# Budget brake upgrade/retrofit on 2015 Q3 Quattro



## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

Erase this thread please.


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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

Would it work with 335mm rotors? if so, snag them from a VW Atlas


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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

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## almoniyot (Jan 7, 2004)

HEAT said:


> I am pretty sure that the brakes are now sorted. More time will tell. I also realized my pictures are crappy. I will post some better pics.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Thanks for posting. Shopping for a Q3 or Tiguan and will be one of my mods for sure. Do 17z and 18z both require spacers for wheel/caliper clearance?


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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

almoniyot said:


> Thanks for posting. Shopping for a Q3 or Tiguan and will be one of my mods for sure. Do 17z and 18z both require spacers for wheel/caliper clearance?


A disclaimer, if you do this it is at your own risk. I cannot be held liable for anything that goes wrong. This is a retro fit and I followed a couple of “how tos”. 

To answer your question, It depends on the back spacing of your wheel, the offset and also the design. I needed them for mine and the build thread I followed said to use 10mm. I went with H&R 12mm spacers which gave plenty of space with my factory 19”s. Don’t do what I did and try to install them without spacers. I ended up cracking a rotor hat and had to order another new rotor. That is documented in thread.

Just to be clear I installed the BM5 for 17” wheels which is slightly different than the 17z and the 18z. Apparently the BM5 is the same as the 1LE. The advantage of using the BM5 or the 1LE is that you don’t have to swap out the little tubes and bleeder screws that span across the bottom and top of the caliper. The BM5 calipers that I used came off of a Touareg, 2011 I think. 

The reason I went with the calipers designed for 17” was to leave the option of getting 17” wheels later if I want to reduce the unsprung weight. I am using them with factory 19” wheels. The calipers for 17” wheels are also lighter than the calipers for 18” wheels. Obviously the 330 mm rotors are lighter than the 350mm rotors. The factory brakes that come on the Q3 are plenty strong enough for everyday use. The brembos are not necessary unless your adding a lot of power or weight or track your car.

Recently I had my car in service at Audi and they noted that the caliper does touch the lower control arm when the wheel is turned all the way to one side. I never turn the wheels all the way either direction. So if you do you that you will have contact with your caliper to the lower control arm. They also noted that the brake pad slide pins were unseated and they reseated them. When I installed them they were fully seated so I am curious as to why they backed out a little. Going to have to keep an eye on those. That makes me believe that this kit is not sorted out yet like I thought.

All in all I don’t think I would do it again if I had a choice. I don’t recommend this mod. It was a real pain to refinish and retrofit them. The thing I dislike the most about the mod is that the rotors don’t have a screw hole for the rotor to be secured to the wheel hub.

Please be sure to go through the how to links I followed and be careful. Read the threads and then read them again. If you do decide to do it, go ahead and get the spacers with matching extended lug bolts. The lug bolts need to be longer to fully seat into cavity of the wheel. There are also two types of lug bolt seats; conical and ball. My factory wheels where ball seat. Call the guys at Achtuning and they can help you ensure you are ordering the correct spacers and lug bolts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## almoniyot (Jan 7, 2004)

HEAT said:


> A disclaimer, if you do this it is at your own risk. I cannot be held liable for anything that goes wrong. This is a retro fit and I followed a couple of “how tos”.
> 
> To answer your question, It depends on the back spacing of your wheel, the offset and also the design. I needed them for mine and the build thread I followed said to use 10mm. I went with H&R 12mm spacers which gave plenty of space with my factory 19”s. Don’t do what I did and try to install them without spacers. I ended up cracking a rotor hat and had to order another new rotor. That is documented in thread.
> 
> ...



Thanks so much for your honest reply

Planning on doubling the power of the existing engine, so don't feel comfortable w/o a brake upgrade.

Considering Macan/Q5 calipers as well.


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## HEAT (Dec 1, 2001)

It has been just over one year since my last post on this thread. I am stunned to see that this thread has been viewed 4K times. It can’t possibly be because of interest in budget brake kits for the Q3. I think maybe the pictures are showing up in google searches and that is all that’s been viewed. 

The Q3 has been a joy to own and drive. It has also aged very well. When I look at the 2015 Q5, I honestly think that the 2015 Q3 has aged better. There was one major setback I documented in a different thread. Last year the timing belt tensioner let go. It was around 56k miles at the time. It needed a complete engine replacement. Fortunately for me the CPO warranty covered it. Audi of Bellevue worked with Audi USA and replaced it. Just so happens that my warranty was set to expire 6 days later. If this would of happened just one week later, I would have been out of warranty. Fortunately it was still under CPO from Audi.

The brake kit has held up well. There is a squeal noise when braking while in reverse gear. It only happens when the vehicle has been sitting for a while and goes away almost immediately. I want to sort that out but it’s only been a minor issue. The performance of the brakes has been truly exceptional. 

I don’t think I would recommend this budget upgrade. For some people it would be “easy” but I think that metric is subjective. Most casual tuners would probably rate it as “hard” or “difficult”. It was cheap, and I enjoy them immensely. Though probably I wouldn’t do it again. 


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## crenshaw7 (8 mo ago)

Would it work with 335mm rotors? if so, snag them from a VW Atlas


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