Brake upgrade

[Alex]

To upgrade the front breaks on my 1.2i to astra ones what do i need. i.e. is it just the calipers and disks or is there anything else needed. Also which type of astra do i need them from?

[Dicko]

well first of all you need to decide whats the manximum upgrade you can have, this is decided by what size wheels you have. Unless u have 15" alloys you cannot have 256mm ATE callipers which are found on certain astras and are a popular upgrade path. The other option is to go for nova sri/gsi brakes which are the same but a little smaller at 238mm.
you will need...

PARTS
Callipers
Pads
Discs
New union washers (coper)
brake fluid(dot 5 if possible, makes the pedal feel more stiff as less flew in fluid)


TOOLS
10mm hex key for wrench attahment (?3 from halfords - worth the price) or a 10mm allen key <-not recomended
Posidrive screwdriver (to remove/refit disc grub screw)
big hammer (every mechanic should have one)
something to squeeze the brakepipe.

METHOD
take off wheel
loosen the union bolt slightly on back of calliper
undo 2 main hex bolts, maybe covered up by a metal cap , if so remove with flat screwdriver.
squeeze the brake pipe near the end of the calliper.
remove dics grub screw, then remove discs.
Remove union bolt completely, wait 4 the mess :)

Refit in reverse order bleeding brakes on completion

[ade]

some folks have also recommended changing the brake servo for the bigger conversions (more fluid needed to power bigger brakes) - dunno though.

Theres one of ebay for ?10!

Ade

[Aragorn]

the 14" rims from an astra GTE will obviously fit too as will some other 14x5.5 rims depending on the inner profile of the wheel

the bigger servo just means u dont have to push the pedal as hard

u will notice a substantial increase in braking performance going from the shitey standard brakes to the larger 256mm ones wether u upgrade the servo or not

[jamesdarlington]

Well I had my calipers upgraded to corsa ones (not sure which model corsa). I didnt actually do it myself as i wouldnt want to touch my own brakes but y mechanic done it in like just over an hour. ?50 for the calipers and discs from a breakers and luckily no charge from my mechanic. They have had a serious increase in braking power as before well i may as well of had holes in the floor flinstone style with the old nova brakes, but yeah corsa brakes done it for me and I have standard 3 spoke sr alloys, fit no problem. Hope that helps mate