300mm ST170 brake upgrade

ChrisM

Well-known user
Apr 12, 2007
198
0
Berkshire
Some of youÔÇÖs may or may not be aware but the 300mm brake upgrade is really easy to do and I feel itÔÇÖs really worthwhile for the effort evolved, a lot of mk2 ST Mondeo owners do this upgrade but IÔÇÖm not aware of many Cougar owners doing it, I thought I'd do it since I was replacing my brake pads and discs anyway. I let my brakes bed in before I put up some pictures. IÔÇÖve now done over 500 miles now with my new brake set-up and so far no problems what so ever. (well since finishing them, had a problem with the rear calliper and hand brake cable when I was changing the brakes)

I got a pair of brake callipers from an Mk3 Mondeo from EBay for ?ú60 including delivery, it was a guy breaking a 53 plate TDCI, and I painted them with red high temperature enamel paint. Then got discÔÇÖs 300mm disc for a Focus ST170, (you canÔÇÖt use the Mondeo discs as they have 5 stud hubs). I got 300mm EDC turbo grove disc for the ST170 with EDC red stuff pads for the Mk3 Mondeo and black diamond braded hose lines from Active, send him a PM for a up to date price, I sure heÔÇÖll get you a great deal. Really fast service too! Thanks again Active!

Heres the before picture:
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And heres the after picture:
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The observant amongst you will notice I also fitted Eibach springs at the same time.

Heres the brakes with the ST170 wheel on. (I know they need cleaned, and they are kurbed, I would blame someone else for them being kurbed but I'm the only one that drives the car):
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Good news the standard wheels fit over the brakes, but the space saver wont. If I kept the space saver in the boot and got a flat I would have to move the back wheel to the front and put the space saver on the back, but I desided to keep one of the standard wheels in the boot well. I felt it would be a lot better to use the full size wheel than the space saver. Just that extra weight might have a an effect on the fuel consumption, will need to go on a diet, nah!

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I also changed my back brakes at the same time with EDC turbo grove discs and EDC green stuff pads and the black diamond hoses, again, thanks to Active. Since I was changing the brake lines I also changed the brake fluid from DOT4 to DOT5.1. Old brake fluid was a horrible colour, I was sure I took a picture of it but cant find it.

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I canÔÇÖt really comment on the difference between the standard brakes to this setup, as my brakes previously were so bad any change would have been an improvement.

The front callipers need to be spaced out to fit over the ST170 disc, from the mondeo forums they say using 3mm thick washers, but it was so hard for me to get 3mm thick washers. I went to a number iron mongers around Glasgow and all I could get was 1mm and 1.5mm thick washers. Which was a good thing in the end, cause for me the spacing was different for every bolt. From memory I used two 1mm washers on the bottom bolt and two 1.5mm on the top bolt. But when I measured the two 1.5mm washers with a micrometer they measured 2.78mm not 3mm. So washers donÔÇÖt need to be that accurate, just to shim out the calliper enough so the disc doesnÔÇÖt touch the calliper when it spins.

Heres the finished cat with new brakes with eibach lowering springs
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Chris, thank you for sharing the photos, the 300mm discs look great, they look perfect on the Cougar... :D

Good work... 8)
 
Big improvement Chris. 8)

I take it you need to get the MkII Mondeo brake caliper mount at the same time as the calipers? :eek:

What is that stuck to the boot, on the offside?
 
Stewart said:
Big improvement Chris. 8)

I take it you need to get the MkII Mondeo brake caliper mount at the same time as the calipers? :eek:

What is that stuck to the boot, on the offside?

Super high strength lasers 8)
 
Stewart said:
Big improvement Chris. 8)

I take it you need to get the MkII Mondeo brake caliper mount at the same time as the calipers? :eek:

What is that stuck to the boot, on the offside?

No you donÔÇÖt use the MK2 mounts. ItÔÇÖs the calliper and calliper carrier from the MK3. I bought them complete with the carriers.

ItÔÇÖs an antenna mount on my boot lid. ItÔÇÖs where I can plug in an extra aerial. It goes to a radio in the boot.

M44TY O said:
2 questions.

Are all ST170 Discs 300mm as standard?

Will all MK3 Mondy calipers work with this set up?

Cheers.

Yeh all ST170 have 300mm disc, and so do all the MK3 Mondeos, well I'm not sure about the Mondeo ST220. I thought they might be bigger. But I was told that any MK3 Mondeo calliper would work. The ones I used were from a 53 plate TDCI. Was told the ST170 wonÔÇÖt fit, because the carrier attaches to hub differently.

Thought this would be a sensible upgrade as Ford thought it necessary to put 300mm disc on the ST170 that has similar power to a v6 cougar but has less torque and is lighter. I just made it better by using the turbo grove discs and red stuff pads. Plus having the braded hoses will help.

From the chart in Halfords, it says that MK3 Mondeos, ST170, ST24, and ST200 all use DOT 5.1 brake fluid where the V6 cougar uses DOT 4 even although itÔÇÖs the same brakes as the ST24, ST200. DonÔÇÖt know if thatÔÇÖs the way ford had it or if the chart was wrong. But I changed to DOT 5.1 anyway as IÔÇÖm using MK3 brakes. When I drained the brake system I was glad I did, I donÔÇÖt think it had been changed before. It looked clear in the reservoir but when it was all out it was greeny-black colour with loads of gunk, when it all settled, the bottom of the jar had grit and oil at the bottom and got lighter coloured further up the jar.
 
This may be a silly question but ....
did you only upgrade the front calipers?
 
Stewart said:
This may be a silly question but ....
did you only upgrade the front calipers?

Yeh the rears are the standard cougar callipers, just edc discs and green stuff pads.
 
So after having this set up for nearly a month, is there a noticable difference in the braking?
 
So after having this set up for nearly a month, is there a noticable difference in the braking?

Sorry not been on the site in a while, wow its changed!

At first I wouldn't have said that there was much difference, but thatÔÇÖs because I wasn't doing any hard braking. But a few weeks ago I had to make an emergences stop.. WOW that hurt my face! I broke so hard the rear seats fell open with the weight of the sub against them. The seats were locked in place before hand and its only a 12inch sub in a small box not that heavy.

Since that incident, IÔÇÖve been stamping on the brakes quiet heavily to see how quickly I can stop, and they are brilliant, found that thereÔÇÖ slight play in the driverÔÇÖs seat as I can get it to move forward a wee bit when I brake hard.

I think its a good thing that I never noticed the brakes being any different at first keeping a OEM feel. My friends Nissan pulsar has 360mm discs 4 pot Willwood brakes, and his braking is all or nothing, horrible when driving normal, only good for the track.

IÔÇÖve got a lot of confidence in my brakes now, found myself changing my braking points on my favourite roads over the past few weeks, so they are much better than the previous brakes and cars IÔÇÖve driven.