NQS BBK A Not Quite So Big Brake Kit..NQS Rear mods now.....

[Hedge]

Probably more

[Janner_Sy]

thats the second time you've referred to dale this week.  is there something your not telling us

[G4V VW]

I received my calipers back earlier this week after DaveB worked his magic on them. I am delighted with how they turned out!! I can't wait to get them on the car and will post up some better pics then. Here is the before and after pics (you will see that I opted for postbox red without Porsche decals despite the temptation of 'Easyjet orange'   )

Before:



After:

Very nice pal, When ya fitting them?
Need to get the fitting kit off Dave for mine now! 

[SteveP]

Nice on Dave - get em on and lets see what you think.....

Anyway rumour has it apparently its this weekend   

Sorry to disappoint, but I am on my travels up North instead this weekend to collect a new motor for Mrs PG, some project tango will have a wait a few more days 

[muckipup]

I was tied up this weekend so took Monday off work to fit them as I couldn't wait any longer - how keen / desperate is that?  

[muckipup]

Quick update -

I stuck the calipers on yesterday and initial impression (before pads have bedded in) are great!    Fitted easily behind 18" Zenith alloys on an Octavia VRS.

I paired up with a set of new standard discs and some Bosch pads (on looking at the Jurids that I had, they were delivered in an opened box and had some minor chips of the edge of the frictiion material which put me off. The Bosch are made in England so I wouldn't be surprised if they were rebadged Pagids anyway).

I initially had problems with what I think was water still in the caliper / caliper lines after I washed them before sending to DaveB - pedal felt spongey at first and seemed to keep sinking a little bit. A reflush showed milky fluid with bits in it (no bubbles) rather than the golden colour of the fresh ATE SL.6 fluid. Saw this on a further 2 reflushes of the fronts and a lot of fresh fluid. Lesson learned the hard way! A lot better now but may still need another mini-flush for my own piece of mind.

Another lesson learned the hard way - powder coated / laquered calipers do not like brake fluid! Dave B warned me about this and I had a bucket of soapy water ready but a little dribbled out of one of the inside bleed nipples without me noticing and put a whiteish stain. Luckily it was very little and the tin of Hammerite Smooth Red in my garage is an almost exact match to the post box red of the calipers plus it was on the inside of the caliper so not noticeable anyway.

I will post a full write up with lots of pics in the next day or two  

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

Dave

The white bits in the fluid are just bits of the caliper assembly grease thats used on the rebuilds, its lithium and eventually dissolves into the brake fluid with no ill efects as opposed to water based lubricants which negatively effect the brake fluid.

The calipers were completely dissasembled back to their casting and baked at 200 degrees to set the powder coat so its not water, probably a bit of air trapped in the caliepr somewhere. If you drive around on them for a while before rebleeding that will help

Interested as to how the Bosch pads are on a daily, Brakes International aren't stocking Textar/Pagid anymore but they do stock these and have been getting some good feedback on them.

Looking forward to the pics and some 200 mile opinions on how they stop.

[White_Lady_170]

Hey!


Firstly Id like to say Hello! to everyone, this is my first post as I have come from seatcupra.net....

I have followed every page of this thread intently and am hoping to use this upgrade on my MK2 Leon FR tdi.

I am currently running stage 2 DPF delete and custom map which should be producing (not yet proven) ~240bhp and 370lbs/ft

The standard brake setup is just not as capable of anchoring the car up as I would like so a cost effective upgrade is what im after and I think I have found the answer here.

I have a few questions though.

Is the only caliper I should be keeping an eye out for, the Porsche 986 Boxster Front caliper? Is there any others at all that would work in acheiving this new, improved setup? 996 turbo front or rear perhaps?

Secondly apart from ebay, where else is good to find these at a bargain? Ebay at the minute has very little to offer, what criteria are people searching on Ebay? (what should I type into the search bar to get the best results?)

I'm sure I have more questions but I will leave it there for now, Im still trying to get my head around everything that I have read...!

Thanks in advance for any info on the above!

David

[muckipup]

Thanks Dave,

I wondered how there could be water in them after the baking process. That's reassuring to hear. I'll give them a bit of mileage and rebleed next weekend. As mentioned, they feel pretty much there now.

The pedal feel is good. I think the word progressive was used to describe them before and I would agree with that. In fact, the smooth transition felt quite different from the more on/off feel of the standard brakes yet the braking was much stronger without being harsh. The stopping power of these is simply waaay better even with virgin pads (and the possibility that I haven't worked all the air out yet!).

All in all, I am delighted with this set up!!

I'll get some pics up soon and give you a 200 mile opinion which won't take long - I commute 300 miles a week with a lot of windey road work! Say Thursday  

I'll also post up some more pics and a bit of a 'how to' guide on Briskoda.net as these folks should know about this too.

Again, great job with this Dave and many thanks for your help  

[muckipup]

The standard brake setup is just not as capable of anchoring the car up as I would like so a cost effective upgrade is what im after and I think I have found the answer here.

I think you have!

The calipers need to be from the 986 Boxster (987 Caymen is the same) and the part numbers are on Page 8 of this thread where DaveB makes the point clearly.  There are other Porsche calipers which can be fitted but I think the cheapest you will see these start is about £450 as opposed to the £250 tops that you should expect to pay for these. DaveB's mission was about a low cost solution that stood well next to some of these other options.

