F.A.O anyone doing a brakes/steering refresh

[pete_griff 0]

I was unlucky enough to have both my front calipers seize on me last week (at least VW are reliable!).

 

Anyway I have been planning on doing a complete running gear refresh since I bought the car, in the form of 312mm conversion on the front, all new calipers, discs/pads etc - (will come on to this shortly) - powerflex everywhere, new track rod ends/ball joints/ drop links, new wheel bearings etc and also a refurb on my power-steering rack. The rack hasn't got any undue play or anything horrific like that yet, but being as I'm taking the subframe off anyway and the car has done over 145k I thought I may as well send the rack and pump off to be made shiny-new again

 

The company that is going to do the refurb for me is called western power-steering (based somewhere down in wales i think). I phoned the place up and spoke to a really nice guy who i presume was the boss-even said I could call him on the weekend to arrange stuff - top bloke. The cost is about £230 all in i think for the complete refurb of both the rack and pump, also including postage etc which is pretty reasonable.

The number for Western power-steering if any of you want to give the guy a call is 01179602906

 

 

The point of this thread though is really about those wishing to renew and/or upgrade their brakes.

 

There's a place in Worcester called Bigg Red and they specialise in the remanufacture of old calipers. They have a comprehensive rebuild process as detailed on their website and their work is absolutely spot on - i can vouch for this as a friend of mine is rebuilding a scirocco, used them, and needless to say we were both very impressed with the results.

 

Their website is - http://www.biggred.co.uk/

The page detailing their rebuild process can be found here - http://www.biggred.co.uk/process.html

 

To recon the calipers & carriers that I've got all round in the most expensive finish they do (the polymer coating - mmm) is about £330 if my memory serves me correctly, which is a little pricey, but if you look at what you are getting as the end product, I think its well worth it. Also, if like me you are unlucky enough to have Lucas rear calipers (as opposed to girling i think) then the rebuild will be a fair bit more expensive as the lucas calipers are quite alot rarer and require different bits when being rebuilt - taking the cost up - grrr!

 

Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who is doing anything similar. If anyone wants to PM me about either place to ask any questions then feel free...

[Jim Bowen 1]

great info there, i been thinking about having my rack changed, just done suspension, wishbones, ball joints, top mounts, track rods and ends, plus an ARB and handling is still crap, not a nice car to drive now, got owned by a ford focus the other day and an escort today i just couldn't lose :(

[Mystic Rado 0]

Cheers for that, I've been 'just about' to send some Mk 5 Golf 288mm calipers off to Bigg Red for the last six weeks or so, but hadn't seen any of their work. Looks like I'll definitely do that this week then and report back :-)

[Jim 2]

Worth knowing about the rack, definately. Mine will probably need doing in the not too distant future as mine has done some fairly major miles!