Brake Caliper marks Polo gti

[Jensonbutton]

Hi folks,

For those with gti's have you noticed a notch/cut mark on both top and bottom of your front brake calipers. I've only just noticed them on my 5dr and was thinking jeez that the paint was coming off that quickly but looking closer they are definate machined cut grooves but look as though have been done after the caliper had been painted. these marks run laterally across both top and bottom. When I get a chance will try and take a couple of pictures. Not yet asked the dealer whether this is standard. To me though seems a bit daft to go all the way of painting the caliper and then making some machine cuts into the caliper (perhaps for clearance).

JensonButton

[NMavs]

Hi mate. All cars with this setup (1.4 TSI), I.E. Skoda VRS, Ibiza cupra and the polo GTI all have these machined grooves in the calipers.

At a ruff guess i would say its related to the balancing of the caliper on the hub. But i could be completly wrong I also thought it was very strange, as it will rust over time. Was thinking about touching it in with some caliper paint.

Would be interesting to know the real reason behind this though.

[kevinctr]

Post up some photos please.

[Norbreck21a]

Be surprised if it's anything to do with balancing as the caliper doesn't rotate therefore no need to balance it ?

[Jensonbutton]

Hopefully the pics appear below.





What do people think, I had a look at a Skoda vrs which had the same calipers and it too had these cuts machined into them...

[gavs]

Not on my Australian delivered car but to me, it looks like machined clearance for something, pads maybe, but seeing as the ends of the pads aren't visible, I discounted that pretty quick....

[wildcars]

I just checked my gti, it doesn't have that groove shown..

Mine's from South Africa..

[NMavs]

Thats quite interesting that cara outside the uk dont have these marks. Every polo gti, skoda vrs and ibiza cupra / boca ive looked at have these machined grooves. I asked at vw what they are for and they seemed just as stumped as we do lol.

[gavs]

Correction, i was looking in the wrong spot! Indeed, they are present on my calipers too....

[kevinctr]

It seems to have something to do with the heat management from the brakes. Next guess will be its for some sort of expansion.