Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum so please bear with me if I get anything wrong. I'm looking for some advice from fellow owners regarding my recently acquired, first ever Skoda, a 2017 Yeti 2.0 TDI 5L 1968cc 81KW 110HP DFSA SE Drive Outdoor. I'm happy with the car except for the brakes, which do not inspire confidence. I'd best describe them as adequate. My last car was a VW Passat 2.0 TDI 16v 140hp estate. The brakes on that car were very good. I looked for an upgrade kit and found one on eBay. The kit included new calipers, caliper carriers, pads and 312mm drilled and grooved discs. The listing confirmed fitment for my car. When I tried to fit the kit, I found that the caliper carrier was cast as part of the hub knuckle and is not removable, thus the kit cannot be fitted to this hub knuckle.

Can anyone advise what I need to replace to get this brake kit to fit my car? Can I simply fit the hub knuckle from another model of Yeti, along with different wheel bearings, or is there more involved? Will the driveshafts fit the hubs I will need to fit to accept the caliper carriers? Is there anything else I am likely to need to change? Or should I look at improving the current brakes instead?

Many thanks for any advice which you can offer.

Cheers folks.

I have the same vehicle with the smaller brakes and know what you mean, the brakes are adequate but lack feel and don't inspire confidence.

I bought a second hand big brake kit from a Golf GTi only to find that my suspension struts are a smaller diameter than the steering knuckle.

The vehicle has since been remapped to an alleged 184 hp and the standard brakes actually work better when they have been worked harder! The main problem is glazing, changing to Ferodo Eco Friction pads has given a lot more feel and braking response, the rears make a surprising difference and do more work than we think.

1 hour ago, Yet-eh said:

Can I simply fit the hub knuckle from another model of Yeti,

Yes but you will likely find that your strut tubes are the smaller 50mm diameter and not compatible with the 55mm diameter steering knuckles and will need adaptors.

Thanks for the replies J.R.

That's a shame the GTI parts didn't fit. I'll need to check, but I think I saw, on eBay again, a vendor selling knuckles with a 50 or 51mm dia. strut mount hole. I think they had 4 bolt bearing mountings and caliper carrier mounting holes, so I'll need to investigate further to find out if they will fit. Perhaps it would be easier to track down a setup from a higher power Yeti? This is all new to me and I'm very unsure as to what vehicles could be suitable donors for this modification. I'm concerned there could be subtle differences in camber and castor angles if I use parts from other VAG models.

On a different tack, how do you find the 184hp remap? It's a fair jump from 110hp. I have read that the clutch on the 110hp is smaller, so I was wondering how it handles the extra 74hp? Is there any sign of slippage under hard acceleration? Also, is the gearbox capable of handling the extra load the 184hp puts on it? I was thinking of a 140hp remap as I've read that the 110hp is simply a detuned 140hp engine and they are mechanically identical, the extra power is simply down to the mapping, so a standard VAG 140hp map is all that is needed.

I'll have a look for those knuckles on eBay and get back to you.

Cheers,

I've had no problems in 50k miles.

Enfin...................... the clutch hydraulics failed very soon after, it was vibration from the DMF that finished them off, before the engine wheezed above 3k RPM and it was always better to change up, after the remap it pulls like a train to nearly 5k RPM, before there was no DMF noise, after at high revs it sounded like the death knock of a Tractor pulling engine before it explodes, I thought it was the remap and it gave me the half crown threepenny bit each time I heard it but when I replaced the clutch and DMF silence returned even at 5k RPM.

You are right about the 108/110hp and 140hp engines, mine retains the smaller turbo which is the reason that it has such a huge power band, the small turbo spins up at much lower revs than the 170hp variant.

I doubt that mine really does deliver 184hp but if you look at the rolling road videos from Celtic Tuning that what they got, also the standard unmapped engine was giving more than the manufacturers claimed output.

6 speed gearbox more than string enough, its protected by a peak torque limiter AKA clutch bleed block which makes the clutch slip if you dump the clutch or do a lightning quick upshift, those with little sensory connection to their vehicles will soon burn out their clutches if they are unaware of it, it can be overcome by drilling out the internals of the bleed block, I've left mine as the factory intended.

I drive for economy and rarely use the power but it's very reassuring when I need it, definitely money well spent. The standard brakes without glazing and using decent pad materials are more than good enough for the extra power, I often tow double or triple the towing limit without incident.

