# Techtonics Tuning 5 lug swap/brake upgrade for mk2



## myoldmetal (Aug 7, 2007)

I bought a kit from TT to upgrade my front to 5 lug and run VR6 brakes. The kit came with 5 lug hubs, rotors and pads. 
I need to replace my rotors and was hoping someone might know what OEM rotor TT uses in this kit? Of course they wont tell me cuz they want me to buy more crappy chinese made rotors from them which isnt gonna happen. I know they arent mk3 VR6 cuz the hat in the center protrudes farther than that. VR6 Corrado maybe?


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## myoldmetal (Aug 7, 2007)

No one knows this?


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## myoldmetal (Aug 7, 2007)

:thumbup:


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## greyhare (Dec 24, 2003)

The TT website says 11.3" so, possibly Mk4.


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

myoldmetal said:


> I bought a kit from TT to upgrade my front to 5 lug and run VR6 brakes. The kit came with 5 lug hubs, rotors and pads.
> I need to replace my rotors and was hoping someone might know what OEM rotor TT uses in this kit? Of course they wont tell me cuz they want me to buy more crappy chinese made rotors from them which isnt gonna happen. I know they arent mk3 VR6 cuz the hat in the center protrudes farther than that. VR6 Corrado maybe?


 Techtonics doesn't use any inferior Chinese made parts that I know of. How long has it been since you bought this conversion set, or was it on the car when you bought it? 

The later Passats (I got some 11.3" brake calipers off a 2001 Passat, and it had different 11.3" rotors) use a 11.3"with a taller center hat section. The 5-bolt pattern was the same, but the hat section was a different height with a LARGER CENTER HOLE than MKIIIs (ABA or VR6) use. 

Sonce you need to replace the rotors, and you aren't happy with the TT conversion setup, why not replace the wheel hubs with standard VR6 wheel hubs (about $100 a pair), and change your outer cv joints (about $100 a pair) to VR6 parts so you can run standard VR6 11.3" rotors? You would end up replacing the wheel bearings ($50 a pair), and paying to have them pressed into the steering knuckles ($30-$40 per knuckle) if you can't do it yourself. But that isn't much more than you'd pay Techtonics for the custom drilled rotors, and brake pads. You could do the switch for much less if you get the wheel hubs and VR6 cv axles (to rob for the cv joints) from a self-service salvage yard, and learn to change the parts yourself.


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## myoldmetal (Aug 7, 2007)

germancarnut51 said:


> Techtonics doesn't use any inferior Chinese made parts that I know of. How long has it been since you bought this conversion set, or was it on the car when you bought it?
> 
> The later Passats (I got some 11.3" brake calipers off a 2001 Passat, and it had different 11.3" rotors) use a 11.3"with a taller center hat section. The 5-bolt pattern was the same, but the hat section was a different height with a LARGER CENTER HOLE than MKIIIs (ABA or VR6) use.
> 
> Sonce you need to replace the rotors, and you aren't happy with the TT conversion setup, why not replace the wheel hubs with standard VR6 wheel hubs (about $100 a pair), and change your outer cv joints (about $100 a pair) to VR6 parts so you can run standard VR6 11.3" rotors? You would end up replacing the wheel bearings ($50 a pair), and paying to have them pressed into the steering knuckles ($30-$40 per knuckle) if you can't do it yourself. But that isn't much more than you'd pay Techtonics for the custom drilled rotors, and brake pads. You could do the switch for much less if you get the wheel hubs and VR6 cv axles (to rob for the cv joints) from a self-service salvage yard, and learn to change the parts yourself.


 i will have to look at the Passat rotors.....maybe thats what I need, as I didnt realize they had a taller center hat. 
TT replied to my email and said "those are custom engineered rotors for that kit" which I find very hard to believe. I bought this kit 6 months ago, and the rotors are alreay warped. the rotors are thin, and arent zinc coated, which would help for sure! 
I used to have VR hubs on my car with the VR outer CV joints, and MK3 VR rotors and that setup shortened my wheelbase by 1" and caused vibration and rubbing issues so I pulled it all off. It will all be for sale soon so maybe one of you wants to buy that setup and try your luck? 
Putting this TT kit on allows me to use stock 16V axles and suspension parts, but allows me to run bigger VR6 brakes....I just gotta find out what the rotors are off of, as the mk3 VR rotors dont work with this setup


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

myoldmetal said:


> i will have to look at the Passat rotors.....maybe thats what I need, as I didnt realize they had a taller center hat.
> TT replied to my email and said "those are custom engineered rotors for that kit" which I find very hard to believe. I bought this kit 6 months ago, and the rotors are alreay warped. the rotors are thin, and arent zinc coated, which would help for sure!
> I used to have VR hubs on my car with the VR outer CV joints, and MK3 VR rotors and that setup shortened my wheelbase by 1" and caused vibration and rubbing issues so I pulled it all off. It will all be for sale soon so maybe one of you wants to buy that setup and try your luck?
> Putting this TT kit on allows me to use stock 16V axles and suspension parts, but allows me to run bigger VR6 brakes....I just gotta find out what the rotors are off of, as the mk3 VR rotors dont work with this setup


 I think you're using the wrong words to explain your situation. 

