Looking to upgrade the brakes on my estate but wanted to see if I had the right idea before I went any further….

The car is standard with 14†alloys and 256mm discs. On the whole the brakes are fine but they do fade if pushed – pretty sure they are solid not vented so that may be the bulk of the problem.

Since this is my everyday commute and I clock up 30K miles a year I am not inclined to jump up to 16†let alone bigger as the cost of the rubber doubles and its not going to last any longer and I want to keep what economy I can but 14†and 15†tires are similarly priced – also don’t care one bit about the “looks†the more standard and unimposing the better

So that rules out 312mm discs but the 288mm are vented and dirt cheap so should be a good improvement. :wonder:

Am I right in thinking that 15†wheels will give me the needed space for the 288mm discs? Am am guessing that there is no chance they will fit under the 14â€

I also understand that I will need to replace the hubs as well as mine wont take the 288’s but is there anything else I am missing? :S

I was hoping that with all of the people “upgrading†to 17†wheels that I could find a set of 15†cheap but there don’t seem to be many out there

I have been through the threads about brake upgrades but there is little about the estate version and even less about small wheels :p

15 inch wheels will fit over standard vRS brakes and clear the calipers OK. I think you'll have to change the hubs to vRS hubs to get the caliper carrier - I'm sure someone will be along soon to confirm or deny that.

Your standard brakes should be vented - you should be able to see gaps down inside the edge of the discs - this is the venting. It's maybe worth noting that the mk2 Golf GTI 16V came with 256mm discs and that car was never really criticised for having poor brakes, and a Fabia (even an estate) probably doesn't weigh too much more than a mk2 Golf. If your discs and pads are old and worn you'll get a significant improvement by just changing them for new parts without the added expense and work of getting bigger brakes.

The 256's on my old estate were miles better than the 256's on my Polo, which I think are the same as the Golf GTi's. Different master cylinder/calipers maybe? :S

Hubs are needed for the 288's, which were on either the vRS, or the 2.0 petrol.

Hmm, I was noticing that most info suggested the disks should be vented :wonder:

nothing really wrong with the brakes as such - plenty of power and feel but they do fade if pushed hard.

the disks may be my fault - I know I replaced them and they were solid but I am also fairly sure that the "OEM" disks I replaced were also solid.....

will have a look in the garage and see if they are still there to check |(never throw anything away ) but I am fairly sure that replaced like for like - the motor factor is just down the road so if they were different I would have changed them before fitting....

it is the 3rd set of discs as the first wore out quickly but were changed by the dealer so I assumed they used the correct part - perhaps not!

interesting. may save myself a load of hassle and swapping wheels with just new discs and pads to put it back to vented.

brain fart moment :p , dont know where I got the solid from but they are indeed vented :no:

must have been thinking about a different motor

so looks like I will have to think about 288's and 15" wheels if I want to improve them.

Might be easier just to get uprated discs and pads

Might be easier just to get uprated discs and pads

easier - certainly

not sure though, different pads might help withstand higher heats without fade but the disc would still heat up as quick if not quicker. Would a different disc be able to dissipate the heat build up better?

don’t know enough to be able to say so hopefully someone can clarify.

I am only looking at this for the moment and the different options. As I don’t care much for the aesthetics I am hoping to be able to pick up a basic set of rims for as little as possible and the brakes are minimal cost too. If I change them out as they wear then the cost isn’t much at all and I am not far off the tyres needing done at the moment so may get the rims either way to give me flexibility.