[allien936]

I own a 2008 Skoda Fabia 1.4 PD Tdi. Its been more than 8 years for the car now. I always felt that the brakes have got a bit tired along the ageing. And one day, a recoil spring from the rear left brake shoe, broke inside the drum. Due to this the shoes kept rubbing against the drums from inside.

I asked around the market for the replacement of the whole drum brake kit with the shoes and everything. To my surprise it was not easily available, and was very costly. Then I thought of upgrading to discs rather than putting the drums again.

After searching online, I found a UK based seller, giving a bolt on replacement for VW group vehicles. I ordered it immediately. It came within 7 days from the date of order. The cost was a little higher than that of a replacement drum brake kit.

I was eager to put them on my car. After much discussion with my fellow BHPians, I decided to get it done from N1 Racing Equipments in Mumbai. This suggestion was given to me by BHPian TheSaint. As the job was a bolt on replacement, Anant (Owner of N1 Racing) gave me an appointment for the job. He is a very knowledgeable guy, and has a lot of contacts in the automobile industry.

At his workshop, once when we opened the rear brakes, we found that the rear stub axle doesn’t have the provision to attach the calipers. The place from where I ordered the kit had clearly mentioned that it will fit the TYPE II skoda Fabia (Mfg. from 2007-2014). We thought of retrofitting the rear axle of a 1.6 POLO, but that too was not available in the spare part market and not even in kurla market. I was growing impatient and clueless at the same time. But Anant advised me to take the car to a local turner that he has known for a while now, and asked me to get an adaptation plate made for the calipers.

The next day, the car was towed from Anant’s garage in Parel to the new garage in Shivaji park, Mumbai.
Mahesh (Turner) and Sanjay (Mechanic) are in the car modification field since a very long time and have a very skilled team of mechanics. They did a brilliant job for my car. You need a lot of patience when a modification has to be done on the car. 6 days after I got my car towed at their place, the job was done.

Contact Numbers –
1. Anant – N1 Racing Equipments – 09821221791
2. Mahesh – Turner/Fabricator – 09223423750
3. Sanjay – Mechanic – 09322653624

Link for the Disc conversion kit
Website - ZEDPerformance
https://shop.zedperformance.co.uk/vw...conversion-kit

I will keep updating the thread with what changes and improvements I feel after the upgrade.
Regards
Keep Revvin

Disc Conversion kit
Comes with handbrake cables, brake pads, dust covers, TRW discs, calipers and all the necessary bolts.


At N1 Racing, left side drum was damaged from inside and brake shoes were worn down to almost nil


Left side picture - How actually the stub axle is in Fabia

Right side picture - How it was supposed to be. Notice the elongations at the end of the axle to hold the caliper.

Car Towed to second garage.


The plate fabricated to hold the calipers. Job well done.

[blackwasp]

Great stuff doc ! As usual your car looks awesome. Please do post a write up of all the mods done as well. It'll be great information for all of us.


OT - can anyone guess the odo reading looking just at the exterior ?

[sgiitk]

Great work, I am sure you got a decent chap to do the installation. Any changes required in the front/rear balance. I did not spot a proportioning valve in the kit, hence the question.

[allien936]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Great stuff doc ! As usual your car looks awesome. Please do post a write up of all the mods done as well. It'll be great information for all of us.

Thanks a lot. The write up is in the pipeline. Will be online soon.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I did not spot a proportioning valve in the kit, hence the question.

Vehicle with ABS doesn't need a proportioning valve. Correct me if I'm wrong

[allien936]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

Vehicle with ABS doesn't need a proportioning valve. Correct me if I'm wrong

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I did not spot a proportioning valve in the kit, hence the question.

That's what even i have been told by the mechanics. The master cylinder is near the brake pedal, so doesn't need another reservoir or anything else near the rear calipers.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by allien936

That's what even i have been told by the mechanics. The master cylinder is near the brake pedal, so doesn't need another reservoir or anything else near the rear calipers.

What he (mechanic) said is right, but please don't blindly go by the words of mechanics, not every mechanic has clear knowledge on how stuffs works. Before making any repair / modification on the car, it's better to learn our-self a little basics. This helps to question the mechanic if he does something wrong (or if something goes wrong)

Have a look at this link
http://www.classicperform.com/How/Ho...-Prop-Work.htm

The proportioning valve reduces the pressure to the rear brakes. Whichever type of brakes your vehicle has, the rear brakes require less pressure than the front brakes.

