Hi, realised yesterday my brakes are in need of replacement soon, and think i might just go the whole hog and get all 4 done.. can anyone point me in the right direction? not sure of the differences between drilled/grooved etc.. how much would i be looking to pay for 4 dics and pads?
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Uprated Brakes
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I've just ordered a few bits from GSF:
Brembo max grooved front discs (26.50 + vat). I was looking at Zimmerman cross drilled, but I hear they're more prone to cracking.
Pagid fast road pads (£37.50 + vat) for the Brembo discs, and standard rear discs (£15.75)and pads (£16.85)....should all arrive Monday for my Tuesday service.
NB. Discs come as single items, pads come as a pair
I think you've got a 16v so prices may vary slightly as your fronts are 280 and mine are 256
Brembo max grooved front discs (26.50 + vat). I was looking at Zimmerman cross drilled, but I hear they're more prone to cracking.
Pagid fast road pads (£37.50 + vat) for the Brembo discs, and standard rear discs (£15.75)and pads (£16.85)....should all arrive Monday for my Tuesday service.
NB. Discs come as single items, pads come as a pair
I think you've got a 16v so prices may vary slightly as your fronts are 280 and mine are 256
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Pads actually come as an axle set - i.e. 4 pads - 2 pads per disc.Smithy said:
What do you want from your discs? Better heat dissipation or cleaning up the pad where you've glazed them? For heat dissipation, go drilled. For pad cleaning, go grooved.
Cross drilled discs are prone to cracking under extreme use. The Zimmermans i've got on my 8v have been on there for a couple of years now - but the car has spent quite a bit of that time laid up as i've been overseas. It's been road rallied a few times I tend not to be too heavy on brake components anyway.
Grooved discs clean your pads up a treat, but tend to munch pads pretty quickly. Think about how they clean the pad - they work like a cheesegrater.
One thing to be aware of with both types - brake dust will accumulate in the holes of drilled discs, or the grooves of grooved discs. You need to clean the discs up regularly to get the most benefit.
One of these days, i'm going to get around to fitting the 280's that I've had waiting to go on for well over a year now...
ok thanks for the replies. so does front and rear pads, and just front discs what i should be getting? is GSF got an online shop? or even a website? sorry i am totally knew to the brakes..
yeah just really want my brakes to work well, the standard ones never fill me with confidence, always seem a bit spongey.
yeah just really want my brakes to work well, the standard ones never fill me with confidence, always seem a bit spongey.
ibizadrew
Guest
GSF = German Swedish and French. They have branches all over the country, and an online store (www.gsfcarparts.com). If they are spongey, have you tried changing the brake fluid?
2 ways to go here...
If you have the money (£500+) then a front disc conversion to four pot Brembo or Wilwoods is on the cards.
Otherwise you're looking to maximise the braking from the standard setup:
Before doing anything else make sure all the brakes are in good order & working well. The rear caliper slides on the 16v are prone to seizing which impairs their efficiency & can also cause strange anomolies such as "squirming/fidgeting" when braking at speed.
Renew the brake fluid & replace with Dot 5.1 (Halfords etc). You won't need racing spec fluid unless you're considering track days.
Next, change the front discs to something like ATE Power Discs (eurocarparts.com) or Brembo Max (gsfcarparts.com) with Pagid (GSF) or ATE (ECP) pads.
As for the rear discs, if they need renewing, just replace with plain discs (ATE etc) & decent pads. There's no real advantage to be gained from spending a lot of money on these but its a good idea to keep the pads similar to maintain the balance between front & rear braking.
You may experience a "spongy" feel if the flexible pipes to the brakes need replacing - used braided hoses such as Goodridge etc.
Don't forget you can get a discount on ECP parts by ordering Stu on the Euro Car Parts forum on this site!
If you have the money (£500+) then a front disc conversion to four pot Brembo or Wilwoods is on the cards.
Otherwise you're looking to maximise the braking from the standard setup:
Before doing anything else make sure all the brakes are in good order & working well. The rear caliper slides on the 16v are prone to seizing which impairs their efficiency & can also cause strange anomolies such as "squirming/fidgeting" when braking at speed.
Renew the brake fluid & replace with Dot 5.1 (Halfords etc). You won't need racing spec fluid unless you're considering track days.
Next, change the front discs to something like ATE Power Discs (eurocarparts.com) or Brembo Max (gsfcarparts.com) with Pagid (GSF) or ATE (ECP) pads.
As for the rear discs, if they need renewing, just replace with plain discs (ATE etc) & decent pads. There's no real advantage to be gained from spending a lot of money on these but its a good idea to keep the pads similar to maintain the balance between front & rear braking.
You may experience a "spongy" feel if the flexible pipes to the brakes need replacing - used braided hoses such as Goodridge etc.
Don't forget you can get a discount on ECP parts by ordering Stu on the Euro Car Parts forum on this site!
brembo plain discs are 21.50 and pagid pads are 35 quid iirc so youll have plenty of change out of 100 quid.
ok so the discs are 21.50 each, and the pads are 35 for 2.. so my total order should be 113? just for the front brakes?
thanks
thanks
don't forget to stick some fresh fluid in - no point using new discs and pads if the fluid ain't been changed in years...
ahem - just to be clear... purge the manky old fluid out of the system with new stuff. If you're changing grade (e.g. going from DOT 4 to DOT 5.1), might as well make sure you thoroughly bleed all the old stuff out - means wasting some of the nice new stuff, but such is life. Personally, i'd just stick to DOT 4 for road use, but that's just me...
hopkinsgm said:Pads actually come as an axle set - i.e. 4 pads - 2 pads per disc.
cordobabrendy said:
Just to clear this up, the part number from GSF relates to a set, like Brendy has said, so there's 4 pads included for about 35 quid. The guy I spoke to at GSF explained this to me because I did ask whether or not I should buy 2 sets. Sorry for not explaining it amazingly well in my first post.
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