Personally I thought it was well worth it. I went the whole hog and replaced the backing plates, calipers/discs/pads, brake lines (braided all round) using Volvo OEM parts for all but the brake lines. Overall the improvement was very noticeable.

The strange thing is, we have a 1.6 diesel V50 as well with 278mm front brakes and they are better than the 300mm one were on the S40 T5. Fitting the 320mm setup fixed that.

 

The strange thing is, we have a 1.6 diesel V50 as well with 278mm front brakes and they are better than the 300mm one were on the S40 T5. Fitting the 320mm setup fixed that.

Thanks for that, brake pads can make a massive difference in how they feel.

I was running the hawk hps plus pads on the 300mm setup and they where fantastic, the newer low dust/low noise pads feel very wooden in comparison and take noticeably more effort to slow the car.

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Turns out the discs and pads (volvo OEM) where near new but they only had one stone shield, got them and a rear door seal for 440 nzd.

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I have done this exact change from 300 to 320 and personally its the biggest waste of money on the car so far.

With the 300mm setup I had a fresh set of discs, pads, braided hoses and a fluid change. I then upgraded to 320mm setup with fresh discs, pads, braided hoses and a fluid change, there was no real difference at all. I have done quite a few mods and always looking for the best value, this upgrade was the worst for me with no real noticable difference on road or track. I would save and go straight for a big brake kit (exactly what I am doing now)

 

I think what this shows is you'll get different experience, views and answers from different people

 

Ok good test. I'm somewhat surprised though. Maybe the pad material?

 

Yes that was my exact reaction, I thought the upgrade to 320 would defenitly allow me a bit more time on the track before fade but was very disappointed in them. I love cheap upgrades but the cost of the calipers / pads / discs / fluid change was not worth it at all. For value I have been looking around and have not seen any Volvo T5 using these brakes http://pumaspeed.com/product-Pumaspeed-Racing-Focus-ST225-6-Pot-355mm-Brake-Kit_18076.jsp

So these are something for me to get as they look good and proven well on track with the ST225's.

 

#1 - Get some lightly drilled/slotted rotors (i.e. Powerstop).
#2 - Get them heat treated (cryogenic treatment).
#3 - Get good pads (Powerstop has Z23 for street+perf and Z26 for perf+some street).
#4 - Do a complete brake flush using highest DOT 5 brake fluid you can find that is compatible w/ DOT4 or DOT3.

That setup will last you longer around a track on this car. OEM 320mm have a hard time breathing with 16" rims, so if you can go larger please do. I do regular 90-0's on mine on the highway using the above steps and I have absolutely loved the lack of brake fade and brake performance is stellar.

 

#4 - Do a complete brake flush using highest DOT 5 brake fluid you can find that is compatible w/ DOT4 or DOT3.

You need to make sure your using DOT 5.1 not DOT 5, DOT 5 is a silicone based fluid not glycol based like DOT 3/4 and should not be used together.

DOT 5.1 isn't always better, Motul RBF600 is a DOT 4 rated fluid and is one of the best racing fluids around. (tip check out the cost of Toyota's TRD racing brake fuild as its basically rebranded RBF600)

Fresh fluid, decent brake pads (high coefficient of friction pads), and cooling is what will make the most difference.

The extra size of the 320mm discs will help with the dissipation of heat as there is more mass provided there is airflow. Another point of concern is the dissipation of heat into the wheel increasing the air pressure in the tyre which can effect the handling on track when you go to larger brakes without increasing the wheel size or airflow.

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For track use, a makeshift set of ducts would probably help immensely

 

Pricey, but that set might do a good job. So, what pads were you using with the 320's? And what brake fluid?

 

yeh thats what hoping, should defenitly be upto the job.

Both my 300 and 320 setups were using slotted discs with yellow stuff pads, not sure of the fluid as I got a garage to do it for me. Garage works with quite a few other track cars so im pretty sure they did a good job on it all.

But maybe a little bit of air channeling towards the brakes would also help.

