Reply With Quoteyeah i am experiencing this as well.
Sometimes need to really slam the brakes on to get the car to stop as the brakes arent very responsive
is this what you mean?
Has anybody experienced or is experiencing very spongy brakes on their Polo? This includes long pedal travel, almost to the floor sometimes?
I initially thought it my be a case of the brakes needing to wear in a bit but i am now getting concerned. I have contacted VW service and they are getting back to me, but i was curious to see if anybody else has had this problem.
yeah i am experiencing this as well.
Sometimes need to really slam the brakes on to get the car to stop as the brakes arent very responsive
is this what you mean?
Sponsor
We adressed this in another thread on another forum, but this is what we have found with the brakes:
background - Our test Polo, fairly modified, pretty quick - see's a lot of track use.
Running at Sandown on stock brakes - 4 or 5 people up, experienced instructor driving - less than 3 laps out of the brakes.
Diagnosed - cooked the fluid. part of this was the heat transfer through the pads & calipers. Step one - a higher heat pad (in this case EBC Greenstuff) and a "race quality" fluid (in this case prospeed 610 from Martini in Melbourne) - much better pedal feel, much more fade resistance.
Next step was a larger diameter rotor (Audi TT 225) - more leverage (same size calipers - different caliper to locate the caliper out further) - more stopping power & less fade again.
A big issue we have on the pedal feel is the firewall flex - the master cylinder / booster is bolted to a firewall panel which is bolted in. Measuring the flex on our car we can see up to 15mm deflection when pushing the pedal down (look at the brake booster when having someone sit inside & stomp on the pedal - you will see it clearly) - This is a big factor in the pedal feel and an issue we have not been able to address as of yet - to really get access to this area we need to drop the engine out before we can look at firewall bracing.
We are also going to Alcon brakes on our polo now, we have gone beyond the limits of the TT setup
Yeah, that's was talking about. Still waiting to hear back from VW but spoke to the salesman and he said that is not right and if i remember correctly this was not evident on the 2 different demo cars i drove before i bought the car.
I don't think this has anything to do with heat transfer or cooked fluid because it's been like this from the day i got it brand new, no matter if it's cold or hot.
Last edited by Shade; 02-02-2007 at 11:26 AM.
Looks like it going back to the dealer today for them have a look.
Yeah getting kind of the same - would like to see what your dealer says.Originally Posted by Shade
Make that Monday, can't leave work early today, forgot i had an appointment this arvo. Bugger!
Volkswagenist
So what will a set of Alcon set me back mate? Do they do a complete set ie. front and rear discs, callipers, lines etc.? What size are the discs and are drilled and slotted or just slotted. Very keen, cheersWe adressed this in another thread on another forum, but this is what we have found with the brakes:
background - Our test Polo, fairly modified, pretty quick - see's a lot of track use.
Running at Sandown on stock brakes - 4 or 5 people up, experienced instructor driving - less than 3 laps out of the brakes.
Diagnosed - cooked the fluid. part of this was the heat transfer through the pads & calipers. Step one - a higher heat pad (in this case EBC Greenstuff) and a "race quality" fluid (in this case prospeed 610 from Martini in Melbourne) - much better pedal feel, much more fade resistance.
Next step was a larger diameter rotor (Audi TT 225) - more leverage (same size calipers - different caliper to locate the caliper out further) - more stopping power & less fade again.
A big issue we have on the pedal feel is the firewall flex - the master cylinder / booster is bolted to a firewall panel which is bolted in. Measuring the flex on our car we can see up to 15mm deflection when pushing the pedal down (look at the brake booster when having someone sit inside & stomp on the pedal - you will see it clearly) - This is a big factor in the pedal feel and an issue we have not been able to address as of yet - to really get access to this area we need to drop the engine out before we can look at firewall bracing.
We are also going to Alcon brakes on our polo now, we have gone beyond the limits of the TT setup
Sponsor
Hi - no probs - good first post (hope you are enjoying your Polo)- Alcon's are awesome, but so is the price.
The 13" (355mm) set with a 28mm width rotor is $4500 - all Alcon sets are priced similarly wether you have a rex, hsv etc - the technology of the caliper & disc is what you pay for (same as 70% of the V8 supercar field use). The Monoblock calipers have the correct pistin sizing for the 19mm Polo mastercylinder & bias.
We can go to 34mm thick discs, but we don't think we will exceed the heat capacity of the 28mm ones on the Polo (will know by the end of the month!)
Once you try them, you become addicted to the stopping power!
The TT setup is pretty good (332mm) but it has its limitations when you start to hit the track, we found this out recently
you are welcome to take ours for a spin if you are up this way!
Volkswagen Enthusiast
For normal road use, I can recommend the EBC GreenStuff pads as an 'OK' improvement. I'm currently trying to source some Ferodo 2500's as a hopefully better solution...will wait to see if they're available. Another thing to consider is removing the front backing plates to improve heat disappation. Thus far, the original fluid seems OK, but I'll probably replace with a competition fluid soon.
I have tracked mine, and found the brakes to be just adequate, but much less effective than my previous car. Certainly, I will probably look at bigger disks and caliper -- either S3 (which fit fit under the 16") or R32 brakes (need 17" rims). Sorry Guy, but $4500 on a set of Alcon is way OTT -- this is a $27k car! If we can source something similar to S3/R32 for around $1200-1500, that'll sell like hot cakes!
So, incremental improvements, and I'll have to learn to drive within the car's mechanical limits on the track. On the road, however, it's fine
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