Big(er) Brake Upgrade. (Edit: Installed w/pics)

[mayday_soc]

I’m looking to install Macan (Brembo) brakes up front (yes I know bleeding them is a nightmare) but I like the pad selection and the pad installation/removal process. If I swap out my front strut size and switch to aluminum knuckles will the killerbrakes.com kit bolt right up? Will the supplied brake Lines work? Also, should I go with Clubsport ,R, or GTI knuckles? I’m thinking R knuckles, endlinks (still running factory and I’m much lower), and 24mm front sway bar.

In the rear I’m looking at the Golf R brake kit from the same website. Again, will they bolt right on? What changes need to be made in the rear to upgrade to a vented disk?

Im aware this isn’t a true Big Brake upgrade. I do not track the car seriously. No, I will not be swapping out the master cylinder or brake booster. I need the calipers to fit with RSE05 17x8 (winter) RSE10 18x8.5 (summer). Im also aware this site isn’t ideal for cost savings, I’m fine with that, it’s more about convenience.

 

[Cuzoe]

If you switch to aluminum knuckles, and obviously different size struts as you mentioned, they will bolt right up. I'm running Macan brakes on my Golf, under RSE05's. No spacer required which was a big deal for me. The brake lines will work just fine too.

GTI and R knuckles are the same, so get whatever is cheaper. Clubsport knuckles have more camber and are quite a bit more expensive. I haven't ever seen them used. Last I checked they were somewhere around $300 each. I got my pair of used GTI knuckles for under $150 shipped. If cost doesn't matter and you don't need the camber then you could get new GTI knuckles I suppose.


For the rears...
Unless you are doing an electronic parking brake retrofit then you don't want/can't use Golf R rear brakes. For what it's worth, I've done the EPB retrofit and now run R rear calipers. I do not recommend this retrofit, at all 🫣.

You want GTI power pack rear brakes which are the same as the R (310mm, vented) but for manual parking brake. I ran these before I did the EPB retrofit. They bolt up but the parking brake cable comes in at a different angle. This means you have to unclip the cable guides from all of their mounting positions. It's not a big deal and the cables won't get in the way of anything, but on the passenger side they do tend to rub so you have to kind of watch that. I used some teflon spiral wrap on the e-brake cable on that side.

Regarding master cylinder and brake booster I would not be concerned at all about changing them. I bought both thinking I would change them. They are still in the boxes in my garage. At the time I was running the brembo 17z 6 pistons up front (those bolt on to the factory steel knuckles) and even with those, the brake feel is fine. I find it a little easier to modulate the bigger brakes, less of an on-off feel if that makes sense. But tons more stopping power of course.

Just make the changes in the ABS module to tell it that you have larger brakes, and of course a good bleed (or two, haha) and you'll be fine. There are changes for brake size and also brake boost in the module.

 

[mayday_soc]

Thank you @Cuzoe this is the info I was looking for. So PP gti rear rotors (310x22) and calipers/carriers will bolt right on. Did you order custom brake lines? If you have any pics of brake line/e-brake routing before your EPB retrofit (I will NOT be doing this) fell free to throw them up.

 

[Cuzoe]

I'll have to look and see if I have any pictures. I'm not sure I do. But when you go to bolt the brakes on you'll see the way the cable has to go. The cables go through a plastic guide that's clipped onto the torsion bar. You'll have to unsecure that plastic guide. The cable stays in the guide but the guide won't be clipped onto the bar anymore. It's probably an exaggeration to say "rerouted," you won't have to pull the cable back or out of any of its guides.

I used GTI power pack rear brake lines I believe. There was a really long gap between when I ordered things and when I did that install, like two years . When I get a chance I'll search through my post history to find it, but there was someone on these forums installing the power pack brakes and they made a minor modification to "reclock" the brake cable mount. This made it so the e-brake cable routing did not have to be adjusted.

I had already installed the calipers at that point. But if I had not installed them, and that user was willing, I would have shipped the calipers to them. And I would have paid them for their time to make the modification and their time to hit the post office and ship them back to me. That's the ideal way to do it I think.

 

[Cuzoe]

The entire rear brake exercise made no difference in anything as far as I could tell. But aesthetically they are a much better match for the larger front brakes.

I assume you've read through the macan thread over on GolfMk7. But since you have to get new rotors anyway go with the 345 mm Mk6 R rotors instead of the 340mm from the MK7R/GTI-PP.

Also, these things completely fill up the barrel of the RSE05. It looks great, but you will for sure want to use a wheel hanger (unless you've done a stud conversion) otherwise expect some barrel to caliper contact when putting on your wheels, ask me how I know .

 

[mayday_soc]

@Cuzoe Yes, I have read that ever evolving Macan thread. If I ran 340mm up front would there be pad overhang? If running 345mm is there enough room for balancing weights? Speaking of mk6R, would you happen to know if their rear calipers (manual e-brake) bolt right up?

 

[Cuzoe]

You would have pad overhang... But we're only talking 2.5mm (half the 5mm rotor size difference). It's not much but no reason to have any overhang at all if you're buying new rotors anyway. If 340s are cheaper I wouldn't hesitate to go with them but they were the same price when I was buying.

The space for balancing weights is dictated by the caliper size. My weights don't touch and I didn't get them moved when I went to the Macans. I may have just been fortunate. I get tires installed and the wheels balance that Costco so nothing special. They do look like low profile weights but I didn't make any special requests. In any case, weights would just need to be moved inboard to clear the calipers if there was an issue. That's on the RSE05s, your RSE10s are a non-concern with barrel clearance. I don't know about the spokes or spacer Neuspeeds tend to have good clearance.

