No Adapter VW Rear Calipers & Focus Rotors on a Scorpio

[DPDISXR4Ti]

My recent issues with the factory rear calipers got me thinking. What about using the VW caliper that is used on a bunch of VW/Audi applications in the 1998 - 2005 era? Given the broad coverage of this caliper, there are a few different options of caliper bracket height and offset to match different rotor sizes and offset. I currently use this caliper on the XRBrati with Scorpio bearing carriers and Focus SVT rotors. It's worked flawlessly, as it has on my Audi A4 in factory original form. I've documented this swap previously in here.

I don't think any options will exist to use this caliper with the Scorpio stock rear rotor - it's just too small - so we'd need to look at a different rotor with a 5x112 PCD. Conveniently we'd look at the same VW/Audi donors there since they also have a 5x112 PCD, just a 57.1mm hub center which would need to be bored out to 63.3mm. The lugs are 14mm rather than 12, so getting the hub pass-through hole over-bore right would be important for centering the rotor. Other 5x112 rotor options may exist in the MB world where we'd find some with 12mm lugs and 66.56mm hub centers - those could probably be hung on the lugs for centering purposes. BMW has recently switched to a 5x112 PCD but since it's a recent change (~2017) I imagine all the rotors will be too large for our purposes here.

Just getting the idea down into words while it's bubbling in my brain....

[DPDISXR4Ti]

After re-reviewing the combination of parts I used on the Brat for rear discs, it occurred to me that I should look at 2012+ 5-lug Focus rear rotors. Sure enough, they are 271mm (10.67") diameter, which I think is exactly what I need using the Jetta rear caliper bracket together with the FWD Passat rear caliper. The Focus rotors will need to be re-drilled to 5x112 but the center-bore is exactly correct at 63.4mm.

Just thought I'd get this down before I forget the details.

Here's the page where I mocked up the 10" Focus rotors with the Jetta caliper bracket. You can see why I think the later 10.67" Focus rotors might work perfectly here instead. Keep in mind, I've basically got all Scorpio stuff on the Brat, so it's all the same on a Scorpio, less the hub.
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30105&hilit=passat&start=15

[DPDISXR4Ti]

We have a solution...
2012+ Rear Focus rotor with lug holes enlarged to 11/16" (this allows a 5x108 rotor to clear the 5x112 bolt pattern on the Scorpio - center hub is 63.4mm)
1998 - 2005 FWD Passat rear calipers
1998 - 2005 Jetta rear caliper brackets

Incredibly this setup positions the caliper bracket exactly centered over the Focus rotor. No adapter, no spacer, no machining, no nothing.

Still need to finalize the plumbing, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I've got a couple off-the-shelf VAG lines I'm working with.

Note, this is actually a LH caliper on the RH (passenger) side. Fine for mock-up mounting purposes - I'll have the correct one in place when I go to figure out the flex line and e-brake. And yes, that's the original caliper still hydraulically attached, flipped up out of the way by the shock.

FocusVWScorpBrakes-1.JPG (1.02 MiB) Viewed 2931 times

FocusVWScorpBrakes-2.JPG (1019.83 KiB) Viewed 2931 times

FocusVWScorpBrakes-3.JPG (978.18 KiB) Viewed 2931 times

[DPDISXR4Ti]

FYI... if by chance you want a 11" rear rotor, the 2012+ Focus ST uses one of those and so would probably work well with the slightly taller Passat caliper bracket (thus you could get caliper and bracket from same donor). The offset on that bracket is a little different so a spacer of some unknown thickness would probably be required. A washer or two might suffice.

I'll stick with the common 10.67" base Focus rotor I'm showing here. That'll work fine for my needs.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

That's pretty cool you can do it with easy to find parts, and nothing special required or anything.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

That's pretty cool you can do it with easy to find parts, and nothing special required or anything.

One of my goals when searching for alternate parts for these cars is to use something that can be found at the Podunk, South Dakota AutoZone on a Sunday night. It'll be neat if I can find a flex line that mates up to the factory hard line without modification. But if not, I'm not adverse to modifying the hard line and putting a new bubble flare on it. That's what I did when I used these calipers on the XR...

[brokencase]

Good to know for that day when Rockauto no longer sells Scorpio rear rotors for $10 each...

I don't think I want go to all the trouble just so I can get parts locally..

I know..I know...we had this conversation before...

What is the emergency brake situation?

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Good to know for that day when Rockauto no longer sells Scorpio rear rotors for $10 each...

That was not the primary driver. The primary driver was the seizure-prone rear caliper and it's lack of availability. Details on that here...
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=38583&p=334201&hil ... er#p334201

What is the emergency brake situation?

Works totally fine with the VW caliper. The only thing you need to do is open up the thru-hole on the e-brake mechanism from about 1/2" to 9/16". That's easily done with a hand-drill and one of those step drill bits. I've been running this on the XR for a few years now so I was able to "re-use" some of my knowledge from that swap here given that I'm running Scorpio STA & bearing carrier there. Link to that whole process here...
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30105&hilit=passat

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Hydraulics solved. I did this a little different than I did on the XR since the hard-line along the STA is a little different. In this case (on the Scorpio), I've left that hard-line unmodified (MPM sells SS replacements if needed). 1998-99 VW Passat rear flex line together with fabricated ~2.5" Male-Male hard line goes right into stock hard-line on Scorpio STA. That's about as short of a line as you can make with the typical bubble-end flaring kit. Conveniently, that solved the gender problem and the problem of the Passat line being a little short. Note, this flex line is only used on the '98/99 Passat, VAG p/n 8E0 611 775 J, but it's readily available from the after-market or VW dealer.

ScorpioPassatBrkLines-1.JPG (1.15 MiB) Viewed 2875 times

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Done, but not without some final issues. There was some corrosion build-up on the hub of the parts car I used for mockup, and that left me convinced that the VW caliper located perfectly over the Focus rotor. On the production vehicle, I immediately realized this when I bolted things up, only to find the rotor bound up with the caliper bracket. As it turned out, I needed to take .230" off the mounting pads for the caliper bracket to get it centered over the rotor. Once that was done, all was good and everything went as planned. Works well.

ScorpioVW-FocusBrake-1.JPG (1 MiB) Viewed 2786 times

ScorpioVW-FocusBrake-2.JPG (944.67 KiB) Viewed 2786 times

ScorpioVW-FocusBrake-3.JPG (1.02 MiB) Viewed 2786 times

[DPDISXR4Ti]

One final comment.... Stock 15" wheel and the after-market one I run the snows on just barely clear the caliper. The factory spare wheel/tire however does NOT clear. See new topic on fitting a 16" spare. Had I gone with the larger (11") Focus ST rear rotor, I doubt that would have cleared any 15" wheel.