[Audi A3/S3] Audi S3 brake upgrades

[Tobes49]

Hi,

My Friend has a 2002 S3 he would like some bigger brakes, I've been looking through some old posts and see some people are running porsche brakes, How are the porsche brakes performing and is anyone else running any other brake upgrades? He would really like to keep the standard wheels.

Cheers

[shao_khan]

The porsche kits fits ok behind TT Comp wheels without spacers or anything so thats 17" like the avus.

Mine were gret in performance but I did crack the disks in 10k miles.

Great place to look for these is on the TT-forum. Quite often these come up. Are teh Leon Cupra R brembos an upgrade for teh S3?

[Phil84afc]

Ask "Paul S3" mate. He's the S3 guru and has the Porsche brakes fitted.

[bantam]

Brembos are great (I have them on my S3) and less money than the Porsche kits. The Leon Cupra R are the same as the Brembo kits if you can source them second hand in good nick.

[S3_Scot]

how much are the brembos? i have 'black diamond' but am not impressed

[s3geezer]

I don't see what's wrong with the standard ones.....

....but then again I have never tried the so called "upgraded" ones. Anyone tried any back to back?

[Paul]

I found them pretty uninspiring, especially having had 2 cars from new, so knowing everything was new and fresh. I particularly did not like how they coped in the wet.

This was on standard 225 S3's. Remap it, and you soon desire more confidence from your brakes. I have now covered in excess of 50K miles with the Big red kit, and the spacers to clear the calipers (OEM ET33 18" RSTT 9 spoke, require 10mm spacers MINIMUM)

I have driven them back to back, when I had them removed from my first S3, ready for the second, and tbh i didnt appreciate them untill i didnt have them! I was certainly happier when they were refitted.

Tobes, my kit was the 993 twin turbo "big red" AmD kit. The custom hats and brackets were made up for them by Ray west tuning. AmD (as they were) are now gone, in all but name (so as good as gone)

West tuning might be able to assist with kits. http://www.west-tuning.com/

For consumables, I get everything from www.type911.co.uk

No one has come close for OEM Porsche bits.

Alternatively I think ECS in the States, (UK agent http://www.jbrperformance.co.uk do several big brake kits, but remember the S3 never made it to the US, so your be looking at MK1 TT kits. .

Porsche Big Reds - Pics/Spec

Replacement Pads and more Pics.

[Ian_C]

What you running Paul, Brembo Porsche 322 mm discs?

Ian

[Paul]

Porsche Calipers are made by Brembo to their spec.

OEM Porsche rotors (unsure of manufacturer, they come in a Porsche box)

Pads are again OEM Porsche, made by Textar.

Spec:

For 16/17" rims with minimum 365mm ID

Porsche 993 bi-turbo 4 piston aluminium callipers, 36/44mm piston diameter

Porsche 993 bi-turbo discs, 322 x 32mm vented with cast-in holes

Porsche 993 bi-turbo genuine pad set for street use (75.5cm2)

Kit includes custom adapters for a.m. callipers, CNC machined from highest grade steel alloy and custom brake bells for a.m. discs, CNC machined from highest grade aluminium alloy

cast in holes as aposed to drilled is supposed to help reduce cracking. I am sure they do help, but they still crack.

[bantam]

[ QUOTE ]

how much are the brembos? i have 'black diamond' but am not impressed

[/ QUOTE ]

A new brembo junior GT kit will set you back around £900. These often come up second hand on e-bay but be careful about condition of pads and discs as if these don't have ample life left in them you are looking at around £400 for new items.

[steve1975l]

I was watching some and they look knackered and went for silly money. I would rather buy new.

I have had the Jnr kit before and it is worth every penny and they fit behing the avus wheels. Something I will be doing soon but what with service, suspension, RNS-E & cambelt funds are running low and as brakes are near new I am in no hurry.

[LE-S3]

I found them pretty uninspiring, especially having had 2 cars from new, so knowing everything was new and fresh. I particularly did not like how they coped in the wet.

This was on standard 225 S3's. Remap it, and you soon desire more confidence from your brakes. I have now covered in excess of 50K miles with the Big red kit, and the spacers to clear the calipers (OEM ET33 18" RSTT 9 spoke, require 10mm spacers MINIMUM)

I have driven them back to back, when I had them removed from my first S3, ready for the second, and tbh i didnt appreciate them untill i didnt have them! I was certainly happier when they were refitted.

Tobes, my kit was the 993 twin turbo "big red" AmD kit. The custom hats and brackets were made up for them by Ray west tuning. AmD (as they were) are now gone, in all but name (so as good as gone)

West tuning might be able to assist with kits. Chip Tuning, Tuning Packages, Engine, Performance, Remapping and Servicing, West Tuning

For consumables, I get everything from www.type911.co.uk

No one has come close for OEM Porsche bits.

