AP Racing front brake upgrade

[AndysR]

Does anyone know if the AP Racing brake caliper upgrade for the Volvo 850 R will still go on with the standard fit Volan's?

[Jod T5]

Originally Posted by andyrs

Does anyone know if the AP Racing brake caliper upgrade for the Volvo 850 R will still go on with the standard fit Volan's?

i am sure the 325mm discs will fit under any 17" rim, although the cost would really put me off...
why not consider a 302mm upgrade £110 pair, hangers £50 pair and some ds2500 £75 pair...
cheers
jod

[AndysR]

Originally Posted by jod t5

i am sure the 325mm discs will fit under any 17" rim, although the cost would really put me off...
why not consider a 302mm upgrade £110 pair, hangers £50 pair and some ds2500 £75 pair...
cheers
jod

That is another option its just I did a similar upgrade on the Orion, a completely different kettle of fish I know, and it wasn't as good as I had expected so ended up going for a four pot caliper upgrade anyway and really didn't want to do the same with the Volvo. I see this is an upgrade you have carried out and you also have the same Rica upgrade as myself. How do you find this setup for everyday use?

[IC]

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/vbarti...le&articleid=3

[stevesR]

Originally Posted by andyrs

Does anyone know if the AP Racing brake caliper upgrade for the Volvo 850 R will still go on with the standard fit Volan's?

yes they do, i've ask Russell at RT'S THE SAME QUESTION and he said no problems with the volans

[AndysR]

Originally Posted by stevesR

yes they do, i've ask Russell at RT'S THE SAME QUESTION and he said no problems with the volans

Lovely, it was Russels car that got me interested in the brake kit, I just assumed that he fitted the 18" Peg's so the brakes fitted

[Jod T5]

Originally Posted by IC

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/vbarti...le&articleid=3

great article iain, i dont agree tho that the 302 conversion equates to 3/4 of a monster brake upgrade.., last time i spoke to don about this, im sure he mentioned the £1200 mark..., also there is no need to buy different hoses as the mounting on the wheel liner can be bent to stretching the existing rigid pipe alowing the flexi-pipe a longer reach...this is what i have done on my 302 columba conversion.....
cheers
jod

[Jod T5]

Originally Posted by andyrs

That is another option its just I did a similar upgrade on the Orion, a completely different kettle of fish I know, and it wasn't as good as I had expected so ended up going for a four pot caliper upgrade anyway and really didn't want to do the same with the Volvo. I see this is an upgrade you have carried out and you also have the same Rica upgrade as myself. How do you find this setup for everyday use?

TBH andy im totally in agreement with you..., the 302's are good but im not convinced the 280's with a set of ds2500 would not be far behind....dont forget this is a budget upgrade and does offer a sharper braking sensation with less fade, however the AP is likely to be the DB's but at a cost.....
i know that there are several porsche caliper upgrades that can be done on the 850, however you will have to have hangers made and at least one of the calipers cannot take the pad width...if you take a look at t5d5, blackbeast has done a very good technical article about porsche big brake upgrade....although im not sure of the cost.....
the brakes on my car are very good and i do not get the fade i did with the awful pagid race pads which did not fit in the piston correctly so always missed the top of the disc...when i fitted the 302's from siamblue i did not replace the pads so they cut into the lip of the discs he gave me so braking was better but with serious vibration..since fitting new volvo 302's the vibration has gone but there is still some fade under serious braking...
if truth be told i have never know a series of cars with such crap brakes but with a little effort the brakes can become acceptable....
cheers
jod

[Clan]

Originally Posted by jod t5

braking...
if truth be told i have never know a series of cars with such crap brakes but with a little effort the brakes can become acceptable....
cheers
jod

Volvo have always had trouble with brake design , right from the 300 series which had larger calipers in 1979 a year after introduction .

The 400 series had a change of caliper in 1987 as the first model year had smaller calipers much the same as the 300 series

The 200 series which came out in 1974 had a vented upgrade in 1981 .

The 700 series had all sorts of caliper and disk changes through it's life

The S/V40 came out in 1996 and had larger front discs and softer rear pad material in 1998 then the rear pads were wearing out in 15000 miles before they developed a decent pad .

The 850 went to larger discs on some selected models but it wasnt logical , some lesser models would have large discs then you get a random T5 C70 with the small discs ! One hard brake application from 150 mph would cook and ruin the brakes althought they worked well enough from our 70 mph limit ..

The S60 S80 V70 has more than one brake disk size

The New S40 / V50 / C70 has another range of multi size discs and the C70 has unique xc90 type calipers

The only model where they seem to have got it right first time over here is the XC90 , mabe thats because we dont import the front wheel drive version with 5 seats which has smaller discs !

[pyaap]

I have some experience of this, having gone from a standard setup to an uprated one (pads and discs) and then onto a big brake kit.

IMO, you first have to decide what your expectations from the brake kit are, namely is it mainly for road use or will be for track use too. If its for road use, I think uprated components like pads, brake hoses etc will improve matters significantly and of course you also have the choice of police spec pads etc.

However, big brake kits are in a totally different league and hence the added costs. I've been round tracks when I just had uprated pads discs and hoses and yes, it provided more fade resistance over the standard setup, but they still started to go after a few laps. However, it is very unlikely that you'll get them to fade very badly on the road because its unlikely you'll be able to do the sorts of sustained / repeated high speed braking that will be required.

On a track its a different matter because speeds in excess of 100mph followed by heavy braking for a slow corner are commonplace and in a place like Marham, 160+mph is also possible and that is where you will see the difference. A standard or uprated system will very quickly overheat and that's where big brakes come into their own. However, I would stress that just having huge callipers and discs are not the end of the equation; you obviously need to maintain the brakes in good condition and use a good quality brake fluid too (I use 76Racing R600+). I also found that a very simple and inexpensive way of keeping the brakes cool is to duct some air onto them. I've done that on my car and hope to see if it makes any difference when I next go for a trackday - I have an IR pyrometer and have recorded disc temps without the ducts and will compare them with the readings I get having fitted ducts.

I believe that the only cars that Volvo got the brakes correct on were the latest "R" variants. I think the local XC90s use similar sized pads and callipers so they should be pretty good too.