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Consolidated Macan Brembo upgrade thread (READ FIRST POST)

ginsy

Ready to race!
Location
Boston
OK, so after reading all 95 pages it appears that there was only 1 person who tried to run these on a steel knuckle car. I drive a 2019 Golf Sportwagen 4Motion and want to upgrade the brakes from the OEM 288mm to the Macan. I tossed around the idea of the Rotorlab 17z or 18z kit for a while, but many people convinced me to look at these.

- Is there confirmed fitment on the 50mm steel knuckles?
- Will the 245mm Mk6 Golf R rotors mentioned in previous posts work as well?
- I noticed the recent questioning on the MC diameters. In other car worlds they will upgrade the proportioning valve, has this been tried yet?
- I didnt see any 1552 wheels on the list, anyone try with 1552 Podium?

The front page lists cars with the aluminum knuckles only, so hopefully I didnt miss a page that answered this question.

Who has the most miles on these so far? What are the long term reviews like?

Thanks!
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
The knuckles shouldn't matter as plenty of Golf people put R/RS3 brakes on their cars. I'm going to be installing the Macan calipers with 345mm rotors on my Sportwagen 4Motion.
 

J Peterman

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
I’ve had them on a GSW 4Mo with the 345mm rotors for about 7500mi now. Stock Golf MC. Dead initial pedal travel and squishy feel is real. They’re fine for a bling street setup, maybe I still have some air in my lines. Interested to see @Raguvian’s insights after he installs with the Castrol red rubber grease, that’s my next move.
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
I’ve had them on a GSW 4Mo with the 345mm rotors for about 7500mi now. Stock Golf MC. Dead initial pedal travel and squishy feel is real. They’re fine for a bling street setup, maybe I still have some air in my lines. Interested to see @Raguvian’s insights after he installs with the Castrol red rubber grease, that’s my next move.

It might take me a while as the weather is still too cold to be able to install and swap to summer wheels and tires. I will be greasing the calipers this weekend, and paint and install whenever is warm enough.

Did you do all the VCDS tweaks? I've been a little worried about our smaller master cylinder changing the feel compared to the GTI/R.
 

bdollazzz

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Richmond, VA
Car(s)
Tornado Red GTI
Does anyone know what would be the benefit of going with this setup over something like the ProdigyWerks CR4 kit for us non-PP guys? This setup seems like around $200-300 more with everything while the CR-4 kit allows you to use the existing stock non-PP rotors and lines, their 4 piston calipers bolt right up.

I see the only benefit of the Macan is they're Brembo calipers and have a bigger rotor surface area.

https://www.prodigywerks.com/product-page/cr4d55-31225d62-auvw-mqbfk
 

J Peterman

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
Yup, did 2/3 of the recommended ones on the first post (hydraulic brake assist, brake boost). I can't say I felt a huge difference. I'm not sure the master cylinder size makes that much of a difference, I've read about Audi & Macan drivers complaining about the same pedal issues.
 

turbojzrr

Go Kart Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
'19 Golf R
Yup, did 2/3 of the recommended ones on the first post (hydraulic brake assist, brake boost). I can't say I felt a huge difference. I'm not sure the master cylinder size makes that much of a difference, I've read about Audi & Macan drivers complaining about the same pedal issues.
Do owners of other BBKs like neuspeed or stop tech have the same pedal problem?
 

emichel6888

Go Kart Champion
Location
TX
Do owners of other BBKs like neuspeed or stop tech have the same pedal problem?
Yes and no, by that I mean that some other BBK's have reported the same issue however, not with the ST40 calipers. The ST40 calipers piston displacement is almost 25% smaller than even the stock calipers, and that allows them to have a very firm high pedal. If you grease the piston seals with these Macan/Q5 calipers it will give you a very similar pedal height and feel to the stock calipers. But if you really want to go next level, you can drastically improve pedal height and firmness by greasing the seals AND adding inline RPV's to the front calipers.
Those same mods would probably work well with other calipers (including stock), but I cannot say for sure without testing.

IMO even the stock calipers are way over boosted and have a relatively low soft/squishy pedal. Apparently VW thinks that is what everyone wants? It certainly provides a lot of braking force with very little pedal effort, but for performance driving that is not exactly ideal. I discovered it has to do with to much servo booster assist, and that it can be drastically changed by adjusting the brake system take up. The ST40 inherently reduces pedal assist force due to caliper/MC piston ratio, but it also reduces system take up due to the much smaller caliper piston displacement, so it inherently has a two fold effect. I have no doubt based on the specs and feedback that they work great in this application, so if you can afford them and are willing to lay down around $3K...

Any BBK with near stock displacement or larger (not recommended) will have this lower soft pedal issue to some degree. The other factor is piston retraction, so to know if another BBK will have this issue or not we would need to know the piston displacement, and the piston retraction of that caliper, or I guess someone that has the kit installed who can provide honest objective feedback.
My sense (based on limited feedback & specs) is that the majority of BBK's for this car have this issue. Unfortunately most kits don't list the piston sizes or retraction, and without that information there is no way to determine how they will affect pedal response.

Again, I have discovered this issue can be corrected (with this caliper, and most likely others), by greasing the seals and adding RPV's. That is what I did with mine and the difference is profound.

J Peterman says that he has seen the Macan/Q5 drivers complaining about the same brake pedal issues, that checks out since we recently discovered that we have the same MC size.

I know you guys are sick of me preaching about this, but I am telling you, grease AND RPV's! I promise you will love it, for track use the pedal height, firmness, feel, modulation, trust me it is what you want. even for street use you will love it. You know how your pedal feels with the engine off? With these simple low cost modifications it feels like that all the time, no sinking squishy pedal on engine start up. The pedal effort is of course higher but not bad at all, just about perfect IMO.

If you are already greasing the seals, the RPV's cost around $100 all in and can be easily installed/removed, ya know just incase this is all some bizarre plot on my part to waste your time and money.
Okay, stepping off my soap box, again.
 

turbojzrr

Go Kart Champion
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
'19 Golf R
If you are already greasing the seals, the RPV's cost around $100 all in and can be easily installed/removed, ya know just incase this is all some bizarre plot on my part to waste your time and money.
Okay, stepping off my soap box, again.
Sounds great! What is an RPV and how long does the greased effects last?
 

StefanV

New member
Location
Romania
It seems that I find way easier these days the Audi calipers. however I have 2 big questions:
  • I came across 8R0615105 BN and 8R0615106 BN part numbers which are labeled also as SQ5 calipers by the sellers. Are these from a different generation of SQ5 and no good for this upgrade?
  • For the pair 8R0615107 - 8R0615108 I find the parts with different ending letter. Like F, G, H. Should I be looking for 'letter' in particular or these are just revisions and any of them will do the job?
 

TheMuffinMan

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Virginia
@emichel6888 has a thread going for it. I'm not sure if anyone else has completed his full setup but I have it sitting on my counter waiting to be installed. I'm currently trying to figure out my brake line situation as I'd like to upgrade the rear lines as well. The custom Techna-fit ones aren't stainless fittings :(
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
@emichel6888 has a thread going for it. I'm not sure if anyone else has completed his full setup but I have it sitting on my counter waiting to be installed. I'm currently trying to figure out my brake line situation as I'd like to upgrade the rear lines as well. The custom Techna-fit ones aren't stainless fittings :(

I just went with the Techna fit ones, hopefully I don't regret not getting SS.

Are the rear lines on the R the same as the GTI PP? I bought the ones from USP Motorsports for mine.
 
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