Alternatively I think ECS in the States, (UK agent http://www.jbrperformance.co.uk do several big brake kits, but remember the S3 never made it to the US, so your be looking at MK1 TT kits. .

Porsche Big Reds - Pics/Spec

Replacement Pads and more Pics.

Hi everyone, very sorry for the 6 year old thread bump but I was just wondering if the above member, "Paul" is still around here.

If anyone can help me, I was very close to buying this kit for my S3 when I was told in email by ECS staff that the Stage 5 Porsche Brake Kit will not fit an S3!

Audi A3 Quattro 2.0T > Braking > ECS Stage 5 > ES#7366 Stage 5 Big Brake Kit - Red Porsche Cayenne 6 Piston Calipers - MK5A3S5BBK-RXS

From Paul's post above, if I understand correctly, I am supposed to ask for the Mk1 TT Stage 5 Porsche Brake Kit to fit my S3?

I have already emailed them to ask this waiting for a reply.

I would strictly like "Porsche" brakes but cannot find anyone other than ECS tuning that provide a full kit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you,

Nick.

[Mook]

Welcome to TsN

I ran the ECS kit on my Mk4 Golf R32 with Cayenne Turbo calipers - it may be something to do with the wheel offset on your car - they were a very tight fit (2mm to spare next to the rim) under the stock R32 wheels.

Brilliant brake upgrade, but the Hawk pads are crud - they fade. I know it goes against the grain for a lot of people, but by far the best pad option I found for the kit was EBC Red Stuff pads. That car took thousands of miles of pounding round tracks all over the place and never had any brake fade once on that combo.

[LE-S3]

Welcome to TsN

I ran the ECS kit on my Mk4 Golf R32 with Cayenne Turbo calipers - it may be something to do with the wheel offset on your car - they were a very tight fit (2mm to spare next to the rim) under the stock R32 wheels.

Brilliant brake upgrade, but the Hawk pads are crud - they fade. I know it goes against the grain for a lot of people, but by far the best pad option I found for the kit was EBC Red Stuff pads. That car took thousands of miles of pounding round tracks all over the place and never had any brake fade once on that combo.

Thank you for replying, Mook.

I have been talking to ECS and they can confirm that the Mk1 TT is not a match either.

It has to do with the spindle. There are not many cars at all with a spindle like the S3 so there are hardly any brake kits made up for them.

I further learned from them that the Scirocco R does share the same spindle as the S3, so any Porsche BBK fitting the Scirocco, will be a fit for the S3.

Any further direction to a Porsche set up for the S3 would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Hopsta]

Paul is still lurking about, not that long sold the S3 he mentioned in that post I believe.

[Paul]

Still here for my sins.

I have indeed sold that car over a year ago.

The posts above refers to the MK1 Facelift 1.8T S3, hence the reference to the MK1 TT fitment which was the same kit back then.

The car we both have now is an 8P 2.0T S3, a more recent model, with different larger brake setup to start with.

I am not upto speed with the upgrade options for the 8P.

The standard front brakes are 345mm and the rears 310mm.

The rears are almost as big as the discs used with 4 pot Porsche Brakes above.

While the Porsche were good, they were expensive to maintain.

With the benifit of 10 years ownership and hindsight, I wouldnt do it again.

Other options for you might like to research:

Brembo. ( Brembo made the calipers for my Porsche kit.) See Below for 6 pot example.Brakes | Audi S3 2.0T 8P | APS= ( I can also recommend APS)

Other considerations:

Audi RS3 brake set up.

AP Racing

Sportec

Movit

Stoptech

Wilwood

Alcon

[LE-S3]

Still here for my sins.

I have indeed sold that car over a year ago.

The posts above refers to the MK1 Facelift 1.8T S3, hence the reference to the MK1 TT fitment which was the same kit back then.

The car we both have now is an 8P 2.0T S3, a more recent model, with different larger brake setup to start with.

I am not upto speed with the upgrade options for the 8P.

The standard front brakes are 345mm and the rears 310mm.

The rears are almost as big as the discs used with 4 pot Porsche Brakes above.

While the Porsche were good, they were expensive to maintain.

With the benifit of 10 years ownership and hindsight, I wouldnt do it again.

Other options for you might like to research:

Brembo. ( Brembo made the calipers for my Porsche kit.) See Below for 6 pot example.Brakes | Audi S3 2.0T 8P | APS= ( I can also recommend APS)

Other considerations:

Audi RS3 brake set up.

AP Racing

Sportec

Movit

Stoptech

Wilwood

Alcon

Hi Paul, good to see you're still around to re visit this blast from the past!

I'm too fixated on having these 18z Porsche calipers. It apparently looks like I am the only one pursuing this idea as it seems there isn't a single S3 8P out there with this set up and I have posted on some pretty big Audi forums with little response.

Thank you for alternative suggestions, Paul.