There people around here that have them, and I believe you would need at least 17"s to run them. Search in the Showroom area...

 

Even the 16" steelie spare clears. They are a nice upgrade, but a good set of pads will usually provide a more noticeable difference over stock. My 16" wheels were a stock Audi wheel design and they clear.

I ran PBR Ultimates with the stock set up and initial bite was better than the A8 upgrade with EBC Reds. I expect the A8 upgrade will fade less (and less dust/noise). I wanted the upgrade to better manage the extra weight of the 4MO while tracking or high-speed drivng.

 

X2, I also upgraded my brakes to the A8 rotors and found that much of the difference is found in fade resistance. If you're looking for one shot stopping power then pads are your best bet. That, or increase your following distances.

 

yea good pads are a must theres just a weak feel to the stock brakes i want to fix

 

Nothing special to my brakes. In fact, I think there's a leak in the system somewhere. With my 15" steelies, they feel like bloody boat anchors. I've never been in a car that wanted to stop so quickly. With my lead-balloon 17" reps, they do lose a bit of their performance, but I'm pretty sure that if some little blind girl ran out in front of me, they'd be able to stop the car in time. My driving style sees me hardly touch the brakes at times (and no, I DON'T go through tires quickly ). For example, I got my car undercoated yesterday. Until that stuff runs off the rotors, it brakes as quickly as if I opened the door and dug my heel into the ground. No accidents in rush-hour today, though...

Most people increase their stopping distances when they 'upgrade' their brakes.

 

I have stock 312mm front rotors on my 2002glx with stock 16" alloy wheels.

A good pad is a must. I'm using Centric semi metallics and are great when hot but very lazy when cold. And they squeal as pigs. At least they give off Zero dust.

My next pads will be ebc ultimax.

 

I recently did the ECS A8 upgrade, clears the stock 16 inch wheels no problem. And PBR metal masters finally got rid of my chronic squeal.

 

I alos did the A8 brake upgrade and it's AMAZING! I also replaced all four rotors with ATE power discs and I'm running Hawk HPS pads all around. It was a chunk of change, but it's well worth it. and to clarify, you only need 16 inch wheels to clear.

 

16's will clear the 12.3" brake setups and as mentioned above, a good set of pads goes a long way. I've personally got an C5 A6 Avant and a B5.5 4motion Wagon, the A6 got the upgrade a few months back and I went with the PBR Metal Masters. I'll be doing the same setup here on the Passat before winter.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen...ource=passatworld&utm_medium=forum&utm_content=postreply&utm_campaign=postreply

 

16" are Fine

My VW OEM 16" Tango wheels clear just fine. I have an OEM Montreal for the spare.

This is a very good upgrade. I've been running A8 rotors + TT carriers for almost 160,000 mis. The braking performance upgrade is noticeable.

 

Why upgrade your brakes when you can downshift + brake.

 

its cheaper to replace brakes, calipers etc vs replacing/rebuilding a tranny..

+ with added power from a chip/turbo upgrade etc- -- comes the need for increased stopping capability

 

If done right downshifting isn't hard on your transmission or synchros at all.

@ Mozzy you can still do that with better brakes. Point is stock ones on b5s kinda suck.

 

looking to upgrade brakes after running into the back of a pickup a couple weeks ago. I also think the stock brakes are a little too weak so an upgrade is in line for me i think.
Looking for reviews on this upgrade if any have some info.
Also I know you need 16's to clear these as Ive had them on other cars.
Anyone know if some stock 16s clear?
thanks

This kit is essentially the old BIRA BBK for the A4/Passats which uses A8 calipers and Audi TT mounting brackets. It's a slight upgrade when compared to the stock setup but your stopping distances will not be decreased that much because you are still using the stock calipers. If you go this route, source a set of quality slotted A8 rotors and buy your brackets from ECS. I love ECS-Tuning, but shipping prices can turn good deals bad.

Also, make sure you use brakepads with a harsher compound than the stock Pagid or Jurid pads used by VAG. PBR/Axxis Metal Masters are great pads which are low dusting with great All-Season bite! Blended compound pads such as PBR/Axxis Ultimates or EBC Greenstuff pads perform very well except during cold temperatures and take significantly longer to heat up.

 

Quick dumb question...is upgrading the fronts all you have to do? Can you just leave the rear as is?

