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Consolidated Macan Brembo upgrade thread (READ FIRST POST)

TheBlondeFella

Go Kart Newbie
Location
UK
Car(s)
MK7 Golf R
Odd... Where's the sensor that would even give it brake temp? Maybe brake fluid temp?

I have no idea. I've had the front and rear brakes apart and didn't see any temperature sensors.
There must be something there though. Interestingly, I did a 10 minute track session a few days before and my rear rotors went a little blue so there must be some sort of sensor there.
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
Are the Macan calipers available in red or other colors, or are you guys painting/powdercoating them? I just ordered rear PP calipers in red and would like to have the fronts in the same red if possible.
 

Charlotte.:R

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte
Car(s)
'18 Golf R 6MT
Are the Macan calipers available in red or other colors, or are you guys painting/powdercoating them? I just ordered rear PP calipers in red and would like to have the fronts in the same red if possible.

Just black. I think the Q5 calipers are the same and are bare. Most of us are either painting or having them powdercoated. I used black G2 caliper pain.
 

scrapin240

Drag Racing Champion
Location
IzzaGolf
Car(s)
Golf
so @emichel6888 was onto something, and here are a set of almost $500 pads that are toasted after 2 track days. looks like the bottom two pistons are not engaging properly. This explains why my braking was very erratic during my track time. Looks at my pad and there is a difference of about almost 2mm difference in pad thickness. The portion that touches the bottom piston is the one that is higher.

I will be returning to OEM brake calipers over the winter.

50506549716_8d1af48121_c.jpg
50505839273_3d883b68d7_c.jpg
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
View attachment 186282View attachment 186281

Been a couple weeks since I installed these so figured it's time to contribute some thoughts. For reference, this was replacing 50,000 mile squishy stock brakes and I have very little performance driving experience to base my feelings off of. I have also never touched car brakes before so this is a complete beginners perspective.
  1. What parts did I use:
    1. Macan Calipers
    2. Zimmerman 345 blanks
    3. Techna-fit standard lines (front page)
    4. pseudorealityx pad shims
    5. Ferodo DS2500 pads
    6. RBF600
    7. OBD Eleven codes per front page
    8. RS3 Ducts
  2. Installation
    1. I chose to do my rear pads and rotors at the same time. I'm sure some of you guys can do the whole thing in 3 hours, but i suggest if it's your first time to keep your whole weekend free. Hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes and get it done in one day, but I always find it less stressful to know I have another day to come back to a project if I get stuck or frustrated.
      1. I think I could get this done in about 4 hours if I had to do it again. But that's what trying new things and learning from your mistakes is all about.
    2. I randomly chose to buy a 15" breaker bar and i think that ended up being about the optimal force to maneuverability ratio to deal with the caliper bolts both front and rear.
    3. Big A$$ Hammer. Might be easier on lower mile vehicles, but even with a soaking of PB blaster, I still had to run back to Homed Depot to get the heaviest rubber mallet I could find. I think it was like 45 oz. Even with that, I still had to smack the rotors like nothing I have ever smacked before.
    4. For some reason I thought you could compress the rear caliper with a standard compression tool. Nope. You need the one that turns as you compress. AdvancedAuto lent this out for free but I probably asted a solid hour on this alone.
    5. Best strategy I found for the lines is to first thread it in most of the way into the caliper. Then attach the caliper to the carrier. Then slide the middle retention piece into the knuckle bracket and insert clip. Then fully tighten caliper end. Then attach the hardline end
      1. Still not sure what the best way to do the final step was. Once you detach the original line fluid just starts coming and even the 5th time around (yeah I messed up a couple times) I still got brake fluid all over me and the driveway before i could get the new brake line in. Someone around here probably has a better strategy.
    6. Get more brake fluid than you think. Probably used more than I needed but I went through a solid three bottles, wish I had 4 for peace of mind. luckily FCP should have my back here.
    7. G2 Paint. If you think the room you're going to do it in has good ventilation, it doesn't. No matter how many windows, fans... it doesn't. It took multiple days for the smell to leave my apartment. That being said the results are pretty good. If you take super good care of your car and need everything perfect, powder coating is probably your way to go. But there's other imperfection on my car that people will notice before any imperfections in the caliper paint so all good. I'll update on how it holds up after I finally get it to a track day.
  3. Results
    1. Surprise, surprise, they feel way better than 50,000 mile old squishy stock brakes. Bedded them int o Ferodos recommendations the best I could, which I will admit made me a little nauseous but I was probably also dehydrated by that point haha. No squealing at all.
    2. I used a power bleeder but even using that and going around twice the pedal was still pretty soft. If i pushed in halfway, let out then started pushing in again the bite was immediate so I'm sure it was just lingering air I didn't get out. Out of laziness I didn't go back to fix it and it seems that over the past two weeks most of that squish has gone away. I assume the air slowly rose to the MC over time. I will probably go through and do a final two person bleed before i go to a track though.
    3. Overall, I am very glad I did this. It was sometimes frustrating but in the end fun experience where I learned a lot. The price difference to do this and sell the old calipers on marketplace vs doing the normal pads/lines/rotors upgrade I was going to do anyways was well worth it. Thank you to all the people in this thread for providing information and figuring this all out. If anyone has a "stupid" question just ask it. there's several that i wish I had asked. Good luck!

This is a dumb question, but did you sand off all the original paint from the calipers (down to the metal) for the G2 paint? Or just scuff them up? Or just clean them? I see tutorials where they all do it differently.
 

J Peterman

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
I scuffed mine lightly with sandpaper and sprayed them with multiple coats of high temp satin black paint. They came out great.

I have 50mm steel knuckles on a 1.8T GSW and they bolted right on. The braking adaptations helped, but I still have a squishy pedal with a fair amount of dead travel, and there is definitely still air in the lines. I tap the pedal routinely before pressing to brake and the pedal firms up really nicely with great modulation. Really need to have the lines flushed again.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
Scuff them, clean them with something that won't leave a residue, then paint.
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
So, just ordered the front Macan calipers. Has anyone been able to confirm if Austins fit? @yirayira 's 2nd post doesn't show if it truly does fit.

There's a good deal on some Austin's with snow tires near me so I was hoping they would potentially fit. I can run 10-15mm of spacer, but would prefer not to.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
So, just ordered the front Macan calipers. Has anyone been able to confirm if Austins fit? @yirayira 's 2nd post doesn't show if it truly does fit.

There's a good deal on some Austin's with snow tires near me so I was hoping they would potentially fit. I can run 10-15mm of spacer, but would prefer not to.

Yeah, someone on here test fitted them. I think they needed 12mm spacers though.
 
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