That is reassuring that you have had no problems with the extra power of the remap destroying anything - it suggests that the standard kit has a good margin of overengineering built in. Did you upgrade the clutch when you replaced it or just go with the standard? My car has a 5 speed box fitted - did you change yours or was it fitted as standard with the 6 speed? My old Passat had the 6 speed box with 140hp 16v 2.0ltr TDi and was a nice car to drive. A bit more power would have been occasionally useful, but it did everything I wanted so I never tweaked it. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile swapping out the 5 speed box for a 6 and fitting a larger clutch at the same time. Again, I'm not sure if it would be a straight swop, assuming I could get hold of a good 6 speed. Would the linkage to the gearstick etc. be compatible? Again, as I'm new to this, I try to think of all the potential problems in advance.

I've contacted the eBay vendor who I bought the brake kit from, to find out if he can supply the parts I need to fit the brake kit. So far, no reply apart from a request for my reg number. I may just return it and try the pads you have suggested. That is certainly a cheaper alternative to all the brake parts being swapped over. I'll see what the vendor comes back to me with before I decide.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

I have been driving the wife's yeti a bit 140bhp 2.0l tdi

And the brakes are no were nr as good as our touan with the same engine, they stop the car but not as confidentiality

Has anyone tried different pads ?

10 hours ago, Vfr400boy said:

I have been driving the wife's yeti a bit 140bhp 2.0l tdi

And the brakes are no were nr as good as our touran with the same engine, they stop the car but not as confidentiality

Has anyone tried different pads ?

As you can see in the chart below, the Touran 2.0TDI 140HP uses bigger front brake discs than the Yeti 2.0TDI 140HP.

All the 288x25mm and 312x25mm front brakes shown below use the same ATE front brake calipers. So if you want to upgrade the Yeti 288x25mm front brakes to 312x25mm you just need to fit the front brake caliper carriers from the 312x25mm to the 288x25mm...and change to the bigger 312x25mm front brake discs. The front brake caliper carriers on these ATE brakes are not handed, ie. the left and right are the same. They are available new from autodoc (and presumably other places)...and maybe from VAG dealers. The OEM part number for these on the Yeti is 1K0615125C or 5N0615125, depending on the car's build date...and 3C0615125A for the Touran. However, all three of these OEM part numbers leads to the same ATE brake carrier...as linked to below.

Front brake disc size

Yeti 2.0TDI 110HP 280x22mm

Yeti 2.0TDI 140HP 288x25mm

Yeti 2.0TDI 170HP 312x25mm

VW Touran 2.0TDI 140HP 312x25mm

ATE 11.0230-0131.1 front brake caliper carrier (for 312x25mm front brake disc)

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/ate/13765568

Edited 30 March, 20251 yr by Carlston

I'm fairly sure my Yeti does not have seperate caliper carriers and the whole steering knuckle needs to be replaced, I will go and have another look though.

On 21/03/2025 at 23:24, Yet-eh said:

Did you upgrade the clutch when you replaced it or just go with the standard? My car has a 5 speed box fitted - did you change yours or was it fitted as standard with the 6 speed?

Standard clutch.

6 speed gearbox factory build.

It's the 140 and 170 models with separate caliper carriers!

Thanks, saved me looking again, if I had a memory I would not have needed to.

Has anyone tried different pads ? I don't fancy changing bits over ,

14 minutes ago, Vfr400boy said:

Has anyone tried different pads ? I don't fancy changing bits over ,

Different pads should give you a different feel. Something like that from Ferodo might be worth looking at.

Even if the components were a straight swap, you'd still need to do caliper carriers, discs, pads and shields. Most of the smallest-braked VW cars have tiny master cylinders that need to be changed (it's a common thing on 1.4 Leon FR's when going form 288mm to 312mm). You'll also need to do the front and rear to maintain braking balance, as well as telling the car about the increase in size.

Generally, upping brake size is more hassle than it's worth. The first place to start is to make sure the system is in good working order, make sure nothing is glazed/cooked/knackered, and if it still feels rubbish, then take a look at some better quality pads.

Am going to look back trough the paper work and see if it's had a fluid change if not I will get that done , all discs look OK and front pads look almost new back pads getting low but not bad ,

13 minutes ago, Vfr400boy said:

Am going to look back trough the paper work and see if it's had a fluid change if not I will get that done , all discs look OK and front pads look almost new back pads getting low but not bad ,

You won't be able to check the pads when they're in the caliper and the discs are on - beyond how much meat is on them, anyway.

