im new.. whats a caliper?

[Ski]

just like what the subject says.. what is it? is it what the disks mount onto?

i got standard brakes (i know.. scary) and want something to take on the homefry.. but im broke and cant afford a £750 bill,

any alternatives like vented disks?

upgrading rear disks/pads make a huge difference?

i do take my car to its limit but not for very long (as i scared of breaking it and then the rush ends )

any tips fellas? im planning geting a ecu up in 2 months time.

[newsh]

The caliper is the part the pads fit into that does the squeezing.

Check out the thread "poor mans brake upgrade"

Prolly your best bet for now is some EBC Redstuff pads up front. You can follow this with aftermarket grooved discs. You can fit drilled discs too but they will be noisey. I've got drilled and grooved on my quattro and they make a wild sound..

Greenstuff pads on the back.

There are lots of pad alternatives, check out some other threads.

But what are your brakes actually like at the moment? Are the pads and discs in good shape? How about the fluid?

Try giving your brakes a refresher, run the car up to 80mph and brake hard down to 10 or 20mph and coast with foot off the pedal (or accellerate again) do it a few times allowing to cool in between. Change the fluid.

Never leave your foot on the pedal after braking hard.

When you brake really hard most of the weight transfers to the front wheels, the rear brakes don't do that much.

[Ski]

front disks n pads new, rear disks good con, rear pads almost gone and starting to make that funny noise..

i remember racing some v6 clio and when i pressed my brakes at 110 and went to from 110 to 0... it was very scary.. how can i check what condition my brake fluid is like (dont tell me.. open bottle and look in?)

[Stick Insect]

I bet the fluid needs changing anyway. It should be changed every 18 months, 2 years, 3 years, 60K miles depending upon who the manufacturer is.

You can't change your brake fluid too often ( or engine oil especially with a turbo).

I'd get the rear pads swapped asap

You already have vented disks on the front. The rears don't usually get hot enough to need a vented upgrade. have a look at www.bira.org who will explain.

Pricing for upgrade: inc. VAT

Porsche Calipers £200 http://www.design911.co.uk/index.htm ( Thanks to Alistair C for link) go to used/clearance section , suspension/brakes
Audi RS2 Caliper brackets £150 pair ( Martyn at www.vagparts.com
Audi A8 324 x 30 mm disks £ 73 ( audi) £ 33 GSF pair!
new pads to suit Porsche calipers £65.
New brake lines £40-50 quid ( see brake forum elsewhere)
DOT4 brake fluid £12
Brake bleeding tool ( Gunson Easibleed) £15
Sundry caliper bolts, Coffee etc. £20

Totals around £550

This could be fitted by Steve at GPA Engineering a brake rebuilding company in Wilmslow. www.gpaengineering.co.uk. He can do Audi rear calipers etc. Stainless pistons for Ferraris in fact all manner of brake work.

[Ski]

thanx for that, there is a lot of info there! I will defo start planning on the front breaks upgrade..

for now, i will change the rear pads n fluid as you have recommended.

Pads from dealer are £52.. are there any better pads which will fit onto standard calipers for the rear which work out at same or similar price?

I know you guys recommend to read the posts in here but so many suggestions and recommendations i get lost.

[Stick Insect]

Standard pads are £25 or £15 from http://www.eurocarparts.com/

Can't vouch for the quality of the £15 pads!

They have a branch in Trafford Park

Could try http://www.gsfcarparts.com/ also in Trafford Park (near Trafford Centre)

The Americans say Kerr Friction are the best manufacturer for their Audi's.
Try this ggogle search link:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ker...-8&hl=en&meta=

[Ski]

Ive had bad experience with disks geting warped? from cheap manu like euro car parts and i belive in having quality specially when it comes to brakes and SPECIALY when it comes to the all mighty s2.

i dont mind paying that mutch, i was just wondering if i can buy a better set of pads than the genuine ones for that price?

I belive some pple have put custom/sport pads on, will i need to change calipers while im at it or will upgraded pads fit on perfect?

any recomendation of any better-than-standard pads?

also, do sport pads brake better or just wear down slower?

[Lee]

Originally posted by Ski
also, do sport pads brake better or just wear down slower?

Depends what you are after! Low life or high friction. These are usually mutually exclusive specifications. Something like Ferodo DS3000 has high friction but will destroy your disks at the same rate as the pads but that just makes them way more fade resistant and incredibly grippy (they dissipate heat by shedding incandescent material from the disk and pad surface like a catherine wheel!!). These are mad pads.

