UFO brakes again.

[PeterS]

Graeme.
..I have friends who have taken their 200 20vs to the track for Driver Education events....there are some "secrets"...

Keep the rotors clean - don't let them build up a rusty braking surface or glazing - if they do, you can try using a carbide paint scraper to remove it - make sure that the cooling vanes are clean and devoid of rust - when I installed a new set on my wife's car, I cleaned the rotor with brake cleaner and then painted the cooling vanes with hi temperature paint to discourage corrosion. Make sure that the caliper guide pins are well-lubricated - I believe that the UFO calipers have the easiest to remove pads of any audi (remove wheel, remove rotor mounting torx head bolt on the hub, remove the clip on the caliper and slide out the rotor) -

If the braking surface of the rotor IS clean, and you still experience brake shudder, consider either replacing the inner control arm bushing, or the entire control arm (if the ball joints are worn) Shouldn't be too expensive to get replacement Lemfoerder control arms from VAG parts.

Put it this way - I paid about $500 for a pair of replacement rotors and another $50 for pads that should last close at least another 80k miles...for us (daily driver) it was worth it, vs having to spend upwards of $2000 for new hubs, calipers, rotors, and the requisite 16 or 17 inch wheels - remember that this car came from the factory with forged 15x 7.5 BBS rims that are very light) -larger diameter wheels tend to be heavier and can offset any savings in unsprung weight from ridding yourself of the heavy UFOs.

On the other hand, if I already had larger rims and tires, and drove my "miss piggy" much more sportingly ( hard to do with 3 and 5 year old boys seated in the back) I would consider more "brake" - but thats why I'm building an S2.....




HTH

-Peter

[gavs20v]

Cheers for the info Peter very interesting. Ive just changed my lower arm bushes and although its made no difference to the UFO's it does feel far better to drive. Much more positive.Will be getting tracking set up later this week so hopefully thatll help to.
Ive got 6mth old discs and pads on mine. Theres no vibration, but at speed there is a lot of brake fade which is why i want to uprate mine.
How do te g60's compare on the 200/ b8's etc over there. There not brilliant on the lighter s2, 20v and v6's over here so i dread to think what theyd be like on something far heavier.
Nice one
Gav

[JPL]

I'm changing my pads this afternoon, I'll let you know what I find and if I feel it's worth saving or whether I'll be looking at a bigger setup.

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

Graeme.

[PeterS]

Gav:

If you are having brake fade, you need to take a look at two things - brake cooling and pad materials.

Does your car still have the oem UFO brake ducts that attach to the front fascia and wheel well liner? -

Are you using stock pads (grab well when cold but dusty)? You may want to look at other pad choices, perhaps even carbon pads

-Peter

[gavs20v]

Peter- Ive enlarged the ducting coming from the from and its got EBC greenstuff pads fitted. Wish id gone for redstuff now but hey, hinesights a wonderful thing. Its also got 18" rims wiht loads of space between the psokes compared to the o/e rims.
Cheers for your time
Nice one
Gav

[PeterS]

Gav -

just remember that the cooling vanes on rotors tend to take air from the hub area and send it outward through the rotor...so cold air ducted to the wheel hub area is important

[gavs20v]

Ive fitted flexible alu aircon ducting aimed right at the hub air from behind the lower grilles in the front bumper / apron
Gav

[JPL]

Guys, stripped my front brakes today, what a mess!

Nearside inner pad nearly down to metal, disk had large ridges of burnt on pad material on both inner and outer faces. There was no sign of ducting of any kind coming from the front grill to the hubs either. Managed to chip off most of the pad material from the disk faces, actually not too bad underneath, then some heavy action with emmery paper. The caliper sliders were also OK both sides so I think it must have been the pad material on the disk face that had caused the uneven wear on the pads.
I think I'm going to look at the bigger brakes senario more closely, I've fitted new pads (standard EBC Kevlar ones) to get me by just now but I'm looking at a new set of disks anyway and the UFO disks will be far dearer than the Merc 320x30's. I just need to sort out calipers and mountings after that.
I'll let you know how I get on.

Graeme.

[PeterS]

Gents:

Here's some excellent info on the infamous UFO...from Chris Millers indespensible Audi 200 20v pages: http://members.aol.com/c1j1miller/brake.html

-Peter

[stevef]

forget all your bodge ups remember if your engine packs up you stop if your brakes pack up you dont!! now after months of development and testing qrsport have a perfomance brake solution for S2 80/90v6 A4 incorporating a set of very powerful 4pot piston calipers and the very best in brake rotors by POwervane contact Tim at Qrsport on 01829 771165 they have all the trick parts in stock and the expertise especially for trackday events and cars that need to stop and handle especially after they hace chipped it to 400bhp
kind regards Stephen Fell Motorsort@stephenfell.com

stevef
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[JPL]

Hi Stephen, the info looks good but don't think it's of any use to me as an Ur S4 owner with UFO brakes. My hubs don't have anything in common with the S2. I've managed to buy a set of HiSpec Monster 4 calipers from Audiman and I'm going to match these to 320x30 Merc discs which I know will fit my hubs. All I'm missing is suitable caliper brackets and hoses, etc. Not too much engineering required from there.

Cheers,

Graeme.

[audiman]

I take it the calipers arrived then Graeme?? I sent them yesterday.

[JPL]

I take it the calipers arrived then Graeme?? I sent them yesterday.

Nah, not yet. Yeovill to Strathaven at this time of year, maybe next Monday or Tuesday. Nice to know they're on the way though.

Cheers Tom,

Graeme.

[bcdesigns]

I am looking for porsche callipers (system 1, boxster or system 3, don't know yet), and on bira.org they suply the carriers, but, they "only" suply if more ppl order and be member... So, I wanna wask if is jjust bira that suply the carriers or if somebody have interesse too!

UFO, now brake ok because i have all new, but not have power like porsche, and loose quality with the time... And DAMM, ITS UGLYYYYY

[JPL]

I am looking for porsche callipers (system 1, boxster or system 3, don't know yet), and on bira.org they suply the carriers, but, they "only" suply if more ppl order and be member... So, I wanna wask if is jjust bira that suply the carriers or if somebody have interesse too!

UFO, now brake ok because i have all new, but not have power like porsche, and loose quality with the time... And DAMM, ITS UGLYYYYY

Sidspud had a pair of Porsche "big red" calipers for sale, try searching in the for sale/trade section.

I've been looking for brackets to suit UFO struts and only came up with BIRA as well. Since I've bought Audiman's HiSpec Monster 4 calipers I'll just need to make up some brackets myself, with a bit of help from my local engineering shop.

Graeme.