Brakes for a 98' 306xsi

[gc xsi]

just wanting to know if any one has tips for upgrading the brakes on a 98 xsi 5 door hatch??? recently bought some sick tyres $1400 worth of super sticky fun and wanting to match them with some stopping power. just get decent pads, rotors and pads or what? cheers.

[MYRUSH]

Hiya, an easy upgrade you can do is 406 calipers, discs and pads. Or even 306 GTI-6 brakes if you can get your hands on some.
I will have some 406 brakes for sale in about 2 months (Give or take) if you are interested

[BigPete]

406 brakes are the wrong offset for 306 hubs.

What do you intend doing with the car? Is it a race car?

[gc xsi]

no not a race car, have plans for that though. rear pads need replacing for next wof so im thinking of spending some money and get some quality stopping power, DBA calipers and ZNOELLI pads? may have found a full brembo package for it too bit pricy but i do have plans for the engine so brakes would be useful haha.

[MYRUSH]

I think you just need the original 306 carriers and aftermarket wheels for 406 brakes.

I am getting Brembos for my car and should also be an easy fit for a 306. They are coming from UK, if you are interested I can get you a pair of calipers and we could combine shipping?
What kind of wheels do you have?

[CaM]

do XSI run the same brakes as all us 205 foamers love to fit to our cars? I can't recall.
If they do, just make sure you've got good rotors. If not get a set of brembo replacements, some good fluid, and have a google around and see what people are running pads-wise these days.
I'm running 306 front brakes. Mine are from a GTi-6. Got brand new brembo rotors, and running Mintex 1155. I haven't even got them hot enough to make a stink at this stage. They seem like massive overkill for an interior-less 205 with Mi16 engine.
After running Mintex 1144 on stock brakes previously, I perhaps should have gone for 1144 pads again but I thought I'd take the plunge. They're hands down the grubbiest pads I've EVER run on a vehicle to date. Make sooooooo much brake dust.
This doesn't bother me, however some people like to have clean wheels

[Mungous]

I've been down this road before. What you need to do is take every dollar you plan to spend on upgrading the XSi and putting it in a box. When you have enough money in the box to upgrade to a GTi-6, then buy the best GTi-6 you can find. Then upgrade that. Peugeot spent untold millions in making the GTi-6 better than the XSi - take advantage of that expenditure and don't waste your money on polishing a turd. Believe me, otherwise eventually you'll realise you've spent enough money on upgrading the XSi that you could have bought a GTi-6, and your car still won't be as good as a GTi-6!!

[MYRUSH]

^Couldn't have said it any better!!!
Like myself, had plans to upgrade lots of stuff on my 2l 406 to make it faster instead I bought a better, newer, lower ks V6 for less than I sold the other car. Saved me heap$$$$

[CaM]

different strokes. XSis are plenty nice cars
If we all pushed for the same thing then I wouldn't have a 205 I've spent way more time and money on making it not as good as a 306gti6 or a gti180 or whatevz.

[MYRUSH]

^but you wouldn't have done the same work to a 205 gr for example as you did to your own 205? Instead you waited til a GTi came along as its a better starting point and probably more money effecient for a same or better result. I think that's what mungous is trying to say, right?

[Mungous]

Yep. You can't beat the factory upgrades - I had two lesser BXs that I tried to make go faster. Spent silly money on minor improvements. Should have just bought a 16v from the start.

It is an easy trap to fall into though - my GT and GTi were cheap to buy, and the regular small expenditures seemed sensible at the time. But, in retrospect, I wasted a lot of money compared to just buying the best BX available.

A $1500 306XSi plus $1500 worth of seemingly cheap upgrades (+$100 +$150 +$50 +$200 +$100 +$300 +$100 etc) will still be nowhere near as good as a GTi-6 for $3000.

Although you do learn a lot by carrying out upgrades, so you can always include the value of experience!

[2052NV]

I think with your senario all you need/want is some better pads (new discs if they are needed) and decent brake fluid (much cheaper than buying a new car!  )

XSI is a good car just not worth spending 1000's to make it real fast, better starting with a gti-6 is what everyone is trying to say. But its well worth doing a few things to make the XSI better.

Ring this guy http://www.znoelli.co.nz/ for some really good pads at not a bad price (remember you get what you pay for with upgrade aftermarket car parts). He had pads for my 205 in stock!

or try these people for some EBC pads http://www.ebcbrakes.co.nz/. Not quite as good as Znoelli pads but are a good price.

Get some discs if yours are worn. Dont fall into the trap of buying flash drilled/slotted brembo ones for millions of dollars. Standard OEM discs work just as well as brembo units with good aftermarket pads.

Then buy some good Dot 5 fluid and get these guys to put the new pads in and do a full brake fluid flush http://www.peugeotmechanic.co.nz/

Next step will be braided hoses....