It completely depends on what you are going to do With your car. If you track the car - ever - then you will want a good big brake kit, in other words bigger calipers and rotors, with performance oriented pads.

ECS has good rotors and kits, however you have to ask yourself what you are putting the kit on the car for.

If you race or track the car, DO NOT put crossdrilled rotors on. The heat will crack the rotor where the holes are drilled. Unless you have brake ducting to cool the rotors, the rotors get too hot and that can lead to cracks in the rotor - which is bad no matter what.

If you don't track it, cross drilled is just for looks, and it looks pretty cool. So do big calipers - looks cool. The stock caliper/rotor on the A4 is NOT good enough to stop the car after about 20 laps on a road course - the brake fluid will boil and the pedal gets scary soft, as a result of the small surface area of the rotor, and the fact that the stock caliper is a two piston variety.

If you need something for performance, as opposed to cool factor, Stoptech makes excellent stuff and their kits are tuned for the Audi A4 and S4, depending on the master cylinder. They know more than anybody I've talked to about brakes and performance, and I can't recommend them enough.

You first have to decide what the need is, then buy for that. Brakes is one thing that you want to do right - it's a safety issue first, cool factor second.

Good luck!

 

I have cross drilled and performance pads but i will be doing open track days in it. Should i get new calipers? If i do will i need new pads even thou mine are brand new or will they work with new calipers? (i know that sounds stupid). Also should i get the performance brake fluid that boils at higher temps.?

 

You don't need brakes, the stock brakes with a set of hawks are good.

 

Ok sweet. He was saying major fade and things like taht so i got worried. i didnt think i did and yes i do have Hawks!

 

Well, ultimately you will decide if you like the way the car feels and handles. I can tell you from experience that putting Hawk pads on the stock stuff will do two things.

First, the Hawk pad is designed to create more friction, therefore the rotor will get hotter. When the rotor gets hotter, the caliper holding the pad gets hotter. The caliper holds the brake fluid - that's what makes the pistons do their work. When the caliper gets too hot, the brake fluid boils. When the brake fluid boils, then brake fade will always happen, and you should bleed your brakes anyhow, but the air that is naturally in the line, even the slightest amount, will cause the pedal to go to the floor after a while. You should have stainless brake lines for sure. This eliminates the "give" that is caused from the high pressure flex that is in the stock lines under extreme conditions.

The second thing that will happen, if you are truly taking the car through her paces at a track day, is that the Hawk pad will cut the rotor more, and leave grooves and uneven pad deposits on the rotor, which will suck when you want to use the same set-up for daily driving. That is what will seem like a bad vibration. It will not be dangerous, just VERY annoying,

I'm not trying to spend your money here, that's for sure. But be sure you have researched all this brake stuff before you kick yourself for not having done it. If you are going to be on the track and running hard, the stock stuff is not enough. That is a commonly known fact. The street racer or "spirited" driver does not need the same stuff a track day car needs.

That's just my opinion, but it is from my experience (and others), not theory, that I come by it.

Good luck...be sure to post what you do and let me know how it goes at the track. By the way, you can always put the Hawk pads on the stock stuff and if it works to your liking - there's nothing wrong with that. If it does what I am suggesting it will, then you will be taking the stock stuff off the car anyhow, so you might as well try it and then you'll know.

With regard to the pads you have now working on new calipers, they will not work with the new caliper. That's because the new caliper will be a different size and the stock pad from our car is so little it will surprise the heck out of you when you compare them side by side.

One last thing...slotted rotors crack under extreme conditions and if you look at high performance race cars, you'll see either flat rotors or slotted (to dismiss brake dust), but you'll really never see cross drilled. The theory is that the crossdrilled holes dissipates heat (and it does), but if you are not getting air to the rotor/caliper area (and our cars are very bad about that, because the wheel well lining is so good and tight) then they will be really hot no matter what. That is to say that surface area of rotor should be increased, as a greater area will get hotter slower...a bigger pad uses more surface area, thus the work is less for the same effect, cutting down on the heat required in stopping.

And, if you warp a crossdrilled rotor (caused from letting the pad stop against a very hot rotor for even five seconds when you first come off the track), you will be buying new rotors a lot, because shops do not "turn" CD'd rotors. Their machines can't keep a tool on the plate without chipping the tool and etching the rotor face at every hole - so they simply won't turn them. They are fine for street performance, but the holes create cracks from one to another under extreme heat. Read up on all the brake stuff you want at www.stoptech.com.

 

My guy told me if i cracked them then he would pay for the new rotors even if i wanted to go to a big brake kit for the car. I doubt that in the beginning i will be putting the car thru its paces but u never know. If i need better brakes i will keep the rotors and just get some 4 piston calipers and pads prolly from stoptech.

 

Well that's a good deal! If he is willing to pay for a new set of rotors, he must not be around many guys who track their car under heavy braking conditions (over time) that have cracked rotors. But that's a good guy. The guys at stoptech and ECS are like that too.

By the way, if you track in rain (which is VERY fun in the A4) you'll be one of the only guys on the track then...because all the Porches, Corvettes, NSX's and other RWD cars will be drinking coffee in the paddock office! But, the point here is that you will be generating a lot of heat in the brake, but the water will cool them much faster. That means the cracking can occur faster from the extreme jump in temperature.

Be sure you always take at least one cool down lap at the end of your sessions (without using the brakes at all, if possible). You may even want to drive around the paddock area after you are off the track to keep cooling the brakes, keeping in mind you are also cooling your turbo before shutting the engine off, thus killing two birds with one stone.

Have fun!

 

haha this guy. wow i wish i was lucky enough to have a turbo, i have a 2.8, which hopefully around May will be supercharged!

 

if you are going to track your car, or hoon it somewgere at a very fast pace, on a regular basis, then yes, go and buy bigger rotors, but as I said, 99% of people will be better off saving money, and just buying better quality stuff for their existing brakes. You can replace your fluid to the best stuff, with the highest boiling point, (not sure if there is anything better than 5.1, I'm sure someone will say), but just plonking on bigger rotors won't make you brake any quicker.

 

Yea, imnot making it some hardcore track car, i just wnat something every now and then i can take to the track and pounce on it. It will be really fun if i ever get a supercharger.