Golf Mk1 brake confusion

[tassie_euro_mk1]

hey guys.

Just changed the front brake pads in the mk1 this morning. A while ago I noticed that the calliper and brake discs are not the same as my previous mk1 Ls, my spare LS or my sisters LS. My golf is a 1980 GLD.

The difference between my brake discs and my other mk1s discs is the offset.

Are the diesel brakes different from petrol brakes? Also I might add that my mk1 seems to stop alot better than my previous mk1 or my sisters mk1.

[Golf Loon]

I know the brakes are different between petrol and diesel. I can remember how. The diesels have bigger bottom balljoints too.

[peter_j_g]

The calipers are different - pictured caliper is from a diesel. In my experience having owned both petrol and diesel mk1s the diesel brakes are better than the petrol.

[tassie_euro_mk1]

yea, they are better then petrol which is great.

so it is normal that the diesel discs are a different offset to the pertol discs?

[Golfwise]

Diesel brakes have always been worse than petrol brakes.
As the diesel was percieved to be much slower VW in its wisdom put smaller brakes on.
They are both poor really and an upgrade to the larger GTI brakes is the go.

[brackie]

The 1.5 diesel engine was designed to provide the same performance as the 1.1 petrol. (Which isn't very much!) VW would have designed the brakes accordingly which doesn't make a lot of sense to me when the parts were already in the bin and could probably have been used at little or no extra cost. It's better to have over performing brakes than under. Where the diesel wins hands down on the petrol is in engine braking. With a compression ratio of 23.5:1 it slows the car very quickly. I've had 4 Golf Mk1 diesels and have never replaced pads. What has happened with all of them is the "automatic" wedge adjusters just haven't and with the puny rear brakes not helping much all of the braking effort is put on the front....hence poor braking and rapid pad wear. I always adjust the rear shoes manually by tapping down the wedge until the shoes just bind and then backing it off slightly until they're free. The pedal comes up and the brakes work like they should. Even the handbrake!

[gtimk5]

From memory the brake caliper pictured is made by Girling and that design caliper was fitted from mid 78. The offset of the disc is different on the deisel and the pads on the deisel are 15 m/m thick verses 18m/m thick for the petrol model. Thats it, the discs are the same diameter so really the braking should be the same.

[Golfwise]

Diesels have smaller (narrower ) pads therefore brakes will fade (overheat) quicker than the petrol ones therefore one would deduce that the diesel ones are not as efficient as the petrol ones.

[gtimk5]

Oh, and the larger balljoints came out on all Mk1s sometime in 78 too.

[syncro]

There are two types of caliper/disc in Australia.

Petrol and diesel.

An easy upgrade on diesel brakes is to put petrol calipers and discs.

Pads are the same size but thicker on the LS/GLS.