Fluid change would be welcome, but I doubt that will change the braking feel significantly.

FYI - a lot of people trust Brembo, and choose them for pads in circumstances like this. That's fine, but make sure you get actual Brembo, rather than the ECP made-in-China-under-licence-for-a-lot-less Brembi.

2 hours ago, OccyVRS said:

Most of the smallest-braked VW cars have tiny master cylinders that need to be changed (it's a common thing on 1.4 Leon FR's when going form 288mm to 312mm). You'll also need to do the front and rear to maintain braking balance, as well as telling the car about the increase in size.

Increasing the bore size of the master cylinder will reduce the braking force (for a given pedal force) and drastically reduce pedal "feel" and the ability to modulate the retardation.

If you fit larger discs using the correct caliper mounts you increase the braking force (for a given pedal force) and heat dissipation, the master cylinder bore size should not be increased unless the brakes have far too much response and bite, it is never good practice to change more than one parameter without judging the effects and contemplating at length any further modifications.

How do you "tell the car" that you have fitted a larger bore master cylinder?

Edited 30 March, 20251 yr by J.R.

Ive just put Mintex 1144 on my big Vectra and they are not bedded in and they are pulling up very strongly. I had EBC yellow stuff with Zimmermann discs in the old Mokka and they worked amazingly.
But saying all that, my Yeti has none descript pads and discs all round and is about 140k miles yet they are so sharp like a new car! Yet the fuluid was last done about 5 years ago so go figure.

Ive never had good results with any cheap discs or pads yet the ones fitted during its services seem to work well so they would have been what the garage threw on it when it required them.

19 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Increasing the bore size of the master cylinder will reduce the braking force (for a given pedal force) and drastically reduce pedal "feel" and the ability to modulate the retardation.

If you fit larger discs using the correct caliper mounts you increase the braking force (for a given pedal force) and heat dissipation, the master cylinder bore size should not be increased unless the brakes have far too much response and bite, it is never good practice to change more than one parameter without judging the effects and contemplating at length any further modifications.

How do you "tell the car" that you have fitted a larger bore master cylinder?

I was meaning about the increase in brake diameter (the ABS system)!

That is true, and certainly from 288mm to 312mm not necessary, but for jumping up to anything larger (E.G. to GTI 340mm) you'd need the larger bore to move more fluid into the larger piston in the larger caliper. Otherwise though you are correct, although I would add that the pedal travel would also be shorter. With all this in mind, that's why you increase the cylinder size when you increase brake diameter, as the two interact.

You are partly right about the reduction in braking force - increasing the m/c size means that when you press the pedal 1cm, you are now moving more fluid. Hence, it takes more force to move more fluid through the system. In theory, it would require a similar level of effort, to achieve similar levels of braking. Certainly, unless you remove the booster, this won't really be noticeable.

In improving pedal feel, your best bets are usually disc size (generally won't do much unless its a significant difference), pad material and brake line (changing out saggy OE hoses for stainless steel, or the like).

All the discussion in this topic was about retaining the existing calipers.

I think we are broadly on the same page although I cannot make sense of:

11 minutes ago, OccyVRS said:

increasing the m/c size means that when you press the pedal 1cm, you are now moving more fluid. Hence, it takes more force to move more fluid through the system.

My example was for the same calipers with the same pedal force applied to a larger diameter master cylinder, ie someone applies 150kg of force through their right leg to the brake pedal, reducing the master cylinder bore will increase the braking effort albeit with longer pedal travel, increasing the master cylinder bore will reduce the resultant braking effort..

For a given caliper piston size an increase in braking force from a given pedal pressure is achieved by increasing the force amplification of the direct acting servo, this in turn requires a larger control loading spring which reduces feedback and drastically increases the pedal force needed to bring the vehicle to a halt if the vacuum or servo fails or the engine stalls on a manifold vacuum system (petrol engines only)

Correct. I was (badly) explaining that the reason increasing the size of the master cylinder will increase the braking force is that, with a smaller cylinder, moving the pedal 1cm will move a given amount of fluid. Whereas, with a larger cylinder, moving the same pedal 1cm will now move more fluid, with more force being required to shift this. This also leads to a shorter pedal travel, if the piston size isn't changed, as a larger cylinder will push more fluid into the piston faster.

TLDR - the ratio of the master cylinder piston size (cross section) to the caliper piston is the mechanical advantage. Hence, why the two always need to be paired.