I have a 02 A4Q that has just turned 60,000 miles. bought it used 8,000 miles ago and suspected the brakes would need to be replaced somewhere around 65K. The brake warning light has come on once or twice and than gone out, checked the pads and they are at or near the replacement point. I find the standard 1.8T brakes to be wanting and as long as I am going to do the work I want to do an upgrade

I assume I will need rotors and so I think i would like to upgrade the brakes whan I rebuild everything and replace the rotors.

Doing some research I have com up with the following "bolt-on" Audi based upgrades:

1.) A8 rotors (312mm x 25mm) with TT caliper carriers using the original calipers (front)
2.) B7-B8 A4 6-cylinder calipers, carriers and rotors
3.) A6Q/S4/Allroad Calipers and carriers (which ones, I assume the A6Q carriers) with A8 Rotors (312mm x 25mm)
4.) S4/R4 complete transplant (difficult to find)

Is there anything i am missing above? Any further suggestions? I am looking for used calipers (I will rebuild) and carriers and don't want to buy new.

Question is what would be the best setup for a DD that can be driven fairly hard?

Thanks for your advise!

Jay Traner

 

I've heard good things about Hawk brake pads http://www.hawkperformance.com/performance/

 

Thanks all for your insightful advise! It is really appreciated.

 

Was that a sarcastic comment?

 

Seems you researched whats available and must certainly have read comments or suggestions along the way related to the options your considering. I'd say any of those combinations you are deciding between would provide more than enough stopping power for even a harshly driven d.d. It seems that the obvious choice for competition would be the RS-4 set-up and the other options, although a great upgrade worth the investment, are in some way a decline from that.

So that being the case the question is really, what do you want. If you can find/afford it go with the RS-4 set up. If not throw a dart or choose on price, availability or difficulty. It's not possible to get an accurate comparison for the others your considering (I don't think Car and Driver or Consumer Reports is doing any reviews) and the only real way to find out which you like best would be to try them all out on the same car and do a real world compare. Everything else is speculation.