Got my standard rear disks to go a nice blue colour with stock Audi rear pads during a recent trackday but the braking was pretty relentless since the track was quite twisty and undulating in places. My rears are being upgraded this year.

I guess EBC greenstuff would be OK on the back and shouldn't be too expensive. They are crap on the front of our heavy cars. I can highly recomend Ferodo DS2500 available from Circuit Supplies (UK main importer and full range stock holder) or www.motorsportworld.co.uk (very good prices). I recently paid 45 quid delivered for a set of rear pads for a Saab 9-3 turbo so would expect the S2 ones to be similar. Never done a subjective comparison of rear pads so can't recomend a good and bad pad but you would be safe with DS2500 or greenshits (or the more expensive pagids from GSF or ECP but not the blues or yellows!!). 80% of your braking is done by the fronts anyway due to the front-biased centre of mass and the forward mass transfer during braking. Stock suspension mean your front brakes do more at the front than they would do with uprated suspension.

Be careful with rear pads as you want something that has a highish friction when cold since they are also your handbrake pads too!! Not worth putting something silly in there! Your rears will wear really slowly anyway compared to the fronts so maybe not worth an expensive pad unless you are a relentless driver!

That was a bit of a waffle wasn't it!

[Ski]

an interesting one at that.. the 2500 sounds good.. 45 delivered it beats the genuine price by far and if u say performance is better then yipee..

im not a rentless driver.. the previous owner was (my bro who had it for 1 year) and he seized the rear breaks and got dealer to sort it out (quite hapily.. do the math how mutch it was).. anyways the pads are going on it now so the 2500 sounds like a good replacement.

do i need anything for bleeding breakes, i dont mean tools, i mean soemthing other than breake fluid.. is there a filter or something?

anyone got objections as to why the DS2500 should not be used on a standard s2?

also, there are lots of ds2500, how mutch are the s2 ones roughly? they range from £50 to £160 so big difference.

[Alistair C]

SKI - read this thread before you gou out and buy any DS2500 for you S2!


http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthr...=&threadid=791

[Lee]

I recomend talking to Circuit Supplies directly then! Call them on 01525 385 888 or go to www.circuitsupplies.com

They are the official distributor in the UK for Ferrodo and are incredibly helpful. Demon Tweaks are crap with vehicle specific parts. They screwed every one of my orders last year. They got the S2-specific things wrong every time!! Really naff service in that respect! They got most of the non-S2 parts correct though although were very slow with some stuff. Rant-mode-off but they ****** me off last year and I gave them so many chances thinking it was a one-off or an 'easy' mistake! I'll still use them but not for anything for the S2 and only if they are the cheapest supplier!

My DS2500 fronts are awesome BTW!! But then, they are not stock calipers/disks!

[Lee]

Web link in last post doesn't work. I took it from the top of my invoice too. Try the phone number as their site may be screwed. They are based in Beds and I got all my stuff next day from them since they hold 100% Ferodo stock!

[Alistair C]

@Lee - that'd be 100% stock apart from the one set I wanted!!! :wacked:

Very helpful though & I'd certainly use them again - very good supplier & will be at the autosport show apparently......

[Lee]

Ooops. Not quite 100% stock then! He was, maybe, a bit 'economical with the truth' in that respect! They were good as they beat my best quote which was about 30 quid cheaper than he wanted to charge me originally! I love haggling with suppliers! I've saved a small fortune in the last 2 years(and then given it to VAGparts!! LOL!).

Trying to make it to Autosport but wanted to go on the trade days when the real techies are there. It's mostly sales staff on the public days and not a good opportunity to get some of those burning questions answered. Problem is, can't get tomorrow off and have a business meeting in Bath on Friday! Gutted! Might go along on Saturday or Sunday anyway and battle the crowds. Are you going? When? Mini S2 meet?? Anyone else going? That was a thread hijack if ever there was one. Sorry, if it is!

[Alistair C]

lee - yeah - I also had a bit of a haggle with the man to get them cheaper than Demon Tweeks. Didn't do quite as well as you though & mine were still £152....

Re: autosport - there was a post under the general section, but I also wanted to go on the trade day & am not really so bothered about going with the great unwashed. Why does work always get in the way of fun???