# Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade



## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

This rebuild is performed on a set of Girling 54 Corrado G60 caliper & carrier but will apply to other calipers. 
If you decide to paint, go lite on the underside. Putting too much paint will make the pads a tight fit.
*For a caliper rebuild you will need:*
Caliper Guide Pin Boot Kit
Caliper Repair Kit
Bleeder screw with or without the check valve (speed bleeders)
Brake clean.
DOT 4 brake fluid
turkey baster 
*For a MK3 upgrade you will need:*
Corrado G60 Girling 54 callipers & carriers, 
Corrado G60 rotors & pads. 
The calipers, & rotors bolt up like they were made to fit. There is a small bracket on the G54 calipers with a small 2-3" long hard line adaptor. This bracket and twisted hard line adaptor come off you wont use it. MK3 2.0 brake lines bolt up to the calipers, no need for adaptors. FYI the mk3 calliper is a G54 as well, but the corrado calipers are a bit bigger & take bigger pads. 
You should get steel braided lines, (trust me) and you need new brake fluid every 2 years anyway. The steel braided lines will take the spongy feeleng out of your peddal and use that power on the brakes not in balooning your rubber lines. Brake fluid looses the high temp rating when it absorbs moisture. Look at any brake fluid container and it will have the lower wet temp and new original high temp numbers. Get Dot4 dont ever use Dot3. 
Get the bleeder screws with the check valve. With this check valve you can bleed you brakes by yourself without the tool. 























*Wire wheel the heck out of it & get all of the corners.*











*for all the fans, file down & smooth out the casting marks on the carrier and caliper *












*I was careful with popping out the piston. 40psi worked for me. Use a bunch of brake clean in and out so you don’t get grit in the caliper during the rebuild *


































Remove the o ring from the caliper with something softer than steel and be careful not to scratch the walls. Replacing the o-ring is simple enough.
Make sure to coat the o-rings and boot seals with brake fluid for a positive seal. Lube the piston and caliper wall with new brake fluid for assembly lube. Here is the tricky part I found it easy to slide the boot seal on the groove of the piston so the boot can be unfolded. You see how the boot is sitting (pic above), the side that seals with the caliper is sitting slid up from the piston. Now with the boot sitting on the piston arrange the piston in the caliper so you can seat the seal with the caliper while keeping it on the piston. It took me a while but it is the best way as to not destroy the seal. I pressed the piston in by hand with a little TLC. I HIGHLY suggest you slide the piston in and out using the air and wood (3 slides up). I didn't get the seal right the first time. The boot looked ok until I cycled the piston. 




































*make sure the bleeder screw is facing up when installed to make sure you didn’t install them upside down*

This next step is commonly overlooked! 
Make sure to re-grease the slider pins. This will make sure you caliper doesn’t bind. This can cause one pad to drag and get waisted prematurely, while the other barely get used
After your all installed the last thing is to bleed the brakes. I used a turkey baster to remove old fluid from the master. I then toped off the master cylinder with fresh fluid and purged a bunch through the line.
Once you start bleeding keep an eye on the master. 
Happy Dubbing 
I figured the upgrade of the rotor from ~10.1 to 11 inches gave me an extra ~9% more stopping power using the new rotor size over the old for a comparison ratio (11/10.1). This is true because stopping power is force x friction coefficient. Friction stays "about" the same if the same style pads and rotors are used so we can negate these numbers for comparison sake. Force in braking is dependent on the moment arm (rotor). Increasing the moment arm or rotor will increase force in the equation. Don’t let anyone tell you rotor upsizing doesn’t increase stopping power, that’s like saying stroking a motor doesn't increase power. As always the inertial effects of the larger rotor have a parasitic loss on acceleration, but better heat transfer and increase in stopping power were enough to convince me to upgrade my brakes


*fixed pics


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## screwedrrado (Mar 13, 2007)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

Nice writeup, Im sure your happy with the results, poorly lubricated caliper pins cause all kinds of drama, next time see if you can find a local shop to hook up your calipers with some powder coat, alot more durable than paint, http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## Dutchsider (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

Wow, great write up. I will be picking up a set of Girling 60s and hopefully doing this. Your efforts are appreciated by the Tex


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## eurotekms (Feb 10, 2002)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (Dutchsider)*

real nice. been meaning to do this. where did you buy the rebuild kit?


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (eurotekms)*

http://www.rockauto.com/

_Modified by hookdub at 8:52 PM 4-16-2007_


_Modified by hookdub at 10:04 PM 1-19-2010_


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## O2VW1.8T (Jul 9, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

Did u replace every hose for DOT 5 fluid


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## O2VW1.8T (Jul 9, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *hookdub* »_I didn' t use the dot 5, I used the ate blue dot 4 fluid. Sorry this post is a work in progress

_Modified by hookdub at 8:22 PM 4-17-2007_

yeah i was confused, cause it would be stupid to use dot 5 cause everything needs to be changed


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## MKIII_Breezy (Apr 14, 2007)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (O2VW1.8T)*








http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif Nice work ... I went through this whole process with my A3 Jetta Same color. Time consuming but worth it


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## goofydug (Feb 5, 2004)

awesome write up, thank you!