If equal braking force were applied to all four wheels during a stop, the rear wheels would lock-up before the front wheels. The proportioning valve only lets a portion of the amount of pressure to the rear wheels thus preventing rear wheel lock-up

In case of vehicles with ABS, fluid pressure regulation is done by the ABS unit (by sensing each wheel speed)

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Modifications Section. Thanks for sharing!

Congrats on the swap - I hope it works perfectly for you.

Personally, I'm against seriously modifying a critical area like braking (or the steering) in the aftermarket. Reliability is key and I trust only OEM here. Max I'd do is get better discs or pads on the existing setup. The front brakes anyway do most of the work.

[allien936]

Originally Posted by GTO

Congrats on the swap - I hope it works perfectly for you. Personally, I'm against seriously modifying a critical area like braking (or the steering) in the aftermarket.

As of now, everything is fine. The idea was to do this as a bolt-on replacement. But unfortunately a different rear axle led to all the modifications. I had to do it because i had already spent money on getting the kit here. Sending it back would have cost me even more than all the modification and labor from the mechanics cost.

[frankmehta]

Congrats Onkar! I see this car every day and I always marvel at how well you have maintained it.
This upgrade is definitely a step in the right direction, but as we spoke, it's better to have ABS and other stuff working as OE and not as jugaad so it's best to procure a 1.6 Polo dead axle and make sure you have NO error messages in VCDS. Also, test your braking to make sure your rear discs are calibrated to perform normally under extreme braking situations. Any brake bias to the rear or otherwise can lead to abnormal braking.
But, KUDOS to the operation and well documented! Cheers!

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by frankmehta

it's best to procure a 1.6 Polo dead axle and make sure you have NO error messages in VCDS.

allien936, does it throw any error currently?
Where is the ABS encoder & sensor located in Drum & Disc setup? (If I'm not wrong, encoder is on the bearing / hub assembly?)

[allien936]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

allien936, does it throw any error currently?
Where is the ABS encoder & sensor located in Drum & Disc setup? (If I'm not wrong, encoder is on the bearing / hub assembly?)

Originally Posted by frankmehta

This upgrade is definitely a step in the right direction, but as we spoke, it's better to have ABS and other stuff working as OE and not as jugaad so it's best to procure a 1.6 Polo dead axle and make sure you have NO error messages in VCDS. Also, test your braking to make sure your rear discs are calibrated to perform normally under extreme braking situations. Any brake bias to the rear or otherwise can lead to abnormal braking.

On VCDS, its showing ABS fault for rear left and right both sensors. That is because the distance between the sensor and encoder, which in on the hub is increased due to the extra plate that i have put to hold the calipers. I am trying to procure the octavia sensors which are longer than the current sensors. Hopefully this will work. The part number is different for both, but the design of the sensor is similar, only octavia sensor is a little longer. For the testing part, i havent felt any problem so far, in the traffic as well as fast driving on the palm beach road. Though i have to test it properly on empty roads, for which i will have to do wait a while. In my next trip on the express way, i will test on high speed driving and look for vibrations, feedback from the pedal etc. Will keep you posted.

[McLaren Rulez]

I'm very surprised that it was hard to find a replacement drum brake kit at a reasonable price for a relatively new car like the Fabia.

That said, I suppose this is a nice way of turning life's lemons into lemonade

[allien936]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I'm very surprised that it was hard to find a replacement drum brake kit at a reasonable price for a relatively new car like the Fabia.

The drums of my car had worn out, so i thought of upgrading to discs. There was a marginal cost difference between the replacement drums and this disc kit. Also most of the indian spec cars dont get rear disc brakes. I guess only the old generation i20 had rear discs in hatchbacks category. The kit is a bolt on replacement for VW Polo 9N, 9N3, 6R, 6C, MK4, MK5 and Skoda Fabia 5J, NJ, NJ3, MK2, MK3. In my case, i have a 2008 skoda fabia, which is 5J, even though it has a different rear axle. Hence the modification.

[allien936]

Traveled from Mumbai to Kolhapur this friday. Got to test the modification. Its working totally fine. Just for the testing sake, accelerated to a high speed and pressed the brake pedal. It definitely does a better job than the drums. No vibrations. Got to test it in traffic as well as on rough roads. Everything is perfectly fine. I will take some time to get used to the response from the brake pedal.