Lookin into a 90 TSi AWD Bad Brakes?!?!

[GreenKota]

Everyone has told me that the Pop Up headlight DSM brakes suck...

What sucks so bad about them? I had a Neon with rear drums and I thought it made the fronts worka little to hard, but these come with rear discs, they can't be that bad.

Are we talking at a road course they wont' do good? cause that I could care less about I want this to be a fun road car, I just want AWD so in the winters (live at 7,500Ft) I don't have to worry bout snow so much.

Anyways please let me know bout the validity of these comments...

 

[wastefuldreamer]

Maybe they were talking about the single piston calipers. 90-91or92 i believe had single piston calipers for the front brakes. 92-up awd's had dual pistons. There is a swap. some parts on are http://www.roadraceengineering.com/eclbrakes.htm they also have more info here http://www.mckeone.net/abs.html

 

[FastRthenU]

I thought the duel piston calipers came on 95+. But i could be wrong.
The brakes on the first gens suck. When i say suck i mean this is a huge understatment. They are way to small. They warp farily easy also. They also tend to fade alot when you have to stop quickly at high speeds.

The good thing is the duel pistion calipers, with the bigger rottors are a bolt on affair. So if you are just driving the car they are fine. If you race the car you will need to upgrade fairly quickly.

Lets put it this way i was testing out some new parts one day. I came over a hill and i saw a stop sign. It was about quarter mile away, and i was doing 180-190 km. I hit the brake's and they just faded so badly i thought i was not going to stop. I just about didnt. Scared the #### right out of me. give it up for

 

[wastefuldreamer]

I linked the wrong page.. This is it http://www.vfaq.com/mods/BigBrakesInstall.html
this too http://www.vfaq.com/mods/BigBrakesInfo.html

 

[SleepinTSI]

The people that are saying that the brakes suck on a 90-92 (pop-up headlights) are refering to the front brakes. On the earlier 1G models (90-92) the front brakes have single piston calipers. The later models 93-99 (AWD only, i believe) have dual piston calipers = more stopping power.
I own a 90 Tsi AWD and have found out first hand that the front rotors warp very easily. I have since replaced them with brakes from a 93 AWD (dual piston calipers). The car stops much better, as well as faster now.
For your purposes however, (if you don't drive very aggressively and/or don't race) then I don't think you'll encounter any problems at all.

Hope this helps

 

[GreenKota]

Well i didn't say i wasn't aggresive hehehe...

Anyways what all do I need to swap? I can get calipers from work (napa) without too much trouble, but do the brackets still work ect?

I've found a "big brake upgrade" for like $350 that's the 93+ front setup...

 

[SleepinTSI]

You're going to have to make sure that you get new caliper MOUNTING hardware (just a bracket really). As the old mounting hardware will be too small for your new, bigger calipers.

Then obviously you'll need: New rattle clips, New rotors, and new pads. Your old lines CAN be used, but if you're going through all this trouble you might as well change them too.

Just as an aside, I've heard that speedbleeders are a great upgrade (since you're going to have to bleed the brakes anyway when you're done).

Good luck

 

[SleepinTSI]

Forgot:

New shiming hardware for the pads also.