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## turbinepowered (Mar 19, 2007)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

When you say 40PSI, I'm guessing you mean air pressure? How'd you connect the caliper to the air hose? Fitting? Nozzle?
Rebuilding a set of QSW brakes, so this helps quite a bit, thank you!


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## Dutchsider (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (turbinepowered)*

Finally got this done about a month ago. Freshly glass beaded and sprayed a set of Girling 60 dual pot calipers. 

_Quote, originally posted by *turbinepowered* »_When you say 40PSI, I'm guessing you mean air pressure? How'd you connect the caliper to the air hose? Fitting? Nozzle?
Rebuilding a set of QSW brakes, so this helps quite a bit, thank you!

I simply used an air nozzle that had a rounded rubber tip.








I was able to seal off the brakline opening and get enough pressure to blow the pistions out. Was a bit of a pain in the ass to get the two out though


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *hookdub* »_
I figured the upgrade of the rotor from ~10.1 to 11 inches gave me an extra ~9% more stopping power using the new rotor size over the old for a comparison ratio (11/10.1). This is true because stopping power is force x friction coefficient. Friction stays "about" the same if the same style pads and rotors are used so we can negate these numbers for comparison sake. Force in braking is dependent on the moment arm (rotor). Increasing the moment arm or rotor will increase force in the equation. Don’t let anyone tell you rotor upsizing doesn’t increase stopping power, that’s like saying stroking a motor doesn't increase power. As always the inertial effects of the larger rotor have a parasitic loss on acceleration, but better heat transfer and increase in stopping power were enough to convince me to upgrade my brakes


As a brake designer some of this information is very true. The "moment arm" is not dependent on rotor size but effective radius of the caliper's piston(s). inevitably increasing your rotor size will surely increase the effective radius due to spacing out the caliper from wheel center (the caliper has to clear the disk). Either way you can increase your overall brake performance by keeping your rotor size and changing your calipers for a larger effective radius.
Don't under estimate your "friction" as we call it (mu characteristic and pad material). Many many pads will have similar friction coeff. but very different performance benefits. To throw this characteristic out the window for braking performance would be silly. keep in mind that different OEM pads do not always use the same friction, and mu values can/will change upon environmental parameters.
Another aspect that ppl seem to forget on brake performance is that wheel size plus tire size (changes SLR/DLR static/dynamic loaded radius), width, type, and mass (due to inertia) will also change your braking performance
This is a good DIY post
http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 


_Modified by GTijoejoe at 5:21 PM 12-9-2007_


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (GTijoejoe)*

thanks Joe,
BTW when I said to negate the friction coefficient it was because the compounds should be the same since I used EBC before and after. It was a routamentary cancelation, in reality there are lotts of factors as it seems you know. 
However,
if you increase the piston in the caliper than you would have a larger area to displace. this would affect the fluid pressure negatively (lbs/in^2) more sq in = smaller numbe.
Also keeping the piston in the same place would yield the same effective center on the rotor = same moment arm.
the one good thing would be a possibility of a larger contact surface. 
to really get things hooked up (hukdub get it .... sorry







back on track) of course you would have to address brake bias, brake line diameter, length of break peddle and master cylinder bore, in addition to rotor size and caliper pison bore. 

btw who do u work 4?










_Modified by hookdub at 10:12 AM 1-9-2008_


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

HONDA R&D http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (GTijoejoe)*

Cool im an engineer at BMW 
we should have an engineer role cale


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *hookdub* »_Cool im an engineer at BMW 
we should have an engineer role cale
















saaweeet! we should


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (GTijoejoe)*

just a bump. this is for the people of the sun


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## naDintheHat (Sep 26, 2006)

Bump for a nice tutorial.
Anyone know if the rebuild kit can be used on Lucas 54 calipers. I would assume so but just want to double check.


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: (naDintheHat)*

go to rockauto.com they have everything


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: (hookdub)*

http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*


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## 1upDub (Jul 5, 2008)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (GTijoejoe)*

Bump for an awesome tut... Gonna be doing this in the next week or two...

_Quote, originally posted by *GTijoejoe* »_
As a brake designer some of this information is very true. The "moment arm" is not dependent on rotor size but effective radius of the caliper's piston(s). inevitably increasing your rotor size will surely increase the effective radius due to spacing out the caliper from wheel center (the caliper has to clear the disk). Either way you can increase your overall brake performance by keeping your rotor size and changing your calipers for a larger effective radius.
_Modified by GTijoejoe at 5:21 PM 12-9-2007_









I'm not an engineer, so my question might be restating the obvious -- Your statement would seem to imply that it's not necessary to increase the rotor size given the increase in caliper size. Is this true given the hardware's increase in size for this tut, or would it be more smarterer







to increase rotor size from stock? I guess what I'm getting at it, is it even possible to maintain rotor stock size with this tut?


