Hey everyone, bit confused here… pictures below of the brake setup on my MK2 Golf. All suspension is converted to 5 stud with new hubs and bearings. I picked up these alloys and fit them over the VR6 Calipers but they seem to touch the inside of the wheel. The brake system hasn’t been bled yet - is that a possibility as to why it’s touching the insides of the wheel due to the piston not squeezing it in yet? I can’t quite understand as the caliper shape slots absolutely perfectly into the wheel spokes yet seems to be touching at the TOP of the caliper and not the bottom. Or perhaps the pad hasn’t sat right? I don’t know, everything has been torqued up properly… the wheel still spins and the touching is minor but… it’s still there … any help massively appreciated… thank you!! Are there a few things I could check or have I bought something wrong?
Are all your parts genuine VW or are some of them aftermarket? What diameter are the wheels, are they genuine or something else?
I think it is a case of your wheels don’t fit the brake application, not the other way round. 6.5” et43 doesn’t sound like a good vw size. Try and borrow/find some different wheels and see how they fit.
Maybe found the issue, are these discs correct as the face of them where the wheel would sit seems flat yet some photos online appear to be sticking out quite a lot more?
Get some washers or a drilled piece of wood and use as spacers to see if that solves the issue - trial and error.
Your brakes well the calipers at least, are 288mm ( later ATE ) VR6 wheels are the early ones that fit with 280mm.
@GVK thank you! That makes a lot more sense now. Given the caliper only JUST touches, is there any merit (do you know) in shaving a tiny bit off the top of the caliper so it works perfectly? It seems that it needs about 1-2mm on the back trimmed off and then it’s perfect. I don’t really want to use spacers given the widetrack setup and I don’t want to further push the wheels out. :-)
There are two types of vr6 288mm front disc iirc, had this issue on my brothers mk3 gti when we converted it to 288 brakes, got the other style disc and no issue, squeezed under OEM 15" BBS
From googling about there seems to be a flat style 288 disc but also one where the wheel face meets which sticks out a lot more - which I imagine would give more clearance. However I’m not convinced they’re accurate photos giving they’re all eBay listings and so on / stock photos. So I’m not going to buy and try, plus I’m also not doing that because I have widetrack already and it’ll be Widetrack Plus Plus then and we will probably end up with holes in the arches next… I’m also pretty happy with the huge brakes and discs, pads are huge and I don’t see any benefit downgrading to 280 discs and using G60 Calipers and pads. I know the discs are not much smaller but the pad sizes are pretty large in comparison from what I’ve seen - so, to the angle grinder we go. If anyone is interested I’ll post the final photos up once I’m done to demonstrate the (hopeful) clearance. It seems the “V” section of the design is very high on the caliper and scrubbing a bit off the top may do the trick. With the lug nuts tight I can just about force the wheel round by hand, so there’s not a lot that needs trimming, I imagine most of it will be the beautiful red powder coating (shed a little tear for me please).
Like. A. Glove. Clearance is obscene but works. Mega happy with that! Barely needed much off it but the 288’s are in full swing.
Wow, that is tight but atleast you have sorted it. I upgraded the 280s on my corrado Vr6 to 288s and they are close on the vw 15" speedlines. Attached is a pic of this with standard ]
Huge difference and well worth doing. Previously I felt as though the car slowed to a stop. Now it can stop. Discs and pads were new on the 280s so quite a good comparison.
That’s great to know then! Glad I didn’t go for the downgrade option then :-) won’t have much to compare against but with the chassis so light it’ll stop on a dime!
