Brakes

[heartagram]

I was used to shit breaks when I had all my Polos, so back then it wasn't a big issue but now I have the 280mm discs on the Lupo with rear disc brakes to so it doesn't half stop. But now I'm kind of stuck on what brakes I should use on the Polo, it will be more powerful, but it will also be much lighter.

I think that 239mm ones will be to small for me, 256mm one bits are rarer and expensive, 280mm are huge and I dunno if I'll get 15s on the back of a square. I think 256mm would be the best compromise but its just finding the bits. I've never actually driven, or even been in a car with a good 239mm setup. Not that I can recall anyway.

What I don't want is to get out of the Lupo and jump into the Polo and be like "Fuck me, these brakes are turd!"

Kind of umming and arring about all the different options. Just would like to hear back what people have got.

Cheeers.

[hayesey]

well you can find the 80s audi coupe 256mm conversion parts and use those.  Some people on Club Polo have used some Vauxhall parts to do pretty much the same conversion, apparently these parts are easier to find.

Could do with someone who's done that writing an FAQ on here!  

Or you could go really mad and spend lots of money on wilwood 4-pots but who'd be silly enough to do that?!?

No matter what though, you'll still need more leg effort to work the brakes than in the lupo unless you hack up your bulkhead and fit a bigger servo.  The polo brakes work they just need more effort to operate as the tiny little servo isn't helping you much.  Plus making sure the rear drum mechanisms are in good order helps a lot too.

[PeteG40]

i went from g60s on my g60 to polo g40s and it just takes some adjustment...

[G-spot]

I'm running 256'ers on my G40 with the audi 80 type calipers, with std Golf/Vento spec discs/pad combination and its more than enough for the size/wieght of car etc, to be honest in the wet it can be a bit scary as the brakes have a lot more bite than the 239's.  I perposely didn't fit the larger master cylinder option on the fear of loosing feel.  Just fitted complete new (exchange) rear shoes and mech from VW with 2 new master cyclinders and gotta say, all in all its spot on.
Prior to that I had green stuff pads on black diamond discs and this was a great set-up except when coming down from 100mph plus hard on the brakes, it did fade out a bit(but I never expected it not to), the discs lasted my about 20k before the surface cracking convinced me I need something a bit weightier.

[Tav]

I love the 256's...great improvement on the 239's.  It's the initial bite that's reassuring and then the as yet fade free operation.  Only downside I have found is having to run the 14 inch wheels and the restricted tyre choice that comes from that...will get around it though some how.

[Yoof]

Hopefully will have 256mm 4 Pot kit on the way soon- will be fitting to my car asap and then have a few trackdays etc and some road miles to confirm all is ok.

239mm are good- providing you've got a well sorted system, pads and fluid being key. Marshall has what I consider to be one of the quickest Mk3 Polos circuit wise (surpassed only by a few) and uses 239mm standard calipers, with a trick pedal box and naughty pads = outbreaking Prodrive Scoobies with 6pots into hard corners  :wub:

For a fair comparison you need to have a brand new set of 239mm and brand new set of 256mm- there's too many people rating the 256mm just after they've replaced everything, whilst comparing it to a knackered 239mm system.

Having said that if you are considering track work and want to use the car on the road (rulling out naughty pads) and don't want a different pedal box, then 256mm is the way to go- or 4 Pots, depending on how much bhp/kg the car is.

[SamG40]

I did prefer the 256's when I had them on. I dont think theres a big difference to them tootling about its when you stomp on the middle pedal from big speeds that you notice the difference, they scrub the speed of a lot quicker. Saying that though as Yoof says a well sorted 239 setup is good enough as long as you are aware of the limits. My car had a bit of a hammering this weekend and I never felt them fade once. Only problem I had was the shit tyres I've got at the moment locking up!

[G40DAS]

I've got 280mm discs on mine (cross-drilled and vented) with G40 calipers on "RallyDesign" relocation brackets. I'm running Golf Mk2 rear discs with braided hoses/Pagid fast road pads all round and mine stops pretty good. The MOT man says "it looks like a Polo, but yours actually stops!" I do run 15" 5 spoke Momos with Toyo T1S 195/45's and with standard G40 springs and spax adjustable gas dampers it handles very well, but if you go mad you can get the front wheels to catch under "trackday" style braking. If you do the rear disc mod, don't forget to adjust your brake bias valve or you will spin-off big style ! Warning here, some dopey tyre fitter once jacked mine up using the curved bracket (for the bias valve) on the rear suspension beam and bent it. Took me a while to spot that one, but the brakes were crap after that ! It did bend back to shape quite easily though (Don't worry, I'm an engineer, it was done in a controlled manner without cracking it)
Hope this is useful to someone.

