How I Fitted Big Brakes to the Astra Mk3

Fitting Big brake discs is essential on the Astra Turbo due to the power of the Engine and the speed it can travel in such a short space of time, Standard discs will heat up causing brake fade after just a few hard presses of the pedal. 

They are not a cheap piece of kit, the Wilwoods that I have on now cost £1,600 just for the discs and callipers, I already tried both of the cheaper alternatives before I fitted the wilwood set up, one of which I am going to describe a little later on. The first upgrade I did was to convert the 1.4 discs and callipers to the Astra GSi spec, this model had a larger surface area (256mm) and also benefitted from vented discs to aid cooling. to change to this set up I also had to replace the callipers from the standard 1.4 to the 2.0 GSi Items, Its quite an easy task to replace the discs and callipers because they mount up onto the existing 1.4 mounts so its just a case of whipping off the old and refitting the new.

The second route I tried and the one I am going to describe below is to upgrade the 256mm GSi discs for Race items that are 305mm yet to keep costs down re-use the GSi Callipers.  These discs can be purchased for around £500 and that includes the spacing bracket that needs to be fitted to the original calliper so that it will clear the bigger discs. 

One thing I have noticed since fitting Big Discs is the amount of people that notice them, You can spend as much as you like on a set of wheels but the thing most people notice is the discs that sit behind them, they really are a talking point.

 

 wh1.jpg (53181 bytes)  The Standard Brakes,
So here we have a picture of the parts that are needed, Although I had the 305mm Racing discs on my Astra for a few months, the following pictures are the discs belonging to DaveB that I fitted to his Astra Gsi. 

2 x 305mm racing discs, 2 x original Vauxhall Astra GSi Callipers, 1 x set of Front Brake Pads

 parts.jpg (38832 bytes) The Parts needed,

Step one, 

 cal.jpg (45107 bytes) Fitting the Spacer to the Calliper,
Step Two, grind.jpg (35618 bytes) Grinding out the calliper,
Step Three,  leg.jpg (50276 bytes) Calliper now ready for the disc,
Step Four,   me.jpg (37491 bytes) One side completed,
Step Five,   wh2.jpg (63081 bytes) The new discs all fitted,
Step Six, comparison.jpg (25868 bytes) New and old side by side,
I then Repeated steps 1-6 on the opposite side of the car.
r13.jpg (34452 bytes) My spacer when using the 305mm discs
r43.jpg (32502 bytes) My spacer when using the 305mm discs
will1.jpg (42354 bytes) My New Willwood Spacer
willy.jpg (37712 bytes) The Willwood Disc and Calliper