Brake upgrades beyond the 13+ HD brakes?

[Mahu24]

The 4 piston calipers still require a 19" wheel though correct?

I can run 18" steelies for winter on the car still, so not to my knowledge

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Gotcha, so it would still require a change of winter wheels and tires. I feel like if I was going to do the 4-piston setup it would be better to go all in with the 6-piston and do the rears too.

 

[Mahu24]

Gotcha, so it would still require a change of winter wheels and tires. I feel like if I was going to do the 4-piston setup it would be better to go all in with the 6-piston and do the rears too.

I bought my kit used for a good deal, otherwise my plan was to do exactly that. Although my car is now summer only because I lost so many belly trays last winter.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I bought my kit used for a good deal, otherwise my plan was to do exactly that. Although my car is now summer only because I lost so many belly trays last winter.

RIP belly tray

Like mentioned earlier, this is my wife's daily driver and our road trip vehicle year-round.

 

[Mahu24]

RIP belly tray

Like mentioned earlier, this is my wife's daily driver and our road trip vehicle year-round.

Well I live in northern Canada, where the Tim's drive thru gets 6" deep ruts, and I work at a pulp mill so the road to work has lots of semi ruts. I bought 4 belly trays last winter at $400 something a pop. So not into that anymore

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Well I live in northern Canada, where the Tim's drive thru gets 6" deep ruts, and I work at a pulp mill so the road to work has lots of semi ruts. I bought 4 belly trays last winter at $400 something a pop. So not into that anymore

I don't blame you at all when they are that expensive. I tell people that even the metal skid plates won't always save you either. I had a Jetta TDI that was lowered with a metal skid plate on it that I ran over a chunk of ice and dented the skid plate into the oil pan and cracked it.

I would agree that unless you get a good deal on the 4 piston front setup, it's best to do the 6 piston front setup and the upgraded rear and just go all in. Not saying the 4 piston setup wouldn't still be an upgrade, but I can't imagine it's a huge enough difference to not justify going to the larger setup to make a noticeable difference, especially with the small single piston rear calipers.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Just putting this all together here -

There's a 4 piston option for the front that uses the stock 13.8" brake rotors that will clear 18" wheels, as well as a 6 piston option that uses either the stock 13.8" brake rotors or the 15" aftermarket rotors, but requires 19" wheels. The only upgrade option for the rear is a 4 piston setup with a 14.25" rotor, but you also cannot run a parking brake with it, and it requires 18" wheels.

The 4 piston setup seems to have been made to pair with the 13+ HD rears, but I've also read it's really not worth the upgrade since it retains the stock sized brake rotor and isn't that much of an improvement. From what I understand it's either you go to the 6 piston setup with the 15" rotors and 19" wheels, or just run the 13+ HD brakes with aggressive pads and rotors.

Through my years of researching brakes generally the largest part of a brake upgrade is changing the rotor swept surface by going to a larger and/or lighter weight brake rotor. Yes, a bigger/fixed brake caliper is nice, but the braking performance increase is brought on by the rotor having more stopping surface as well as going to a more aggressive brake pad. It's why you generally never see a brake upgrade kit that either doesn't have a larger rotor, or doesn't replace the stock rotor size with a 2 piece brake rotor that's also lighter in weight.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Got the front and rear Powerstop red powder coated calipers/brackets, R1 Concepts black coated slotted/cross drilled rotors, and Powerstop Z37 Top Cop brake pads installed. While I had everything apart I scuffed up and hit the dust shields and hubs with Duplicolor Low Gloss Black paint. Got the system all bled with new full synthetic DOT4 brake fluid. Took it for a road test and bedded the new brakes in. Everything feels pretty good, but there is a little bit of squish to the pedal, so I'm going to bleed them again and make sure I've got no leaks anywhere.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Update - put the car up on the hoist, pulled the wheels, and did a full ABS system bleed with the scan tool. Seems like that was where the last bit of air was trapped. Pedal feels excellent now. Time to drive it for a couple days and make sure all is good, then give it back to the wife. I'm sure she misses it compared to the 04 allroad.