Brakes advice needed

[Comms]

Currently with the car as standard I have found the brakes not quite up to the sharp responsiveness as I would like it.

I want upgrade the brakes to a better performance but without burning too bigger hole in the wallet as im currently on the hunt for a new house and a baby on the way 

Its my daily but "may" consider the one off track day in a year. Going to stick with the 17's, so what would my options be? Appreciate any advice

[stealthwolf]

You could consider upgrading just the pads.

Others have gone for an R32 setup - there's a front setup for sale in the classifieds section. These will fit fine behind the 17" rims.

[scooba]

As above , Id go with S3/R32 brakes , plenty for sale on here easy to fit and cheap ,We have some on our ED30 and they are a big improvement on stock brakes hth

[LouCyffer]

Asked about this when I first got my GTI:

http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,16014.msg234062.html#msg234062

[jmspear]

I went for Porsche boxster front brakes see the link here, http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,13985.0.html far better feel than you will ever get with a R32 kit (four pot versus 1) and great stopping power, use them with my 17 monza II's with a 1mm spacer with no probs whatso ever. A great brake and if you pick up the calipers cheap on ebay (as I did) then not an expensive upgrade.

[golfecho5]

Cheapest and best option, as the brakes should be up to the job, is a quality pad like EBC yellow, new standard discs (if they need replacing) and some really high quality brake fluid. Depending on how old your brakes are it not much to get the pistons and sleeves cleaned.

Cheap and really effective, failing that just bust out the big dollar and get the Brembo big brake upgrade - not sure on how this sits with the 17s though but looks mighty fine.

[Comms]

Big brakes would be awesome but too pricey and probably overkill for me.
The boxster brakes option looks very tempting but im too lazy and very limited with mechanical knowledge.

Should have mentioned that I only intend to go as far as stage 1 (Something you've all heard many times im sure  )
Standard look with a slight performance upgrade is more than enough for me, although I gotta have the R32 xenons retrofitted 

So would most of you R32 front setup users agree that this is more than sufficient for my small project?

[johntheboy]

Really sorry to hijack this thread, but what were the gti's fitted with as standard brakes wise? Just tried to measure mine and think they're around 280mm ish and have red calumets on (no logo)

Wasn't sure of this was standard or updated?

Thanks

[golfecho5]

Really annoying but the Mk5 had different diameters fitted for different years, mines an '05 and has 312mm but other '05s had 280 somethings. All in seems there's about 3 sizes for front and 2 for rear and the best sure fire way is just to go measure.

[rich83]

Really sorry to hijack this thread, but what were the gti's fitted with as standard brakes wise? Just tried to measure mine and think they're around 280mm ish and have red calumets on (no logo)

Wasn't sure of this was standard or updated?

Thanks

Standard GTI brakes are 312mm. 280mm front brakes were fitted to the 1.6FSI and 1.9 105PD models only (i think)

[golfecho5]

That's not correct, in the main they were 312 and 286 but it's well worth checking first....

and for f*@ks sakes don't order on that basis as even the main dealer had to check my chassis number before I got a firm answer. My rears came in at 255mm 260mm and 286mm, which were mine and the fronts could have been 280s but ended up being 312mm.

I realised this early on and measured them both before ordering

[rich83]

What car have you got?

[golfecho5]

Sorry, haven't posted all the details yet but it's a GTi MK5 '05 car. I think I know where you're coming from but had a real pain trying to get the VW dealer to give a firm answer on the discs as he said they had a few changes between being launched and 2006. All the aftermarket companies get well steamed up over the different sizes too. I can't understand why they would even thing about putting a 280mm on the front of a GTi but apparently thats what they did at some point - maybe there's a couple of '04 cars running on them.

286 was the rear but there are still 2 other options at 255 and 260 which is also odd but not unheard of in the motoring world where changing sizes makes big bucks for parts companies.