[AlexG40]

256 is a much better set up than the 239s in my opinion.

Like Hayesey says, without changing the servo for a bigger one you'll never get the sort of feel that you'll get with a modern car...(pretty much everything after a mk3 Polo!)

[Alexiskayak_7]

[quote pid=3558 author=G40DAS date=1219701500]I've got 280mm discs on mine (cross-drilled and vented) with G40 calipers on "RallyDesign" relocation brackets. I'm running Golf Mk2 rear discs with braided hoses/Pagid fast road pads all round and mine stops pretty good. The MOT man says "it looks like a Polo, but yours actually stops!" I do run 15" 5 spoke Momos with Toyo T1S 195/45's and with standard G40 springs and spax adjustable gas dampers it handles very well, but if you go mad you can get the front wheels to catch under "trackday" style braking. If you do the rear disc mod, don't forget to adjust your brake bias valve or you will spin-off big style ! Warning here, some dopey tyre fitter once jacked mine up using the curved bracket (for the bias valve) on the rear suspension beam and bent it. Took me a while to spot that one, but the brakes were crap after that ! It did bend back to shape quite easily though (Don't worry, I'm an engineer, it was done in a controlled manner without cracking it)
Hope this is useful to someone.[/quote]

In hard braking (when your wheels lock) does the rear brakes have more power so the car is acting like pulling the handbrake, and you loose control?

[G40DAS]

[quote pid=3600 author=Alexiskayak_7 date=1219852912][quote pid=3558 author=G40DAS date=1219701500]I've got 280mm discs on mine (cross-drilled and vented) with G40 calipers on "RallyDesign" relocation brackets. I'm running Golf Mk2 rear discs with braided hoses/Pagid fast road pads all round and mine stops pretty good. The MOT man says "it looks like a Polo, but yours actually stops!" I do run 15" 5 spoke Momos with Toyo T1S 195/45's and with standard G40 springs and spax adjustable gas dampers it handles very well, but if you go mad you can get the front wheels to catch under "trackday" style braking. If you do the rear disc mod, don't forget to adjust your brake bias valve or you will spin-off big style ! Warning here, some dopey tyre fitter once jacked mine up using the curved bracket (for the bias valve) on the rear suspension beam and bent it. Took me a while to spot that one, but the brakes were crap after that ! It did bend back to shape quite easily though (Don't worry, I'm an engineer, it was done in a controlled manner without cracking it)
Hope this is useful to someone.[/quote]

In hard braking (when your wheels lock) does the rear brakes have more power so the car is acting like pulling the handbrake, and you loose control?[/quote]

Yes, that's it exactly, the rear discs are more effective than the drums used to be, for the same pedal effort, so when the weight bias shifts to the front under braking the rear wheels become "unweighted" and lock. If you happen to be braking up to a corner and start to turn in, chances are you'll spin, unless you have your Lewis Hamilton head on ! Of course if you improve the front brakes as well, this effect happens even sooner ! This is why I adjusted the bias valve accordingly. Some of you out there must have noticed a similar effect when lowering your cars ? The bias valve adjusts as the suspension compresses, moving brake bias ?

[AlexG40]

Hopefully everyone who has lowered their car has adjusted the compensator accordingly....pretty dangerous not to.

[G-spot]

[quote pid=3657 author=AlexG40 date=1219963283]Hopefully everyone who has lowered their car has adjusted the compensator accordingly....pretty dangerous not to.[/quote]
Yeah learn my lesson on that one many years ago in my 106 Rallye, fast downhill in some narrow lanes, hard on the brakes, pirouette followed by a controlled(honest) sideways slide with the front and rear bumpers scuffing both hedges until I stopped and had to do an Austin Powers style turn
to get the car back in the rgiht direction!  Most embrassing thing was that my next door nieghbour who I dropped a half mile previous had the joy of watching me.

[teamcmc cl]

im running 239 setup and im well happy with it, im using redstuff pads and genuine vag disks, then on the back i replaced absolutely everything with new, adjusted up well (compensator too lol), then braided hoses and dot 5.1 fluid. works really well and once the pads are warm they just keep getting better, but i have one of the last sets of raicam fast road pads tucked away for when i wear em out. been told they are ace.

[rich h]

This is from the Mk1 golf owners club and looks a dam site easier to get hold of all the parts required than finding a 1985 audi!!

I had the 256 conversion on my G40 and all I can say is the difference between that and the 239 is like night and day..

http://www.vwgolfmk1.org.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=17294