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S40 Brakes 300mm to 320mm

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Old May 28th, 2019, 12:29   #21
iainmd
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom View Post
Interesting....
tbh thats the only opinion for "not worth it" i have heard so far, against few "omg what an improvement" , mostly from our US friends.
I bet its because the different gravity on US part of the globe (pancake, if you are flatEarther).

joking aside - really surprised...
Agree. I did 300 to 320mm on the S40 T5 and the difference was night and day. The 300mm setup on my T5 was always awful but the 320 made a marked difference. My setup was completely OEM to completely OEM. No aftermarket drilled/grooved/ceramics at all. I dabbled with them earlier on the 300mm setup and found them to be a complete waste of time. They were worse than OEM by far.
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Old May 28th, 2019, 12:38   #22
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Agree. I did 300 to 320mm on the S40 T5 and the difference was night and day. The 300mm setup on my T5 was always awful but the 320 made a marked difference. My setup was completely OEM to completely OEM. No aftermarket drilled/grooved/ceramics at all. I dabbled with them earlier on the 300mm setup and found them to be a complete waste of time. They were worse than OEM by far.
Well, thats exactly what I hear from most ppl, hence my previous surprise. And in your case, did your 300 setup was "as good as it gets" I mean fresh fluid, not worn pads/bad pads etc? Defo not placebo effect?
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Old May 28th, 2019, 13:32   #23
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The brakes on my S40 (300mm) were always dreadful from Year 1 to Year 9 when I then upgraded them to 320mm. During those initial 8yrs I had multiple setups from entirely OEM to EBC drilled/grooved and redstuff pads then back to OEM again. Even at 1yr old on OEM they were really poor. They got a lot worse when using the EBC setup then a lot better but still unacceptable when I went back to OEM.

The 278mm setup on our V50 was always more effective than the 300mm setup and I can't explain why. The 320mm setup, when I fitted it, had excellent stopping power. Feel was improved by the HEL braided lines and the stopping power was noticeably improved. My calipers and carriers were refurbished Focus ST and the pads and discs were Volvo OEM (ATE).
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Old May 28th, 2019, 13:43   #24
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The brakes on my S40 (300mm) were always dreadful from Year 1 to Year 9 when I then upgraded them to 320mm. During those initial 8yrs I had multiple setups from entirely OEM to EBC drilled/grooved and redstuff pads then back to OEM again. Even at 1yr old on OEM they were really poor. They got a lot worse when using the EBC setup then a lot better but still unacceptable when I went back to OEM.

The 278mm setup on our V50 was always more effective than the 300mm setup and I can't explain why. The 320mm setup, when I fitted it, had excellent stopping power. Feel was improved by the HEL braided lines and the stopping power was noticeably improved. My calipers and carriers were refurbished Focus ST and the pads and discs were Volvo OEM (ATE).
ah yeh there must of been something wrong with your 300's? mine were actually really good and got by on track days as well. When I swapped for 320s both were in pretty much the same condition the only variable was the 320's had braided hoses.

My 300's had a brake flush / change with relatively new discs and pads before being swapped out for the 320 setup. So conditions were quite fair on the brake conditions and parts and on the same stretch of road / track / amount of laps ... there was no real difference in that extra 20mm.

They do look better and fill out the wheel a bit more, I was in real hope that they would be a massive increase but initially I think my mind told me they were better (As I spend quite a lot on the whole upgrade) but putting them to the real test on track really showed that there wasnt that much difference.
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Old May 28th, 2019, 15:19   #25
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I wonder how much of this is people going from old discs, pads and fluid to new discs, new pads and fluid and seeing a substantial change in brake feel as a result, rather than a result of going to 'bigger/better' parts....

I expect my OEM setup would be much better if I were to replace it all with new parts.
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Old May 28th, 2019, 15:40   #26
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I wonder how much of this is people going from old discs, pads and fluid to new discs, new pads and fluid and seeing a substation change in brake feel as a result, rather than a result of going to 'bigger/better' parts....

I expect my OEM setup would be much better if I were to replace it all with new parts.
Well, thats not the case as per Ianmd's email. Also, if there was no difference between 300 and 320 why would Volvo offered such option? Dont know what to think of all that, unless there is a scientific test of fresh 300mm setup vs fresh 320mm setup on the same car (ie brake distance, heat/fading etc) It may always be case of placebo effect or subjective feeling.

on a sidenote - I remember replacing my worn discs and pads with brand new setup (brembo + ATE) and tbh difference was not that much and mostly caused by fresh brake fluid. If people are reporting HUGE differences in 300/320mm setup, and thats what I heard mostly, it would be really hard to achieve just by fresh components IMHO.
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Old May 28th, 2019, 16:20   #27
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I'm on standard 300mm discs, they are rubbish, I once got sent 320's in error and the physical difference in disc size was very obvious. The 'swept area' of the 320mm set up is much greater than the 300's.
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Old May 28th, 2019, 16:27   #28
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Yeh tbh I side with Funkymelon here, when I had my 300s on and they were pretty worn down, just simply new pads and discs ontop of a fluid change was absolutly night and day.

After reading all the pro's on the 320's I then decided to upgrade to get even more bite and endurance on track but after spending a bomb on all the parts .... there was literally for me pretty much to 0 change. Maybe they might have given a touch more power braking but defenitly not enough to warrant the cost of the upgrade, a big brake kit in my opinion that would be an actual "Night and Day" difference to the volvo calipers. So anyone hunting on performance and better braking I would defenitly go that way and save your £££
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Old May 28th, 2019, 16:32   #29
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I'm on standard 300mm discs, they are rubbish, I once got sent 320's in error and the physical difference in disc size was very obvious. The 'swept area' of the 320mm set up is much greater than the 300's.
haha yeh they are defenitly bigger and alot heavier! and I thought I would get a massive difference but there wasnt any. Maybe the heavier callipers and discs are are cause of this?
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Old May 29th, 2019, 09:49   #30
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I have some 320 Focus ST discs and calipers waiting to go on, and boy those discs are heavy... It won't be particularly scientific as I'm going from used 300mm OE set up to used ST 320mm set up but I'll report back anyway in a few weeks...
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