 

It is going to look odd as hell to have a BBK in the front and OEM sized brakes in the back, you could do it, but it is kind of ghetto in my opinion. :wrench:

 

hey swami didnt realize you still frequented these parts?

since im sure you have no idea who this is im brian from the old old old burtonsville friday night gtg's. you had the w8 back in those days and i had a whole bunch of different things

thanks for the insight everyone. im hoping this will make a nice difference. i remember how much better my 20thae gti and mk4 gli with the 12.3 brakes stopped than the plain mk4 gti with the smaller 11.3 brakes.

 

Brian, what's the word man! So you purchased another Passat? Cool..

I retired the W8 and it has a nice new home in Florida. I'm now pushing a 3.6 4Motion, but MoCo made be remove the tints. Ughhhhh!!

 

The other way the kit offers increased stopping power is by moving the caliper further out on a larger rotor. Think of it much like choking up when swinging a baseball bat, more leverage is available the further out you are, the same goes for the brake system.

The front upgrade can be used without any rear upgrade with no issues.

 

My 2 cents...

I have a loaded GLX variant (the heaviest factory Passat) with stock brakes. Stopping is not a problem in the slightest.

Slow the ___ down. :thumbup:

 

um thanks for the input i guess?
considering you havnt the slightest idea of what my driving style is like perhaps your $.02 would be better spent elsewhere.

my driving consists mostly of driving 1.5 miles to work and half that being getting out of my neighborhood so speeds dont get high enough to get crazy.

having several cars now with larger than standard brakes i feel the stock brakes i have now are underpowered which is why this post was created.
perhaps a good set of pads would be all i need but for not much money largers rotors along with good pads would make a bigger difference in my mind.

swami- we currently have 3 passats in the stable now. a 93 b3 wagon, b5.5 sedan, and the wife has a b6 sedan. ive only been through about 4 cars since the burtonsville days and we now live outside of charlotte. the w8 was a nice car but i think i could handle that 3.6 4mo on a daily basis too.:lol:

 

That's ok, I have an ashtray full of pennies. You can have some anyway.

Seriously, if your stock brakes don't work adequately for a putt to work, your car has issues.

 

again your thinking is flawed. stock brakes are of course fine for my short 5 minutes to work. is it against the rules for me to want to upgrade to make them better?

go drive a car with a bbk for a couple years then go back to your overweight b5 and tell me how the brakes feel.

then you might have some idea what im talking about.

 

Having driven a plethora of vehicles with large and/or upgraded brakes, I don't think there is anything wrong in the slightest with the B5 brakes for regular driving. People who drive it for the first time tend to try and put themselves through the windshield.

Maybe the GLX wagons got better brakes? IDK. But for the price of a BBK, seems like you could have some fun elsewhere.

If you want to upgrade the brakes for a better feel, that's totally cool. Your car, your call. Wasn't trying to shoot you down or anything, thus the thumb up smiley. I gotta remember that jokes & sarcasm are often a lost cause on an internet forum. :beer:

 

Stock brakes are fine for slowing down for a stop light but I would be much more comfortable with an upgrade in case of any emergency situations.

 

amazing dave thanks for the clarification on where you stand.
im use to vortex people and there want/need to argue just for the sake of arguing.

ive only had this car for a little over a month and perhaps i have the worst brake pads known to man but this is definitely the worst braking car ive owned in my 16 vws including my wifes mk4 2.0 jetta which had amazing brakes for some reason.

im hoping to keep and go all out with this car so bigger more effective brakes are just a piece of the puzzle and i like to get good deals when i see them seeing that i get paid to teach kids which we all know pays nothing.

 

im hoping to keep and go all out with this car so bigger more effective brakes are just a piece of the puzzle and i like to get good deals when i see them seeing that i get paid to teach kids which we all know pays nothing.

understood

 

Wait wait wait. You couldn't stop instantly when you were only doing 1mph? Dude, you don't need new brakes, you need to fix the ones you have.

 

yup clutch fully in and rolling forward at a stop sign. checked traffic to see if i had room to get out on the road once the truck in front of me went. looked back forward from lookng down the road and the truck had stopped. i slammed down on the brake pedal and it felt funky like if you hit it and the abs kicks in. the nose went about 2 inches too far and dented the bumper broke the grill and the hood bent slightly.

like i said ive had the car just over a month and it could quite possibly have the worst pads in the world on it so if im going to spend $70-$100 on pads i might as well spend a few hundred more on some bigger rotors as well.

 

I did the 12.3" upgrade when I had my 2001 B5 GLX.. A Few months later, I added the Boxter calipers to them and the stopping was tremendous, but don't forget, your massive rotors and grip-all pads are only as good as the rest of the car - tires, suspension,etc..