Drum to Disc conversion. Price?

TheMagicPirate

TheMagicPirate

TheMagicPirate

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Just bought a 53 Astra SXi and want to convert the rear drum brakes to disc ones.

Can anyone give me a ball park figure on the cost?

Or is it easy enough to do yourself?

Cheers
 
Majority of the braking takes places at the front wheels anyway, converting to disks at the rear will probably cause you more problems then it would benefit you.
 
You won't notice any real benifit - the rear brakes usually generate only 10-20% of the overall braking force and a set of well-specced drums can generate a good bit of stopping power.

They also (generally) provide a better handbrake :)
 
I wouldn't be bothering, but if you were to, i know on MK3's they find it easier just to get the whole beam changed for one with discs.

Get a tin of hammerite and paint them black :)
 
I'm assuming rear discs were part of an option? Such as ESP?


Like said above, you'd probably have to get the entire rear beam, with hubs + discs.


It's not just as simple as whipping off the drums and bolting discs on. ;) Will need new handbrake cable too probably.


Discs will only improve the asthetics of your car. As said, rear braking is minimal. Plus drums > discs for hand brake turns. ;)
 
It's £500-600 for a conversion on a Puma, so can't see it being too much different from that really. It's not something you can do yourself.
 
The difference between disks and drums on the Mk4 Astras is unnoticable. My 1.8 sport had rear disks but my current 1.8 sxi has drums and I cant tell any difference in the brakes performance other than in the handbrake ;) Also, Astras with rear disks have a 5 stud setup for the wheels, the ones with drums have 4, so it wouldn't be as easy as just swapping a compleate rear axle.
 
TheMagicPirate said:
... I was under the impression discs would be better?
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All the cars weight is at the front and then you brake and put the car on its toes which shifts even more emphasis to the front. Rears do matter especially when they go wrong but you wont notice a difference for this upgrade imo.

Like others said, only reasons to do it would be for looks and if you do lots of track days maybe. Drums definetly do hand brake turns better and thats what counts down at McD's :p

Ive seen hubcaps with a fake disk background to them..
 
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allso adding to this drums are better than disks IF they could solve the heat problems that go with useing drums.

drums have a self servo affect and more contact area compared to std disk pads.
 
Duke said:
It's not something you can do yourself.
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That's a bold statement!

You can do anything at all you like to a car, as long as you have the necessary tools :)
 
I converted my Fiesta RS Turbo to rear disc brakes. I can honestly say it's NOT worth it. There is a good reason Ford never bothered to do this, it unbalences the car something chronic

Only do this if you enjoy entering a corner, having to brake and then exiting the same corner backwards.

The reason for this is the back disc brakes are considerably more effective than drum brakes and can cause the backend to lockup easily. The only way to combat that is to get a valve (which names escapes me, it's early in the morning!) and readjust the braking power back to the front

...but if you're going to do that whats the point in having rear discs. Also another bad point I quickly discovered was in the snow the rear discs can rust to the discs overnight and not want to release when you take off the handbrake. This leads to comedy dragging your back wheels along the road until they break free :eek:
 
Stonedofmoo said:
I converted my Fiesta RS Turbo to rear disc brakes. I can honestly say it's NOT worth it. There is a good reason Ford never bothered to do this, it unbalences the car something chronic

Only do this if you enjoy entering a corner, having to brake and then exiting the same corner backwards.

The reason for this is the back disc brakes are considerably more effective than drum brakes and can cause the backend to lockup easily. The only way to combat that is to get a valve (which names escapes me, it's early in the morning!) and readjust the braking power back to the front

...but if you're going to do that whats the point in having rear discs. Also another bad point I quickly discovered was in the snow the rear discs can rust to the discs overnight and not want to release when you take off the handbrake. This leads to comedy dragging your back wheels along the road until they break free :eek:
Click to expand...

I think you mean a 'BRAKE BIAS PROPORTIONING VALVE'
 
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