 18z Porsche Cayenne Brembo setup. not to be confused with the 17z's that are SHITE for our cars since the caliper pistons are bigger supposedly the master cylinder cant keep up.

That being said I'm actually doing the full cayenne setup to my car front and rear... ridiculous i know but with my FINAL HP goals now changing to 650hp on e85 and 500hp on 100/98 octane and traveling (not street racing ofcourse) on the autobahn and racing on the track i figured why not have brakes that can rip my face off when needed and also be daily drivable that are not loud race pads / Especially not burn my wallet everytime i need to replace a warped rotor...

There are many options for brake rotors and setups but im swimming up river on this because im disatisfied with premanufactured options. You can have 360 or 370mm audi ttrs or Rs5 discs that will cost you 500 minimum for a pair. Or 334mm R32 discs that are technically too small for these pads as it doesnt utilize the entire pad surface and those cost around 175 to 200 for a pair.

Here are the Caliper and rotor specs incase anyone was wondering.

LCR 4 pot brembo front: 36/40 (4549.02mm^2)

LC/4 2 pot slider front 54mm (4580.44mm^2)

LCR 2 pot slider rear 38mm (2268.23mm^2)

Porsche 18Z 6 pot front 30/34/38 (5497.78mm^2)

Porsche 18Z 4 pot rear 30/28 (2645.22mm^2)

LC/4 Front discs : 312/25mm

LCR Front discs : 323/28mm

R32 Front discs : 334/32mm

Audi S4 Front discs : 345/30mm (Custom Option)

Jaguar F-Pace Front discs: 350/32mm (Custom Option)

Volvo XC60 II Front discs: 366/30mm (Custom Option)

LCR/LC4 Rear discs: 256/22mm

Phaeton Rear discs : 310/22mm

Audi A6 Rear discs : 330/22mm

Audi S4 Rear discs 330/22mm (Custom Option)


The best choice for least headache and plug and play kit from epytec for the porsche calipers is the mk4 R32 334mm fronts matched with the VW Phaeton 310mm rears. With that setup you will have a 68% front braking bias. But something to consider is the Cayenne 18z stock runs on 350mm front discs and 330mm rear discs. With a larger sweeping area than these discs have, so you wont use the entire pad surface.

If you want a better brake bias and want the perfect front disc sweeping area with the smallest lightest (cheap) disc possible than go with the Audi S4 quattro front discs and Phaeton 310mm rears. Epytec will make you a custom adapter for the front discs and change the PCD when asked. This will increase your brake bias similar to stock above 70% front brake bias and youre utilizing the entire front pad.

But I want to have bigger discs because why the hell not im doing a custom setup i might as well do what will make me drool every day i look at the car and see massive ass brake discs behind my 18" wheels.

I will be going with the XC60 II front brake discs at 366x30mm and the S4 Quattro Rear discs at 330x22mm.
This will give me a 71% front braking bias and will be using all of the pad surface area front and rear.
Epytec will make me custom adapters for both the front and rear and i will have to change the PCD to 5x100 for all 4 discs.


Many people are saying the brake pedal will be too soft, and i guess that boils down to opinion, I for one dont like a pedal where I put my pinky toe on it and it slams my head forward, a nice progressive pedal that gets stronger as you put it too the floor is my favorite. again daily drivable for the wifey and I while being able to go 300kmph to 0 as fast as possible. The weight of the Cayenne is alot more so I'm assuming these will do the trick. To combat the brake pedal softness issue I will be installing stainess braided brake lines all around along with vacuum flushing the old fluid out for new (rather expensive) racing brake fluid. I'm hoping itll be the way i like it... when not I will either change the setup and sell everything to the next dream boy over here in Germany or make a Master cylinder upgrade myself. Others say I will have a hard time and the tires wont stop the car, I'm combatting that with 255 wide tires in all 4 corners since i am running a quattro setup. Lastly to solve the problem of no rear E-Brake I will be running the stock 38mm sliding calipers as a 2nd rear caliper just for the E-brake.


I will be updating this post with the DIY when I do this in 2 months or so.

PS. What color should i paint the calipers? (Imola Yellow Leon)


Price List:

18z 6 piston Fronts: 350€
18z 4 piston Rear: 100€
366mm front rotors with PCD change: 170€
330mm rear rotors with PCD change: 90€
Brembo Front Pads: 90€ (EBC yellows 250€)
Brembo Rear Pads: 55€ (EBC yellows 160 €)
Stainless steel brake lines front and rear: 160€
Racing Brake Fluid 1L: 30€
Front Epytec Adapter Kit: 180€
Rear Dual Caliper Adapter Kit: 550€

Total: 1775€ (2000€ with EBC Yellows)

Not a bad price for the hopefully the biggest baddest brakes on a 2000€ budget, for you blokes in the UK this shoud be even cheaper. 1500-1750 quid

 

[Andrewwright]

Nice info. Look forward to the end result. Far to much for my budget but that's me.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Leon20vt4]

Nice info. Look forward to the end result. Far to much for my budget but that's me.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

For sure it’s a pretty penny, the rear kit is what puts it over the top.