 

Straight slotted. Cross drilled rotors are prone to failure when put in high stress situations. Fluid is extremely important. Pay attention to both the wet and dry boiling point. If you plan on swapping in new fluid on a regular basis the wet boiling point wont be as big of a concern. If you havent-upgrade your brake lines to a good high quality set of stainless. If you are planning on caliper Upgrades Wilwood makes some of the best brakes in the business. We use to use them on our world of outlaw sprint cars.


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For me this is just a bit of cheap fun, everything would have cost me just under $200 usd.

I've got a racecar for proper fun times, so the 320mm is a more just a bit of fun for the daily.

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For me this is just a bit of cheap fun, everything would have cost me just under $200 usd.

I've got a racecar for proper fun times, so the 320mm is a more just a bit of fun for the daily.

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Id say go for it for 200. We use Strange on the drag car. For daily get em slotted-crossdrilled-or both. Wont make a difference. Fluid-friction material-lines-calipers. 4-pots are more than enough for DD. 6-pots on DD are for looks imho.

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Yeah for the racecar I'm looking at willwood but I've there have been a lot of people complaining about caliper flex with the dyna/mid-light models for the Peugeot 205.

The Dynapros don't seem to have the same issue.

The racecars main use is tarmac rally stuff with some future development going in for gravel work also.

The daily (V50) is more just for fun and giggles to be honest, when I was running the hawk hps plus pads I didn't have any issues with the brakes on track at the two track days I took it too for a laugh. I'll throw a set of braided lines and hawk hps pads at it and it will be fine.

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Does anyone know if the 320mm stone shield from a Mazda or focus will fit the Volvo hub?

The wrecker only had 1 that we could find, and they are pretty hard to locate here, but we have a lot of mazda and ford's here.

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Does anyone know if the 320mm stone shield from a Mazda or focus will fit the Volvo hub?

The wrecker only had 1 that we could find, and they are pretty hard to locate here, but we have a lot of mazda and ford's here.

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Might as well call them a stone trap....

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If I can't find a second one I'll leave them both off.

I'm often on gravel roads having fun, so some protection is nice.

Only once had a stone trapped but that was on a boring suburb road after it was freshed chip sealed.

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No track use here, just a fresh set of pads and 320 rotors - Powerstop drilled/slotted. From day one the braking force has been much stronger and easier to modulate. Control at high speed on wet roads has also improved. If there's a downside, it's that under certain conditions moderate braking from higher [but still legal] speeds is accompanied by a sort of groan or hum.

Can't remember whether the calipers I got used had the shields with them or not. There was some cutting and bending to get shields to fit inside 17" Regors.

After about a year I had to buff the rotors due to vibration. Then I went back through the break-in process to try to improve the pad surface. It worked; no vibrations in the two years since.

There are paints you can buy to tell how much temperature your brakes are generating. If needed, you can fabricate a backing plate with a hose flange or two - harder than with a RWD car, but still doable. For track use I would think that Volvo's rear brake bias might become problematic. That's one of the reasons I upgraded the fronts only.

686Sport

 

OP, this is somewhat off topic, but what have you done to increase ground clearance on your V50? Every time I try to play rally driver on forest roads I wind up scraping the heck out of my iPd pan. Stock suspension with 225/45x17 tires here. tia,
686Sport

 

I've got a bit more ground clearance being the awd model but I still scrape everything underneath the car.

The sump is pretty well protected I've found, most of my damage/stone wear under the car is the rear of the under tray (now held on with cable ties) / sub frame area and the front of the first muffler has also taken a beating.



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I've got a bit more ground clearance being the awd model but I still scrape everything underneath the car.

The sump is pretty well protected I've found, most of my damage/stone wear under the car is the rear of the under tray (now held on with cable ties) / sub frame area and the front of the first muffler has also taken a beating.

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$450 - a set of custom springs with 1.5-2x the K-rate will prevent your car from scraping the ground over humps and bumps better. They need a set of OEM's to build to, so that might mean some downtime.

You're running only 0.05" taller than my 16" rims with 205/55 tires on them. You want clearance, get a little bigger in the tire realm. 225/50 or 55 or 60....I know we see a dude on here with some fat tires on his V50, always looks nice to me...