"Wheelbase" is the distance from the front axles to rear axles. Changing the wheel hubs can't change the wheelbase. The distance between the front or rear wheels is called the "track width". 

I have never owned or install one of the Techtonics 4-bolt to 5-bolt 11.3" conversion kits that you say you'ver installed, but I've never had a problem with any Techtonics purchased product either. Have you talked to Techtonics about the problems you're having? It's seems strange that they haven't offered you some sort of solution, or some warranty relief. 

Installing the VR6 outer cv joints on your 16V cv axles should not have changed the track width. But the VR6 axles are shorted than ABA axles. Front what I understand the MKII front suspension is actually narrower than MKIII ABA front suspension. Did you mix VR6 suspension parts onto your MKII 16V? I suspect that would give you a different track width, as the VR6 suspension is different from the ABA suspension. 

When you changed to the Techtonics 5-bolt conversion (wheel hubs, and wheel bearings), what other parts did you change? To use the stock VW 11.3" brake calipers, and caliper carriers, the rotors had to stay in the same plane as the stock rotors, if the wheel hubs are longer and stick out farther, it would stand to reason that the rotors would need a taller "hat" (offset) so the rotors could line up with the calipers. Both the earlier ATE "DE" 54 11.3" calipers and carriers, and the later ATE 57 11.3" calipers and carriers will bolt onto a MKIII ABA steering knuckle with 4-bolt wheel hub and line up with a 5-bolt VR6 MKIII Jetta or GTi 11.3" rotor. This tells me that the 5-bolt MKIII VR6 wheel hub has the same external dimensions as the 4-bolt wheel hub from a MKIII ABA outer cv joint. 

I suspect that when you tried the VR6 5-bolt hub conversion using VR6 parts, somehow, you managed to use a/some wrong parts. Lots of people have done this on MKIII ABA cars without any problems. 

Did you use the same identical type MKII 16V steering knuckles for both 5-bolt conversions? Or did you use ABA steering knuckles, or did you use two different types of steering knuckles? 

How did you install the wheel bearings? Did you have them pressed in by someone in a shop who knows what they're doing, or did you hammer them in? There's a chance that the bearings were defective, or were damaged during installation, resulting in the vibration you're reporting. 

Are you using the same 5-bolt wheels that you used with the earlier VR6 wheel hub conversion?


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## myoldmetal (Aug 7, 2007)

> "Wheelbase" is the distance from the front axles to rear axles. Changing the wheel hubs can't change the wheelbase. The distance between the front or rear wheels is called the "track width".


 vr6 spindles have different dimensions than 16v spindles, so they rotated my lower control to the rear thus decreasing my wheelbase, and my trackwidth, if I go by your explanation. 


> Have you talked to Techtonics about the problems you're having? It's seems strange that they haven't offered you some sort of solution, or some warranty relief.


 As my posts state.....they have responded stating those are "custom" rotors, and that I have to use the ones in the kit, and have offered no warranty, which is a shame, since I have bought lots of stuff from them and have always gotten good quality. 


> Did you mix VR6 suspension parts onto your MKII 16V? I suspect that would give you a different track width, as the VR6 suspension is different from the ABA suspension.


 I used mk3 spindles/knuckles, rotors, calipers/carriers and outer CV's with my 16v control arms. The car didnt like that combo at all. Maybe using mk3 lower control arms would have solved the vibration issue on that setup. 
For this new setup, I had the 5 lug hub pressed into my 16v spindle with new bearings that were supplied with the kit. The rotors in the kit have a taller hat that the mk3 VR rotors, so the idea of their rotors is to set the braking surface back to the correct position to allow use of the mk3 VR6 brakes on 16v spindle. I am using the exact same set of wheels/tires that were ran with both swaps. This kit is perfect and I have no complaints, other than the rotors being of bad quality. I highly doubt TT paid for the engineering of one off rotors. Im sure I can use some passat rotors, or mk4 rears or something. I like this new kit much better, cuz I dont have to build custom CV axles every time I need new ones.


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

myoldmetal said:


> vr6 spindles have different dimensions than 16v spindles, so they rotated my lower control to the rear thus decreasing my wheelbase, and my trackwidth, if I go by your explanation.
> 
> As my posts state.....they have responded stating those are "custom" rotors, and that I have to use the ones in the kit, and have offered no warranty, which is a shame, since I have bought lots of stuff from them and have always gotten good quality.
> 
> ...


 So doing what you did, you can't really compare the first 5-bolt conversion setup to the second 5-bolt conversion setup, because you didn't just change the wheel hubs, bearings, and out cv axles. You changed the steering knuckles. 

You should have used your 16V steering knuckles with the VR6 wheel hubs, and the VR6 outer cv joints on your 16V cv axles with your MKII control arms to maintain the MKII wheelbase and trackwidth. Not the VR6 steering knuckles which are designed to be used with the VR6 lower control arms. 

Then, if and when, the outer cv joint on the cv axle dies, all you need to do is buy a new VR6 outer cv joint, remove the defective cv axle, knock off the outer joint, and pop the new VR6 outer joint on.


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