[ausev] Brake upgrades to my VW Cabriolet

[Sarah & Erik]

Hi everyone, this is an email I just sent to the EVDL, hopefully the
people who are on both don't mind the repeat.

Hi all,

I've had my EV on the road for a little over a year now. After I
finished the conversion, I wasn't very happy with the brakes. They did
the job and I never had any problems, but sudden stops were a little
more of an adrenaline rush than I would have liked. I thought the
increase in brake effort was only due to the added weight, and there
wouldn't be a whole lot I could do about it with out changing to
larger rotors.

After reading conflicting reviews, I bought EBC Greenstuff brake pads
and dropped them off at my local VW place. I got a call from them a
few hours later, they told me my rotors had been rusty before and I
should replace them. At first thought this sounded like a shop trying
to squeeze a bigger repair job in, but I really trust these guys so I
went for it. I got the car back and WOW. The difference was night and
day.

It's been about 400 miles now, and I can say the difference is still
noticable so it wasn't just fresh rotors and pads. I'm not sure what
part was the rotors and what was the pads, but the difference is very
real. My rotors did get pretty rusty while they were sitting, but I
figured they would be cleaned up nicely by the first time I used the
brakes. They looked good, but the mechanic knew by looking they had
been pretty rusty.

If you've got a conversion in progress, I'd get the rotors turned when
you're done -don't count on the braking to clean them up. If you're
doing a Cabriolet or Rabbit, the EBC Greenstuff are good as far as I
can tell. On the way back from showing my car a green festival, I
didn't see the first stoplight after coming off a highway. I locked up
the wheels and screeched to a quick stop in time. I can guarantee that
I couldn't have stopped the quickly if I wanted to before switching
the parts.

Ooh, and if you're driving a VW Rabbit/Cabriolet and the disc brakes
are making a racket, you can get the anti-rattle springs from
GermanAutoparts.com (this is where I do most of my VW shopping). You
have to call and ask for them since they're not on the website.

Erik in Austin
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/823

One last thing - if you need a VW shop in the Austin, TX area head to
Underground VW. The mechanics are honest, not afraid to work on EVs
(one guy there has been batting around converting a Renault Dauphine),
and even threw a piece of trim in on my car the last time I took it
in. I'd been looking on and off at junkyards and Craigslist and had a
real tough time finding it.