Have you ever been in the situation when coming up to a set of traffic lights and you have picked your braking point when someone comes up the outside of you and jumps in front then brakes hard? Stopping in a shorter distance can be difficult and that is why I decided to upgrade my brakes. Most people know that it is possible to upgrade the brakes on a late model T2 by fitting the Porsche calipers, but you must have 15 inch rims to be able to do that.
My van is an early model with 14 inch rims and I wanted to upgrade my brakes without having to replace the wheel and tyres, because this affects your speedometer, unless you keep the same rolling radius by fitting different aspect ratio tyres. Porsche callipers will not fit inside the wheel rims of an early bay. There is also the issue of caliper offsets relative to the disc. The offset from the caliper to the disc is different between early and late bays.
After a little research I came across a Company called “Fosseway Performance”, based in Gloucestershire. They make kits for both the early T2 and the Late T2 braking systems. Their kits consist of new calipers, pads, anti-squeal shims, flexible brake lines, flexible brake pipe clips, new mounting bolts and mounting brackets. The mounting bracket and bolts are what makes the kits different between the early and late bays. The supplied brackets also change the caliper offset to the disc. The bolts are also different between the early and late bays and so it is essential to correctly specify what you need. In both cases you need to replace the discs to the late model.
Each caliper has 4 pistons which improves the braking efficiency by 30% by being able to apply more pressure to a larger brake pad. The calipers are made from a single alloy billet and they are beautifully made. They are also lighter than the standard calipers which means it lowers the unsprung mass of the suspension system.
The kit comes with a comprehensive set of instructions and is relatively easy to fit. In order to fit them you will need to remove the dust covers from the discs and throw them away. To be able to do this you will need to remove the outer hub carriers. I found that someone had rounded the bolt holding the hub carrier to the stub axel and so had to grind this off and replace it with a new one. If none of this makes sense to you then I would suggest you get someone else to do the work but in reality it is very simple. You will need to bleed the whole braking system afterwards. Again if you do not feel confident to do this, take it to someone who does, as this is your life at stake.
If you do decide to upgrade your calipers it is essential to replace the discs as well. The new pads need a new clean flat surface to bed in to. The company can supply you with cross drilled discs but for a van which is not going to see high speed repetitive braking this will actually reduce the braking efficiency and I would suggest you just stick to standard discs. They will need around 300 miles to bed in and it is essential that you do not brake too hard during this period as it will glaze the pads. The pads come coated in a ceramic a compound. Once this happens you will not have an efficient braking system and will likely need to replace the pads.
My personal experience with the kit is that they are very well made and make a world of difference to the stopping of the van, especially going down very long steep hills when fully loaded for a camping trip. Cost? – well not cheap but how much would it cost to fix your van if you cannot stop??
I hope you find this useful.
David Eaton