nice job! so you left the rears alone?

somebody is selling the brake upgrade here- good to know that you got new rotors + used calipers for cheaper than that guy wants for the whole setup!

Great write-up/ informative pictures!

 

I should have taken more pictures of the install but it was extremely simple and everyone can do it with just 2 wrenches... 15mm and a 12mm...

I was not aware that the rears were also upgraded. Is that for the face lift model or is it a custom est up?

 

Oooh! I'd been looking for those pictures! And thanks for posting the parts you used.

Did you sourced the used calipers online or at a "pick and pull"?
We're you able to use the same brake lines? (Same location, threads etc)

 

You can source everything from Rockauto.com just look for 2010 brakes and make sure you are picking the 320mm set up.
I got all my stuff from there.

Everything is a straight bolt on, no need for new hoses or any other bolts. you will need only 2 wrenches to do the upgrade. One 15mm for the bracket bolts and one 12mm to take the line off. The bleeder screw was a 10mm i think.

Took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

 

nice writeup.

but I'd be careful... my 320mm standard rotor setup (V50 D4) fits just right with OEM 16" rims, but the inner weights from my aftermarket OZs rubbed. so - 16" is possible with limitations

 

oh i dont know if the rears can be upgraded or not... I was wondering myself!

 

Essentially the 320mm is only slightly larger then the 300 due to the difference in calipers.
In many cases when you go from 300 to a 320mm you are increasing the overall distance from the center of the wheel to the edge of the caliper by 10mm. Now in this case my brakes were less then a finger gap from between the wheel and the caliper. This is why i wated so long to upgrade.
Once i found the pictures above which confirm that there is ample clearance with the OEM 16" wheels decided to try and see how it will fit.

I would say if I had about 10mm before I have about 4-5mm left now and the gap between the wheel weights and the caliper is about 3mm.

If you are running 16s now im 90% sure that these brakes will bolt up.

One thing to note is where the old 300mm discs had the entire surface area swept these new ones leave about 20mm of unswept area at the bottom. I guess this is just how they are designed but the increase in braking power is amazing. Every time i stop i am amazed of how much grip there is even on winter smushy tires.
Deff worth the money for the upgrade. Down the road I may even paint the calipers some other color then this brownish casting color that they are now.

 

There's no (factory) upgrade for the rears. Looks good! When my front pads wear out, I'm debating if I got 320s or a real big brake kit.

 

On a budget the 320mm is a great kit, now i know some of the other kits out there will be better but also cost more, and at some point you will be at the mercy of the contact patch underneath the tire to provide stopping power.
I liked the 320 simply because I can still use my 16" snow tires and wont have to sell that kit to move to say a 17mm.

My TDI is going to have 370mm as soon as the weather warms up and that will pretty much limit me to 19" wheels which is what it has for the summer tires. No more snow wheels unless i remove the kit ever winter.

 

I got a pair of these waiting for install...

 

awesome job! i'm actually surprised more folk with 300mm stockers havent done this.
as stated, all rears are 185 so there is no oem upgrade for the backside.......

 

Would it be this simple if we have the puny 2.4i brakes, or do those calipers have a different backing plate?

 

I think there are smaller brake disc sizes than the 300mm...

at least ebay sells some in 278mm (I think they're for the small 1.6l diesel models?)

 

280mm front brakes were standard on a lot of the 2.4is and the lesser engine in Europe. Often times, these were on the cars that came with 15" wheels from the factory.

 

c70s randomly got 320 vs 300 front brakes. i was lucky to have the 320. definitely appreciate on this heavy car

 

We've been over this a million times there is hardly no real logic into why some cars have the 300mm or 320mm rotors & caliper versions. It literally is the Russian roulette
I'm still driving on 300mm. It's not great but I'd rather not invest big $$$ on this even though I'd be happy if my brakes were better. All I've been able to do is upgrade the pads

 

hey TG. but like the OP did, you can probably pick up a set of remanu 320's for not that much $$$. and it's direct bolt on.

 

So the 300mm bracket stays?
and just slap on the 320 caliper?

 

Looking at both systems they are entirely different. For the 320mm bracket has to be longer in order to reach around the larger rotor in order to provide support base for the pads to attach to.

 

LOL . . . pc just posted a few seconds before I did... ha ha!

Though I would still have to see if there is any types of differences in terms of hub lateral location, mounting hole spacing etc... with my 05

 

I wouldn't mind doing this eventually myself for my eventual 18x 8.5 wheels. Of course, I just bought new front and rear rotors with pads for my stock 16" wheels, so it'll be a year or so.

 

This excellent write-up got me all excited, as I had been contemplating this upgrade before. Focus ST calipers (they came with the 320mm-setup stock) are quite easy to get by over here, so I had been browsing car salvage sites... Until I had a good look at my current brakes while standing next to my car up on a lift today.

Here's a recent pic with some added lightness on the caliper for beter visibility:



Guess I'm done for now... Weird, as I bought the car completely stock. It was imported from Italy though, maybe they got different specs?

 

Its been well over 2 weeks now on my new set of brakes and those 320mm continue to amaze me with the amount of stopping power available. The old brakes were either old or not quite 100% functioning because when you had to come to a stop quickly you had to keep pushing and pushing with increasing effort but not quite 1:1 effort on the pedal vs stopping feel.
The 320mm even though may add a few lbs to the set up are worth every penny in my book. And for a OEM bolt on to me the car doesn't need anything more.

 

FYI I ordered the 320 calipers "cardone" brand. Mine did not come with the pad holders/caliper bracket. Even though stated above that there is no "bracket". There most definitely is. I will post the part #'s when I figure it out.

 

You must have ordered an "unloaded" caliper. You need a "semi-loaded" caliper. As you have discovered the "bracket" (portion of caliper the pads actually sit against) is not interchangeable. Kind of funny considering the Cardone website says this about others.

 

My car had the 320mm brakes as standard because AWD, even so with the sportive driving attitude i have i ruined the OEM disc very easily and it happened to my twice [emoji19] (last set only survived 2 weeks) calipers are perfect but now planning on upgrading the disc. Any recommendations ?

 

This is all you will need.

 

Thanks!
I was just a bit confused when i was told there is no bracket, but then got my calipers and realized i do infact need the bracket.
we'll blame pczeilon

 

So I just got back from the parts place.
Up here in Canada they are saying that the 19B3272 was R&R'd and superseeded by 193272..... so there is no longer an option for the cardone caliper AND bracket.

Not sure if it is different in the US?

Now ofcourse there is a restocking fee on the calipers, so I am left looking for some brackets...

 

Why don't you check and see if Rockauto.com delivered to Canada?

 

I just got around to installing these. I ended up using that cardone part number and ordering through rock auto and received the brackets. So that part number issue must be in Canada only.

An important note. My car is an 05. The bracket mounting bolts were different threads!
Pay attention to that if you do this swap, don't start trying to thread the bolts in like I did!!!.
I'm sure it's an 05 issue.

 

I am working on putting this kit together for my s40 and rockauto still does not have 19B3272 in stock. anyone put this kit together lately? whats the alternative semi loaded caliper?

ben