Rear disc conversion

[rasmuswesterman]

So I got a Ibiza 6j 1.4 TDI with drum brakes in the rear, which I am not a fan of. I can see that there is to holes in the rear beam for disc brakes behind the drums, so I was wondering what was needed to convert it to disc brakes?

 

[Fmxvxx]

For the performance advantage this would give it isn't worth the cost I believe you can do this conversion without a rear axle swap but still need calipers disc pads guards flanges flexi pipes hand brake cables etc.

 

[RUM4MO]

I am also not a fan of rear drum brakes, mainly due to the ease of working on the rear discs as opposed to rear drums, but, my wife has a Polo 1.2TSI 110PS bought new in August 2015 and right now its mileage is 4534 miles and the rear discs are in a shocking state!

Nothing new in that though I'm sure her last Polo also bought new in September 2002 - also with rear discs, at that age did not have that issue, I think that that car only got its rear discs and pads replaced once in its 13 years/104K miles of ownership.

So there you have it, easy to work on V will need worked on frequently, okay daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 SC with rear drums ended up with seized on handbrake a few times within its warranty period, but since then I've cleaned the drums up once and cleaned up the shoes etc, though now it seems like the auto adjustor has seized - so that is a job needing doing eventually though the brakes and handbrake action is not yet affected.

The trouble with rear discs on these small VAG cars seems to be that the rear brakes do not get much work to do, so do not warm up and so suffer from corrosion in wet cold weather.

 

[rasmuswesterman]

Thanks you for answers, I mostly want to do the disc swap because of looks, on this car the performance isn't that important.


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[RUM4MO]

BTW, I'm still trying to get hold of a suitable "OE" colour paint that is flat/matt/satin, obviously light grey and holds back rust! Currently I am using Hammerite(?) rust convertor then underbody flexible covering, that combo is not holding back the rusty marks any longer than 10 months, prior to that I stripped all paint off, used a wire brush on an angle grinder followed by Hammerite undercoat followed by the grey underbody covering, that lasted a year before showing signs of rust.

It is easy to paint them satin finish Hammerite black, as that will mask the colour of the rust, but it does not look "original"!

So, another year and with it will come another spray of that grey underbody coating - this time no wire brushing and rust retardant!

That Ibiza having 17" five spoke alloys really does show off these nasty rusting drums!

 

[Fmxvxx]

Personally I would wire wheel to bare metal and use VHT caliper paint lots of thin coats should last 2-3 years.

 

[RUM4MO]

Personally I would wire wheel to bare metal and use VHT caliper paint lots of thin coats should last 2-3 years.

The only trouble there is, the most of the outside surface of these drums is not a "finished" surface, ie it has not been skimmed after being removed from the casting mould, the imperfections (pot holes) and graininess that you get from that process remain and so you can't get back to shiny metal prior to painting - and that is where the annoying re-rusting begins - and that will displace any number of coats of paint as rusting expands the material locally. Painting them beige or brown - now that is a (crap) idea, but would hid the rust.(joke)