# Audi A8 caliper on a Passat B5.5?



## Geordie (Jun 22, 2001)

A common brake upgrade for the Passat is to fit the Audi A8 disks with the stock caliper and the Audi TT caliper carrier. The disk is a little greater diameter and you get a little better braking. 
Looking at an A8 on Sunday I noticed that the caliper is vastly different from the Passat. The caliper appears to be much longer but also quite flat, it seems to have been built with little "sticking out" where it might contact a wheel. So can these calipers be used on the Passat? I'd rather have the A8 part than Porsche or Stoptech as I'd prefer to use as many VAG parts as possible.


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## jhillyer (Feb 17, 2002)

*Re: Audi A8 caliper on a Passat B5.5? (Geordie)*

VAG be good, ya.
You would be using the late-90s A8 front rotor. It's about 25mm thick and 312mm rotor diameter, under $50 each stock OEM. The Audi TT caliper carrier aligns the stock Passat caliper onto the A8 disc offset. 
These combinations of carrier offset, disc ring offset, and thickness gives the aftermarket shops to grow a base of returning customers. If 'they' choose to make a hat 8mm further one way, and the carrier adapter 7mm another way, and grind a friction ring 4mm another way, you might be stuck returning to that same house for its replacement parts. Gotcha.
Notice the benefit of adapting to 5.5" hubs, having Willwood and Brembo bolt-on race gear for 1/3 the price of the aftermarket kits.


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