Upgrade brakes is it worth it

[Reebok78]

Hi guys

I've just brought My 2012 superb elegance

I'm looking to do a few upgrades to her

The brakes are good but I feel could be better wondering has anyone done the discs and pad upgrade

[psycholist]

Try braking hard (but without ABS intervention) from the motorway speed limit to ~30 mph a couple of times on a very quiet motorway and see whether that makes the brakes better. It certainly worked wonders on my car when I first got it as the previous owner used it mostly as a motorway cruiser, so the pads had glazed a little. If you ever go hooning properly windy back road the brakes do fade noticeably after a while though, so if this is part of your planned use an upgrade is justified.

 

Also, thanks to brake assist, the brake pedal doesn't respond linearly to the pedal force you apply. The car will brake noticeably harder if you hit the pedal suddenly than if you smoothly apply the same force to the pedal, which can give the impression that the brakes are a little weak if you anticipate sudden stops so brake assist is never triggered.

 

As for upgrades, if you don't have the most powerful 2 litre petrol or diesel Superb swapping the bigger disks from the more powerful models on to your car would be an easy starting point. The V6 Superb may have bigger disks again, but I'm not sure. After that it's a question of how much more braking power are you willing to pay for.

 

Check when the brake fluid was last changed too. It's supposed to be done every 2 years or so IIRC, so this could be the problem too.

[chimaera]

Like psycholist said, get the brake fluid changed. On a '12 car it should have been changed twice by now. Make sure the ABS pump gets bled too when they do it.

 

TBH, I can't find fault with the brakes on my car (CR170) but each to their own I guess.

 

I'd look at pad upgrades if I were considering getting more performance. Disk material won't make much difference. Grooved disks might make some difference if you're doing a lot of track days, otherwise there's not much point.

[Reebok78]

Thanks guys

I'm gonna get the fluid changed

The brakes are abit better the last owner was an old guy just driving to the shops and back

[26DIPP]

With VCP you can change the brake servo assist. Our brakes are good and in tests the brake distance for a Superb from 60 - 0 MPH is 36m.

[Danny 57]

Like psycholist said, get the brake fluid changed. On a '12 car it should have been changed twice by now. Make sure the ABS pump gets bled too when they do it.

 

TBH, I can't find fault with the brakes on my car (CR170) but each to their own I guess.

 

I'd look at pad upgrades if I were considering getting more performance. Disk material won't make much difference. Grooved disks might make some difference if you're doing a lot of track days, otherwise there's not much point.

On a 12 plate car it would only be one change coming up to two as it is at three years then every two.

[Llinded]

Can you lock your wheels (abs kicking in) when braking hard? If so, then you brakes are fine and only better tires will make it stop faster, unless of course you problem is brake fade after they get warm. If you are getting brake fade then replacing old worn parts with new original parts should solve the problem. Brake fade should not really be an issue in normal driving. Track cars are totally different though.