288 brakes

Finally going to bite the bullet and get some bigger brakes. My stock ones are too sponge with whatever brand "Walmart service center" installed when the previous owner had the car.

The swap seems pretty straightforward, going to go dumpster diving at the wrecking yard for them. Big question I have is I had retrofitted ESP onto my car, I seem to remember something about when coding it in, that you had to pick between 280 and 288 brakes. Is that correct?

Nevermind. Big breaks installed. They're awesome.

Did you go with a someone's preassembled kit or did you piece it together yourself etc?

I went to the wrecking yard and bought the whole knuckle assembly, used spindle, knuckle, caliper. Installed some good quality rotors/pads, pressed in new bearings, and installed. Wrecking yard parts were about $40 overall, new wear parts were about $120

what was your donor vehicle?

It's a great upgrade! I went a step further and did TT 256 vented rotors
on the rear as well. After a trip of >2700 miles with the teardrop camper,
IMO it's well worth doing both front and rear.

ToxicDoc said:

what was your donor vehicle?

Click to expand...

It was a 2002 Jetta sedan with a VR6.


Next time I do brakes, I'll look at getting something bigger for the rear. In the meantime, I just bought rotors and pads for the rear. Doing rear shocks while I'm in there. Front end is stiff, rear end is all sorts of bouncy.

Nero Morg said:

It was a 2002 Jetta sedan with a VR6.


Next time I do brakes, I'll look at getting something bigger for the rear. In the meantime, I just bought rotors and pads for the rear. Doing rear shocks while I'm in there. Front end is stiff, rear end is all sorts of bouncy.

Click to expand...

The fronts are ez to find, the bigger rears are a bit harder to source.
I found a pair of calipers & carriers here on the forum.
Once you've got a taste for how much better the 288s are out the front,
trust me, you'll appreciate the bigger rears, especially if you do any towing.

The better/bigger brakes were a bonus when I did the 1.8T to TDI swap/conversion. Big improvement!

So is it just me, or after doing all four brake corners, the brakes were spongey and the pedal sank to the floor until I drove it for a few days? Because now it's fine. And yes, I did bleed the system.

I often have to bleed a second time. Not sure why, I'm pretty careful and use a Mity-vac, super easy. I don't pull the bleeders and clean them, which is recommended.

When mine were done, my guru warned me that with rears they
sometimes needed a second bleed. Length of lines? The difference
in brake bias front to rear? My understanding is that the master
cylinder on my Golf has different size orifices for the front and rear
brakes.

Whatever, it is a known foible/occurrence.

I bled the rears, but I didn't actually take the line off the rear calipers. Just compressed and installed new rotors/pads. The fronts I pinched the lines with a brake line pincher before replacing the calipers to limit how much air made it in.

It's just odd, after sitting overnight, they're like new and the pedal doesn't sink anymore.

It's just odd, after sitting overnight, they're like new and the pedal doesn't sink anymore.


A little bubble worked its way out? go figger. My guru said they never
have any trouble doing the fronts, only the rears for reasons unknown.