I don't know about the MK6 R rear calipers. Didn't even think of them honestly. I would guess they'll bolt up, the question is rotor offsets. If you can find the rotor offset specs for the MK7 310s and whatever the MK6 R has it may settle it.

 

[mayday_soc]

Porsche Macan front calipers are on as well as Mk6R rear calipers and front/rear rotors (345x30/310x22). Bled them three times. Have not played with any vcds settings yet. Pedal feels good. I’d be lying if I said this mod wasn't for esthetics.

IMG_0367.jpeg

• mayday_soc
• Jun 20, 2023

Side view of new brake setup.

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• mayday_soc
• Jun 20, 2023

Front Porsche Macan calipers

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• mayday_soc
• Jun 20, 2023

MK6R rear calipers and rotors.

 

[whizznbyu]

What is the largest brake that can fit a 17" wheel that will not require changing out struts and knuckles? Would Touareg brakes bolt right in? CC? My reasons for bigger brakes is purely cosmetic. The 17 inch Traklites look bleh with the stock brakes.

 

[mayday_soc]

@whizznbyu There‘s a few people on here that have run the Brembo 17z’s that bolt up to our steel knuckles. They’re aluminum 6 pot calipers and look really nice. Not sure on price, what brake lines to use, or the offset. I know they fit 17s and use 330mm rotors, some wheels may require spacers tho. For the rear the best option is the GTI Performance package. They bolt up to the torsion beam setup. Just paint match to the 17zs and you’re good to go.

 

[Cuzoe]

@mayday_soc Do those MK6 are rear calipers bolt right up? Does it e-brake cable require rerouting like with PP rears?

And did you switch to aluminum knuckles to run the Macans? I did, but I was switching knuckles to retrofit DCC so the 17Zs I had before weren't going to work.

The 17z will both up to the aluminum knuckles but the offset is way wrong. But that means the Macan bolt spacing would work with the steel knuckles. Just a question of offset again.

 

[mayday_soc]

@Cuzoe Yes, the 6r rear calipers bolt right up but I’d recommend staying with the Mk7 pp rears. The Mk6 have a little hardline pipe attachment that doesn't work well with the Mk7 brake line setup. We ended up not using the pipe and attached the brake line direct to the caliper. And yes, you still have to pull the e-brake out of that track but I have plenty of clearance from the tires on both sides with RSE10s 18x8.5. I’ll see if I have an issue when I switch to the RSE05s 17x8 this winter.

In the front I read the Macan offset wouldn’t work with the steel knuckles so I never even tried. I swapped to GTI knuckles/wheel bearings/ball joints and 55mm struts.

On the plus side, it may be in my head, but the 55mm struts appear to dampen a little better than the 50mm. I hit a few hard pavement lines on a bridge doing over 80 and the struts didn’t bottom out. I don’t think I could’ve pulled that off with the 50s. I’ll just have to keep experimenting.

 

[whizznbyu]

Got Macan brakes installed in front. The mechanic had to put 8 mm spacers to clear the calipers. Are 8 mm spacers bad for the ball joints? and do they affect the scrub radius that much, shorten the life span of the suspension parts?

 

[Cuzoe]

Got Macan brakes installed in front. The mechanic had to put 8 mm spacers to clear the calipers. Are 8 mm spacers bad for the ball joints? and do they affect the scrub radius that much, shorten the life span of the suspension parts?

Did you install the macan brakes on the steel knuckles or did you switch to aluminum?

I can't speak to anything to do with scrub radius but I don't imagine there's going to be any big concern about increased/accelerated suspension wear. Plenty of companies sell flush kits for stock wheels on MK7s and I believe it's something like a 15 mm up front and maybe a 20 in the rear.

I suppose spacers increase the arm that's acting on the wheel bearing, but I don't think 8mm is going to be a problem. If you check the macan upgrade thread on GolfMk7 lots of people posting about different wheels and spacer requirements. I run Neuspeed RSE05s and a clear easily without spacers. Of course all of that is running GTI knuckles but would still be a good place to start if you really don't want to run spacers.

 

[740GLE]

I've run 18mm spacers up front on our alltrack (aluminum knuckles) for prob 80K, still original ball joints and wheel bearings even on "oversized" tires for the Alltrack vs the TDIs.

 

[whizznbyu]

Did you install the macan brakes on the steel knuckles or did you switch to aluminum?

I did not do the swap. My mechanic did, and I think all he did was put 8 mm spacers so that 17 " Motegi Traklites' spokes dont rub against calipers.
I don't turn corners hard, do not track the wagon, and drive to maximize MPG (60 on a good day) but do enjoy showing AMG's and M cars a thing or two about low end torque. I suppose driving easily majority of the time will not hurt the balljoints and other suspension bits.

 

[whizznbyu]

Info update: I've been told by Mr. Chill (Trusted mechanic....VERY) that 8 mm spacers are not going to be a problem, and it becomes an issue with 15 mm and greater spacers. @mayday_soc why is it a nightmare to bleed Macan brakes?

 

[Cuzoe]

Each caliper has two bleeders... made it sort of annoying doing it solo (and only owning two catch bottle/hose setups). But I still got it done alone, and it was my first time ever bleeding brakes.

Full disclosure... because I may have complained somewhere on here about my brake pedal. I had minor issues after replacing the entire ABS module, didn't get all the air out of the module until doing a couple ABS stops. But that was long after I had installed the Macan calipers. Had no issues after doing the calipers.