If you were on a 1k or less budget it could be done with the stock Cupra R 326mm discs and the cayenne 6 pots up front. Then a bigger 310mm disc in the rear using the stock brake caliper. You’d have some serious stopping power for about 800 quid


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Zardoz]

I'd go for colour matched callipers, yellow all the way.

 

[bruceR]

Yellow calipers and black decals, defo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lightup]

For sure it’s a pretty penny, the rear kit is what puts it over the top.

If you were on a 1k or less budget it could be done with the stock Cupra R 326mm discs and the cayenne 6 pots up front. Then a bigger 310mm disc in the rear using the stock brake caliper. You’d have some serious stopping power for about 800 quid


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

cool setup, will be looking sweet.

think i will be going with the 310 mm disc in the rear for now for looks.
thanks for the write up.

 

[Leon20vt4]

I'd go for colour matched callipers, yellow all the way.

I think you’re right about that one. Yellow doesn’t really mix to others besides black


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Leon20vt4]

Yellow calipers and black decals, defo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Black Brembo decals or Black Porsche decals


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Legojon]

Black Brembo decals or Black Porsche decals

I'd go Porsche, cause they are. And everyone's got Brembo.

 

[Leon20vt4]

I'd go Porsche, cause they are. And everyone's got Brembo.

I was thinking the same


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bruceR]

I’ve got the 4 pots on front - black with white Porsche decals - look cracking .
I pulled up at traffic lights and a boy racer in a poor looking Cupra dropped his window and said “I wish I’d got the Porsche brake upgrade on mine” , all I thought was “ what a **** now f**k off” as he revved it within an inch of its life


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigT's lcr]

How about black calipers with yellow Porsche decals? And there onmy 350 for the calipers!!! New 4pot bremvos are about 500 over here!! And also have you got the standard lcr 18" alloys? Mine are 225 and was wanting to go wider like you 255?

 

[Leon20vt4]

The standard Cupra R wheels are only 18x7.5 so unfortunately you can’t fit anything wider than 235/35/18 anything wider is just ridiculous for that wheel. 225/40/18 or 35/18 is what I would run but a nice tire. It’ll make up for the 10mm difference of a 235 **** tire


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Leon20vt4]

How about black calipers with yellow Porsche decals? And there onmy 350 for the calipers!!! New 4pot bremvos are about 500 over here!! And also have you got the standard lcr 18" alloys? Mine are 225 and was wanting to go wider like you 255?

I’m trying to run 18x9 Porsche 5 spoke BBS lightweight wheels. To show off the huge brakes. Hard as **** to get these wheels. When I don’t find them then I don’t know what to do haha maybe bbs ch002 or something else

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigT's lcr]

Nice man, i really love the cupra r 18s but i wish i could have a wider wheel. Just looking at it from the rear they seem a little on the slim side.

 

[Leon20vt4]

Nice man, i really love the cupra r 18s but i wish i could have a wider wheel. Just looking at it from the rear they seem a little on the slim side.

I agree they should be 18x8.5


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DOLBY]

Hi good read.

So am I right in assuming the bigger you go brake wise the softer the pedal feel would be? I always thought it would be opposite.

Also with your rear brake upgrade I wanted this too but there isn't a brake guard for this size as I really wouldn't want to be getting any crud in the brakes without having one.

 

[Leon20vt4]

Hi good read.

So am I right in assuming the bigger you go brake wise the softer the pedal feel would be? I always thought it would be opposite.

Also with your rear brake upgrade I wanted this too but there isn't a brake guard for this size as I really wouldn't want to be getting any crud in the brakes without having one.

Yes the bigger brake pistons area you have the softer the pedal, the more the master cylinder has to work.

As for the rear upgrade if you go with slotted rotors this keeps the crud out of the brakes by always sweeping the pads. If it’s a huge worry I’m sure something could be mocked up rather easily... it is only sheet metal Aluminium


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DOLBY]

I just mean behind the brakes as in if you get mud and all sorts behind it or even excess water leading to rust that can't be swept etc. But yeh I'm sure something can be made up, but I'm sure lots of people have put that size brakes on rear there must be a dust guard a available.

 

[bruceR]

What about if you were to remove the rear dust shield, flatten it with a mallet and refit it - it might be close enough to cover the inner diameter of the discs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk