[AirWind]

Bravo @FludicJoy - kudos, welldone and a very detailed writeup. Did you at any point think about disc brakes for the rear?

[fluidicjoy]

Originally Posted by AirWind

Bravo @FludicJoy - kudos, welldone and a very detailed writeup. Did you at any point think about disc brakes for the rear?

Glad you liked it. I did not consider the rear disc right away for a few reasons. The most important one being an incompatible Rear Axle. The present Polo comes with a rear axle which cannot be mounted with the OEM rear disc kit. Please don't quote me on this, but to the best of my knowledge the first Gen Polo sold in India and the Fabia had a compatible axle. For installing rear discs on the present car, folks use an adapter mounting plate as an intermediate. I feel this is still kinda risky, though once done, should work just perfectly. I had heard a lot of praise about the Big Brake Kit so logically wanted to do that first since it was more bolt-on. I drove a few 310mm brake kit cars and found the bite too strong for daily driving. 288mm felt like the middle ground. Additionally, 288mm is the only brake size which can be coded with the rear drum, which I intended to keep. All that being said, I drove a rear disc kitted Polo a few weeks ago, and the car was a sure stopper.

[duker2997]

Hi @fluidicjoy, kudos to you on successfully completing the big brake upgrade.
I've recently bought a pre-owned Jetta and would like to have some insights on the ideal brake pad replacement. The stock pads seem okayish but on hard braking, it tends to fade. All-round have about 5mm of pad thickness as per my SA. Kindly suggest what pads to replace with and if you have the part numbers of the same handy do share them.

Thanks

[rnkaushal]

Originally Posted by duker2997

Hi @fluidicjoy, kudos to you on successfully completing the big brake upgrade.
I've recently bought a pre-owned Jetta and would like to have some insights on the ideal brake pad replacement. The stock pads seem okayish but on hard braking, it tends to fade. All-round have about 5mm of pad thickness as per my SA. Kindly suggest what pads to replace with and if you have the part numbers of the same handy do share them.

Thanks

In the same boat for my Jetta. If you've found something useful please share

[fluidicjoy]

Originally Posted by duker2997

Hi @fluidicjoy, kudos to you on successfully completing the big brake upgrade.
I've recently bought a pre-owned Jetta and would like to have some insights on the ideal brake pad replacement. The stock pads seem okayish but on hard braking, it tends to fade. All-round have about 5mm of pad thickness as per my SA. Kindly suggest what pads to replace with and if you have the part numbers of the same handy do share them.

Thanks

Congratulations on your new car. Plenty of owners have had good success with EBC Yellow Stuff, Brembo brake pads and found the brakes to have a good improvement. However, these might eat into your rotors a little faster than the OEM stock pads. Have you checked the present brake pads on the car? I personally like the OEM brake pads which are imported brake pads made by ATE, since they're a middle ground in braking and durability.

To specifically reduce brake fade, you may look at some improved rotors like slotted or drilled rotors, which will dissipate heat faster and theoretically show lesser brake fade. These are available with major parts dealers and performance retrofit garages.

Unfortunately, I do not have part numbers for these performance parts, but it should be very simple to find them since Jetta is a very popular car in India. I found these stock OEM brake pads on Boodmo.

Originally Posted by rnkaushal

In the same boat for my Jetta. If you've found something useful please share

Hope the above response helps! Please keep us posted on what you ended up purchasing, and your braking performance.

[duker2997]

Originally Posted by rnkaushal

In the same boat for my Jetta. If you've found something useful please share

Hi, I've replaced the rear pads with ATE. They seem to be as good as the stock pads if not marginally better. They don't leave a lot of brake dust either.

When it's time for the replacement of the front pads I'm mostly going with ATE only. Quite a few of Jetta Owners are happy with them.