Brakes upgrades

[JustAFlabbyPanda]

I've just had my 2016 Fabia Monte Carlo remapped (90 to 130bhpish) and the increase in power has me worried about the stopping power, or lack thereof. Apart from changing the discs to something from brembo etc is there any other simpler upgrades that might help like pads, etc?

[krigl]

Brembo discs will not do you any good. I rather use original ATE. 110 tsi has biger brakes originaly, look at that option with bigger original calipers. 

See picture for my argument against brembo. ATE brakes never came apart like these have in last 10 years of my driving the VW cars. 

[FabiaGonzales]

Just get some Mintex discs and pads, the discs have a protective coating on them that stops the massive build up of rust. My original rear discs were so bad they were causing vibrations at high speed.

They were just extremely rusted (on the non-braking surface) and were unbalanced as a result. Make sure you use a good amount of copper grease on the rear of the pads though, they'll squeak like mad if you don't.

 

DIY with mintex front and rear will set you back under £100, where skoda dealers will happily charge you £500 for that.

 

Unless you're doing abusive racing often, they hold up fine, even when deliberately severely overheated (a good 20 minutes of heavy acceleration/braking down some country roads) they still stopped the car hard enough that the ABS kicked in.

I don't think the fabia has any serious enough power to worry that much about brakes. Tyres and suspension will make a much bigger difference as to how they keep the tread stuck to the road and not letting it lock up.

[Ootohere]

Increased power does not require more braking than when it had less power if you drive at the same speeds as before.  The car never got heavier with a remap.

Now Sporting and spirited driving and more on the  brakes more often and having to nick into that space between cars because 130ps is hardly making it a hot harch is a different matter.

[FabiaGonzales]

2 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

Increased power does not require more braking than when it had less power if you drive at the same speeds as before.  The car never got heavier with a remap.

Now Sporting and spirited driving and more on the  brakes more often and having to nick into that space between cars because 130ps is hardly making it a hot harch is a different matter.

 

Exactly, if the brakes can be applied strong enough to cause the ABS to kick in, they're good enough. If your pedal goes to the floor and you're not slowing down, that's a different matter.

[Ootohere]

Yes.  I am pulling the OP's plonker though.   Actually the standard / OEM brakes are pretty crap, but will pass a Brake Efficiency test, but that is just on rollers...

 

Put 4 or 5 adults and luggage in the car on OEM ECO tyres and even ABS is not stopping the car for quite a distance.

Edited 2 February, 2019 by Skoffski

[FabiaGonzales]

1 hour ago, Skoffski said:

Yes.  I am pulling the OP's plonker though.   Actually the standard / OEM brakes are pretty crap, but will pass a Brake Efficiency test, but that is just on rollers...

 

Put 4 or 5 adults and luggage in the car on OEM ECO tyres and even ABS is not stopping the car for quite a distance.

 

Personally, after almost ending up in an accident with a police car (was neither of our faults, just poor road surface), where i hit a weird ridge (which you cannot see until you hit it) that locked up both front and rear wheels as i was braking for a roundabout, ABS didn't kick in for a good 5-10 meters, was only doing 20-25 by that point (30mph road). Though i don't think that's what ABS is supposed to be dealing with, it does show there iis a delay in responsiveness before it kicks in. Stamping on the brakes also kinda takes it by suprise, but gradually (quickly) applying the brakes to the point where they start locking, the ABS kicks in fine.

 

I like to test limits of my vehicle before i do anything too spirited.

[Ootohere]

Older people still alive after decades of driving usually know about slowing down, braking and emergency stops. They started driving cars with maybe low power and then as much power as a new fabia but with no abs, no esp, crap tyres and crap brakes.  Obviously many maybe crashed and survived. Those that never survived will not be reading this. 

[FabiaGonzales]

1 minute ago, Skoffski said:

Older people still alive after decades of driving usually know about slowing down, braking and emergency stops. They started driving cars with maybe low power and then as much power as a new fabia but with no abs, no esp, crap tyres and crap brakes.  Obviously many maybe crashed and survived. Those that never survived will not be reading this. 

 

Haha, true, the OEM brakes on the Fabia MK3 (mine has discs, can't speak for models with drums on the rear) are plenty strong enough to stop the car. A decent set of tyres helps hugely. The bridgestones that came with it were very sticky, but also very loud (and wore unevenly). Falkens were quieter, but slippy. Davantis are quieter than the Falkens but so far seem much stickier. Though i've had some parts of the suspension uprated, which probably helped somewhat. I've got Avon ZV7's on the rear at the moment, not had a single time where the rear has stepped out, where the original bridgestones that did 50k miles with 4.5mm left were getting on the old and hard side of things and liked to make things interesting under slightly heavier braking, especially on uneven or damp surfaces. I had a pair of habileads for a short time, one got a puncture from a nail, and the other suffered a blowout from a pothole. Though they were quiet, they did not feel very sticky at all, and after roughly 5k miles with lots of hill driving where full throttle was necessary to accelerate at all, they dropped from 8mm to 4mm in just 2 months. I would avoid habileads.

[JustAFlabbyPanda]

Jaysus lads some of ye have fierce notions about driving & physics altogether. 

 

All I was looking for was opinions on pads, if one brand was better than another,

 

Maybe I'm being unfair but the difference in breaking performance between my Fabia, all disc, and Octavia is huge. The Octavia stops on a button, the Fabia doesn't fill me with diffidence when I hit the pedal. 

 

 

 

[Ootohere]

Performance discs, pads, brake hoses and fluid and you are sorted.

Or a bigger brake set up. Carriers, Calipers and Discs / pads, Stainless Braided hoses and fluid.   Just go by your budget.

[FabiaGonzales]

32 minutes ago, JustAFlabbyPanda said:

Jaysus lads some of ye have fierce notions about driving & physics altogether. 

 

All I was looking for was opinions on pads, if one brand was better than another,

 

Maybe I'm being unfair but the difference in breaking performance between my Fabia, all disc, and Octavia is huge. The Octavia stops on a button, the Fabia doesn't fill me with diffidence when I hit the pedal. 

 

 

 

 

When the pads/discs are worn, they don't feel great, you do have to push the pedal further than you'd normally expect. Pump the brake pedal a few times while you're stationary, and feel how it is like that, that's how it will feel with brand new pads/discs. Speaking from experience.

 

And Mintex pads/discs are great, can't speak for hoses/fluid/calipers or anything though. I wouldn't say it's worth upsizing the brakes unless you're going to be going further with remapping and mods.

Edited 2 February, 2019 by FabiaGonzales

[AGFalco]

The stopping power is limited to how much grip your tyres can produce.

Up grade your tyres first for gripper ones.

 

Thanks AG Falco

[Kobayashi]

Wet grip A rated tyres such as Uniroyals 215 wide, massive difference on MK2 vrs, putting them on mk3 next service.

[FabiaGonzales]

48 minutes ago, Kobayashi said:

Wet grip A rated tyres such as Uniroyals 215 wide, massive difference on MK2 vrs, putting them on mk3 next service.

 

Avon ZV7 are A rated for wet grip, they're also very quiet. Very impressed, 85 per tyre fitted/balanced at my local tyre guy. For 215/45 R16's at least.