Just one tip from me:  If you are buying them from ebay then I think it is important to ascertain that the rubber dust boots on the pistons are in good condition. My calipers looked in good condition (and they were) but most of the rubber boots had gone. Luckily the seals inside the piston were OK. Replacing these added to the cost.  If they are getting a repaint or a DaveB's refurb then the colour and external appearance as it appears on ebay isn't that important. What is important is that there are no unforeseen costs on top so make sure they are all OK and ask the seller if necessary; otherwise walk away as another set will come up. I saw SteveP's calipers on ebay which looked a little bit battered but they looked as good as new after the refurb. I guess he didn't need new seals or dust boots and got the calipers cheaper so more fool me.

[White_Lady_170]

The standard brake setup is just not as capable of anchoring the car up as I would like so a cost effective upgrade is what im after and I think I have found the answer here.

I think you have!

The calipers need to be from the 986 Boxster (987 Caymen is the same) and the part numbers are on Page 8 of this thread where DaveB makes the point clearly.  There are other Porsche calipers which can be fitted but I think the cheapest you will see these start is about £450 as opposed to the £250 tops that you should expect to pay for these. DaveB's mission was about a low cost solution that stood well next to some of these other options.

Just one tip from me:  If you are buying them from ebay then I think it is important to ascertain that the rubber dust boots on the pistons are in good condition. My calipers looked in good condition (and they were) but most of the rubber boots had gone. Luckily the seals inside the piston were OK. Replacing these added to the cost.  If they are getting a repaint or a DaveB's refurb then the colour and external appearance as it appears on ebay isn't that important. What is important is that there are no unforeseen costs on top so make sure they are all OK and ask the seller if necessary; otherwise walk away as another set will come up. I saw SteveP's calipers on ebay which looked a little bit battered but they looked as good as new after the refurb. I guess he didn't need new seals or dust boots and got the calipers cheaper so more fool me.

Thank you! That helps me out a lot as I was unsure of what calipers could be used. I will start keeping an eye out 

If the calipers dont come with the original discs, where are most people obtaining new ones at? Is it again Porsche OEM items or are people using aftermarket discs?

David

[Janner_Sy]

by the same size discs that you have now.  you can either go for oem 312mm's or the likes of bremtech as dave(muckipup) has done.  i believe daveB is in the process of sorting out 2 piece lightweight 312's

[White_Lady_170]

by the same size discs that you have now.  you can either go for oem 312mm's or the likes of bremtech as dave(muckipup) has done.  i believe daveB is in the process of sorting out 2 piece lightweight 312's

Ahhh right, right... Just so much to process I dont remember the half of it once i've read it lol

cheers.

Remember the 2 piece lightweight 312's though, hopefully by the time im ready for this conversion i'll be able to add a set to finish it off nicely! 

[jmspear]

Hi all, done about 1500m on mine now would you believe, just love them to bits, great stopping, fantastic feel and very progressive. Drove my old ed30 yesterday (it went to my missus when she left - don't ask - but we still friends haha) and the first thing I noticed was the diference between the std brakes on the ed30 and the porsche calipers on my gti, felt awfull, speficically less feel, much less progresive and the porsche brakes felt like they had at least 25% more stopping power (probably cause they come in earlier and you can feel the braking so much better).

I bought bosch pads from brakes int, but ferodo turned up, them seem pretty good but I would def go jurid / textar if you can, just so much better in my opinion (at least on my track car which I also use on the road) I went with std aftermarket 312 disks from brakes int, interesting the pads are longer than standard and not as tall, so actually the bottom 5mm of the disk is not swept so not point in going any bigger, think the total swept area is greater as the pads are longer (if any of that made any sense). Great prices and service from Brakes Int by the way.

In the end I did go for 3mm spacers for piece of mind on std 17" monza wheels as the brakes were so incredibly close to the wheel, all good now!
cheers


John

[muckipup]

Glad to hear that you are still enjoying them, John!

I noticed before fitting that the the Porsche pads were similar size to standard but left the inside 8-10mm (as it looked to me) of the disc untouched. I actually thought that the Porsche pads were a tad smaller when I put them side to side but, as you say, the swept area is probably similar. Either way, they are still a lot better!

The jury is still out on the Bosch pads as I am only at about 100 miles. Initial impressions are that they are OK; not great, just OK. I may still try the slightly edge-chipped Jurids sitting in my garage to compare but should really give the Bosch pads a chance.

I used some of that 3M self-adhesive anti-sqeel backing stuff for the back of the pads as I didn't want copper grease given that it would be up against my shiney new rubber dust boots on the caliper pistons. However, it was a tightish fit to get them in with new discs and pads even with fully compressed pistons. On the down-side, I got a lot of sqeel last night when NOT braking suggesting some vibration in the disc or calipers themselves. So I had them off again last night and copper greased theface between the caliper and new mounting braket and the face between the hub and new discs which I forgot to do (duh!). I also put some silicone grease on the back of the pads on top of the 3M shims as it is rubber safe. Problem solved (so far!) 

I had 3mm spacers handy but didn't need to use them - there was a good 6mm clearance at the narrowest part with the 18" Skoda Zeniths.

BTW John, I followed your example an completely stripped the head of the small disc retaining screw and had to drill it out. Only on one side though but I was still cursing.