Brake Upgrade

[MDMB69]

Usefull info on brake upgrades.
There's lots of MB forums regarding brake upgrades for the W124, especially for those uprading from E320 mostly in the USA to E500 brakes, but for those of us in the UK with lesser spec models I found that the E320 4 pot calipers are a direct replacement for my E280 single pots. All I needed was a couple of washers between each caliper and the mounting knuckle to pack it out 4mm and they work perfectly with my standard E280 discs which are only 5mm less in radius than the E320 discs. So the E320 pads are a tiny bit to large (2 or 3mm) but you don't notice.

You certainly notice the better stopping power afterwards.

A recommended cheap upgrade without going down the hard to find E500 brake caliper and disc route.

 

[Richard W]

That's a common mod on the MkIV and MkV Golf - simply fit the caliper carrier or caliper from a top of the range car and the larger discs and Robert's your mothers brother - big brakes. On the MkIV you can go from 288mm discs through 312mm up to 330mm....

Good news for MB owners too then!

I'm assuming the 320 discs will fit too to give the extra few mm?

 

[MDMB69]

Er no, thats the only issue, E320 discs have a slightly different offset and will rub on the bottom balljoint, which has been covered a dozen times elsewere on MB forums. My point is you don't need to change the discs to suit the calipers, and as I'd just had new discs, this was great news. I just spaced my calipers out by 4mm with washers. Works fine, no rubbing issues and the brakes stop much better than before. A big brake conversion would be much better of course but much more expensive and a bit more complicated because of the disc offset issue.