I have been reading a few threads here ref the vRS brakes being pretty poor. I find this pretty hard to understand, as standard they are 288mm, correct? This makes them far larger than standard 106 GTI/VTR/VTS & 206GTI discs. They are even bigger than 306 GTI-6 brakes (but only by 4mm IIRC).

What I

I don't think you need braided hoses as the standard ones are reinforced anyway

Chris

On a standard fabia I could not see a major problem with the brakes. Even when re-mapped they are fine for everyday driving.

Dont forget the 106/206 etc weigh as much as a crisp packet so the brake albeit small dont have alot of weight to stop.

I guess it's down to your driving style

The 306 GTi (weighing in at 1214kg) is lighter just than the fabia (weighing in at 1235kg)

There not that bad tbh, just fade easily and dont have much feel

They are fine, and work well. That said, the 312mm brakes are better in a few ways, main reason I'm getting mine is because of the improved pedal feel, and the use of more standard size brake pads.

Personally not had problems with fade, but I tend to keep my distance etc, and I dont do track driving. If you do go on the track the bigger brakes make a lot of sense to me

just fade easily

Imho, you have to be really abusing them to get them to fade on public roads (or live in MK )

Chris

Imho' date=' you have to be really abusing them to get them to fade on public roads (or live in MK )

Chris[/quote']That is true, I think I only managed to make them fade a couple of times, some huge roads get very empty at certain times round here

I think the stock brakes are fine myself - I have done a couple of track days including 58 laps of Donington and 10000 road miles. No fade at all !

Bigger brakes will be better - though, but up to you as to whether they are worth it.

BTW I found lowering improved the brake feel !?!?

ok well that answers my questions, for cost the 312mm Octy brakes seem good VFM even when used with a good set of pads and possibly cross-drilled disks.

Cheers guys

Look out for a new thread in a few moments - more questions.....

They're not terrible - it's that the feel is a bit lacking and they're a bit inconsistent. Sometimes it feels like I need to give the pedal a harder shove than I'm expecting to. The actual braking power behind them is fine. The brakes on my previous VW Bora were damn near identical, but had a stronger servo and more feel.

I found the cost was well worth it. Braking is in a different league to the standard jobies and feel is A1.

I let my mum drive the fabia up to MK (she hated all the roundabouts) and the two things she really loves about the fabia is the way is shifts and the way it stops.

So for the 312mm brakes it's two mums which must count for something?

good set of pads and possibly cross-drilled disks.

.

personally i would never have cross drilled, i have been burnt to many times. A decent set of Brembo vented and ferodo pads will do the job nicely

I think the VRS brakes are VERY good. Particulalrly when you compare them to the old Astra that i used to drive, every stop was a leap of Faith!

The main problem with the Fabia vRS brakes is not really the size of the discs but the way the car is set up in general, with the main two issues being lack of feel through the pedal and as said, fading, which frankly, does not quite take lunatic driving to do it, it can happen quite easily.

The main problem is the size of the calipers, or so I am told... and the soft suspension makes the car dive and pitch too much putting extra strain on the brakes. I reckon the combination of the 312 discs and calipers and upgraded suspension would likely make a significant difference.

I find the brakes fine now, though I still have issues with the overall setup.

Initial braking is pretty hair-trigger and is accompanied by the car dipping on the springs, then if you REALLY want to stop, you have to push harder.

I found the dipping was fooling me into thinking I was stopping quicker than I actually was.

J.

from experience i can report that the brakes are more than adequate for track use, although heavier than a 106 or suchlike the far greater engine compression means just a small lift off is often all that is needed for many corners.

from what i'm told a simple pad upgrade would be as good as bigger brakes with standard pads.

I live in a hilly area and found the standard ones had a lot of brake fade. The 312mm make a lot of difference no such problem now!

i wonder if the factory fit pads are always the same type ?

i've only ever had the smallest amount of fade and i'm sure that could be cured by changing the brake fluid.

however my old comfort pd 100 had horrendous fading problems.

For me, the original Vrs brakes were plenty powerful enough but had poor modulation - they were not particularly progressive, lacking feel as others have said.

Upgrading to 312mm brakes has dramatically improved modulation so that you have more control over exactly how hard you want to brake... and with DS2500 pads, they don't fade either.

dont complain till u drive a fabia with disks and drums like mine.... stop???

When would be the question!!!!

Damn scary :eek:

I find that in this weather the 312mm setup under heavy braking makes the rear tail happy therefore i have to lift a bit to get it back inline. I have a feeling the 288 would stop in the same amount of time as you could just apply the brakes and not have to worry about lifting.

I did have some ebc green stuff pads on my old 288mm setup and tbh i couldnt tell much difference from the 312 setup bar the progressiveness. but anyone with 288mm setup needn't change really...

most people do for the simple reason it's "another mod" and it is very cost effective.

drums???? didn't know u could get a car with those now lol

drums???? didn't know u could get a car with those now lol

Lol - loads of cars have discs up front and just drums on the rear!

Chris

The 288mm discs manage to stop my heavy Octavia Estate from 130mph with no trouble what so ever - so I dont see why you'd need to change them on a little Fabia...... is the diesel lump really THAT heavy ??

I found the standard brakes really bad until they had some miles on them. Had a few hairy moments even in slow traffic.

They got better when the weather turned and there was some dirt on the road.

I used to rub dirt into the ceramic rims on my mountain bike to increase bite.

But the most difference came from actually pressing the peddle hard enough - it is mentioned in the manual sort of.

Philip