Citroen DS5 - Wheels and brakes

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Tue 18 Aug 2015 23:46
Citroen DS5 - Wheels and brakes - drd63

So after 67,000 I needed new front discs & pads on the DS5. When I turned up at the garage they had the wrong set, quickly rectified so no problem, however it turned out that because I'd specced 18" wheels instead of the standard 17" the brakes had been up sized as well. I've always found the brakes on the DS superb and they do fill the wheel but assume the standard brakes also to be well up to the job. My question is do most manufacturers do this (I do see a lot of cars with big wheels and disproportionately small discs) and if so is it for cosmetic reasons.

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Wed 19 Aug 2015 08:00
Citroen DS5 - Wheels and brakes - Simon
I can't see that they would uprate the brakes because you had bigger wheels fitted. It sounds like waffle to me as an excuse as to why they had the wrong parts ready to fit.
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Wed 19 Aug 2015 08:35
Citroen DS5 - Wheels and brakes - RT

Many cars that have bigger rims as a "bling" option also have smaller rims specified for their winter tyres, important in parts of mainland Europe.

I'm in the process of buying a new VW Touareg - the SE, which I've ordered sits on 19" rims, with 18" on the Escape and 20" on the R-Line - all can be ordered with 21" bling wheels but for all models it's 17" specified for winter tyres available as an accessory.

So, on this car at least, the brakes are the same size whether 17/18/19/20/21" wheels are fitted.

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Wed 19 Aug 2015 09:40
Citroen DS5 - Wheels and brakes - skidpan

On the Seat Leon TSI 1.2 and 1.4 regardless of trim (S, SE, FR) you get the same brakes despite the different trims having 15", 16" or 17" wheels. Move up to the 1.8 TSI and you get bigger brakes.

From memory on the BMW 1 series circa 2008 you got exactly the same brakes regardless of engine and trim unless you bought the 123i M Sport which did have bigger brakes meaning you were restricted on winter tyre/wheel sizes.

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