What is the best braking system for my VW? - Disc Brake Installs

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Nov

2009

What is the best braking system for my VW?

Tech Center | Disc Brake Installs

The best braking system is the one that works for your application. The ability to stop sooner, than later means everything. Picking any wheel in the world to outfit on your ride is priceless. Let's go over some scenarios for caliper application. Airkewld has 4 front calipers options available. They are, Wilwood 1 Psiton , Ghia Style 2 Piston, Wilwood 2 Piston and Wilwood 4 Piston. Let me explain each version.

Wilwood 1 Piston - Great for daily driving applications or cruisers - 1100cc-1776cc - 70-75 mph tops - Works great for our 0 offset wide 5x205mm kits - Claw style caliper that slides to one side - They have an aluminum construction with an anodized satin black finish - Replacement pads are available on our website, any high performance outlet or street rod shop - To use these, you will need *DRUM* Spindles
Ghia-Style 2 Piston - All around great caliper - 1100cc-2017cc - 80-85 mph tops - Works great for all 4 lug and small 5 lug configurations - They do not work at all with wide 5x205mm applications - They utilize one piston on each side in a cast steel/gold anodized finish - Replacement pads can be found anywhere including Kragen, Pepboys, etc as 69-75 Karmann Ghia Front caliper replacements - To use these, you will need *DISC* Spindles
Wilwood 2 Piston - Great for performance applications, street or strip - 1100cc-2275cc - 90-100 mph tops - Works for all bolt pattern applications including the wide 5x205mm - They utilize one piston on each side in aluminum construction and anodized satin black finish - Replacement pads are available on our website, any high performance outlet or street rod shop - To use these, you will need *DRUM* Spindles
Wilwood 4 Piston - Great for performance and racing applications - 2331cc and up * Any Turbo Application * NOS Application - 105 mph + - Works for all bolt pattern applications including the wide 5x205mm - They utilize two pistons on each side in aluminum construction and anodized satin black finish - Replacement pads are available on our website, any high performance outlet or street rod shop - To use these, you will need *DRUM* Spindles

Rotors

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Airkewld has two different rotor styles. Cross Drilled and Slotted. Which one is better? Good question. Both are the same. Both do the job of cooling the rotor down when it is hot. It's basically a choice on looks. Our rotors go through several steps to ensure the best possible part when they are done. First, they are laser cut out of 7/16" alloy steel by a CNC laser. Next, they get heat treated to ensure flatness followed by blanchard grinding to exactly .375" thick. Next, the outer diameter gets radiused to exactly 11" in diameter, cross drilled or slotted and counter sinks are machined in them to allow for Flat head allen hardware. Finally they are plated with Black oxide for continued great looks and rust prevention.

Hoses

Airkewld Brake Stainless brake hoses Airkewld has optional stainless steel braided hoses. These hoses eliminate the weak line between your hard lines and your calipers. You can still use the factory hoses but if you must, try and use German made hoses to ensure quality performance. Brazilian hoses have been known to fail. We offer these for all makes and models, both front and rear applications.

Master Cylinders

Do you really need to replace the master cylinder when changing to disc brakes. The answer is yes and no.
We will start with explaining no. If you choose not to update the master, your brakes typically will work but two things are going to happen. You calipers will release very slowly causing your pads and rotors to wear prematurely. Second, your pedal feel will be very inconsistent.
Let me explain the benefits of the new master. The new master has a larger bore and different spring rates for both the front and the rear. This allows for the right amount of pressure to each set of brakes.
The factory master cylinder had a weaker spring inside the master because it did not need help siphoning the fluid back into the master. The big springs inside the backing plate would do most of the work. Now that calipers are in place, there are no springs to help siphon the fluid or disperse the pressure back into the master. So a larger spring in the master makes short work of it. I hope this explains it well.

Rear Rotors

Airkewld offers 4 types of rear rotors.

Short Axle Street (6067)
Short Axle Performance (7076)
Long Axle / IRS Street (6067)
Long Axle / IRS Performance (70760

Short axle applications were commonly found on pre 65 Beetle's and Ghia's. 1966-1967 models came with what is commonly called long axle short spline. You will purchase the short spline applications 1968 models and type 3 came with what is called long axle long spline. 1969 and later applications come with IRS axles and CV Joints.

For daily driven and street applications, the standard hub works perfect. If you plan on spinning your wheels at the track or on the street, get the 7076 Performance hubs.

Rear Calipers

Airkewld BAD Series Brakes Airkewld only offers one type of rear caliper. It is an industry standard e-Brake caliper that everyone uses. It was designed after a Brazilian car known as the Ford Opal. The caliper is very similar to a Ford Mustang, Taurus, VW Golf rear caliper. It works great for all applications; all bolt patterns and all configurations.

At this time, Wilwood does not make an e-Brake style caliper that will work on a "single blade" rotor that Airkewld commonly uses. But we hope to eventually come up with something. As soon as we do, all of you will know about it.

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