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (1upDub)*


_Quote, originally posted by *1upDub* »_Bump for an awesome tut... Gonna be doing this in the next week or two...








I'm not an engineer, so my question might be restating the obvious -- Your statement would seem to imply that it's not necessary to increase the rotor size given the increase in caliper size. Is this true given the hardware's increase in size for this tut, or would it be more smarterer







to increase rotor size from stock? I guess what I'm getting at it, is it even possible to maintain rotor stock size with this tut? 

It is certainly easier to increase the disk size. My statement was only to imply that you can increase the effective radius by using a different caliper and not changing the disks. For example, multi pot calipers can use smaller pistons (but still overall have larger or same combined piston area) and still increase effective radius. Although there is going to be a limit to how far you can increase it on a specific disk. This is why a larger disk is easier, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## kuti004 (Jul 20, 2008)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (GTijoejoe)*

looks sick


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (kuti004)*

http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## RARCGTI (Nov 27, 2004)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (hookdub)*

hI
What is included in the rebuild kit?
REGARDS


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (RARCGTI)*

new o-ring and dust boot


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## pirate golf (Mar 1, 2005)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (Dutchsider)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Dutchsider* »_Finally got this done about a month ago. Freshly glass beaded and sprayed a set of Girling 60 dual pot calipers. 
I simply used an air nozzle that had a rounded rubber tip.








I was able to seal off the brakline opening and get enough pressure to blow the pistions out. Was a bit of a pain in the ass to get the two out though

Do you guys use this method on the rear too? Or, do I have to turn the pistons while extracting?


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

*Re: DIY: Girling 54 rebuild/ mk3 upgrade (pirate golf)*

the rears are hard to do (thats what she said) I have never rebuilt the rears.


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

:thumbup:


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

"...In theory you can use the Mk3 caliper, Mk3 pads, Corrado carrier, & Corrado rotor but check the rotor thickness first, I cant confirm...".

This is not true. The Girling 54 10.1" calipers from a MKIII have a different slot depth where the rotor rides through the carrier from the Girling 54 11" calipers used on Corrado G60, VR6, and 94-95Jetta/Golf/GTI VR6.

Not true about using 10.1" brake pads with 11" calipers and caliper carriers either. While the 10.1" amd 11" brake pads share the same size friction surface and thickness, and the same size backing plate, the little ears on the sizes of the backing plate used to position the brake pads in the caliper carrier are different sizes, and located in different places.

There are also two different caliper seal kits for Girling 54 calipers. One is used with calipers with small diameter bleed valves, and the other is designed to be used with calipers with large diameter bleed valves. I have compared the two cailper seal kits, and it appears that the dust boots and the piston seals are different.


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## DAVEG (Aug 14, 2001)

I am about to upgrade my 84 GTI to disks and 10.1 " front rotors. The front rotors seem an easy replacement but I am having trouble with the rear conversion (some say it is not worth it). The rear stub axel does not fit my rear trailing arm mounting surface. The stub axel mounting surface laps over outside of the machined surface for the original drum brake stub axel. Do I have the wrong part (#333 501 117 or 118)? Do I have to adjust (machine part of the trailing arm mouinting surface) to accept the disk stub axel?

I also wanted to ask about switching to the larger brake master cylinder (22mm from 20mm) for better pedal feel. The new calipers will have larger wheel cylinder cylinders so will this require switching to the larger VW master cylinder cylinder?


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## desmodronic (Jan 10, 2008)

Im doing the same, upgrading mk2 brakes:










But have problem with rust on pistons 










What shall I do?

Seen on other Lucas & Girling alloy pistons ...


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

desmodronic said:


> Im doing the same, upgrading mk2 brakes:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Not much you can do except replace the pistons. Every original VW MKII, MKIII, and MKIV brake caliper piston I've seen has been metal, not alloy.

Replacement pistons don't grow on trees. If the original pistons from the calipers are that bad, I'd be surprised if the caliper bores aren't pitted as well and not reusable.

Personally, I would look for another set of used calipers to rebuild. Good used Girling 54 10.1" brake calipers are not hard to find. In fact, I have a set for sale for $50 that I took off my 97 Jetta GT last year during an upgrade to 11.0" Corrado Brakes.


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## desmodronic (Jan 10, 2008)

Calipers are ok...

Thanks for the replay :thumbup:


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

:thumbup:


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## RARCGTI (Nov 27, 2004)

Hi i bought an aluminium pair of pistons ,the difference in weight is incredible ,i took the OEM and asked in a brakes shop for some new ones the spec is 54.0mm 2-1/8" i hope those pistons fit correct



















Regards




desmodronic said:


> Im doing the same, upgrading mk2 brakes:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## hookdub (Nov 21, 2003)

Fixed the pics


(O o)==(>3)==(o O)


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## petethepug (May 25, 2001)

Hehe, half decade later?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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