How-to: Cheap brake upgrade

[Shooter]

Managed to do this little project this afternoon, so a few photos of the change:

Very nice !

Does this mean that you now have a pair of original 3.0i carrier on your hands ?

[cj10jeeper]

Managed to do this little project this afternoon, so a few photos of the change:

Very nice !

Does this mean that you now have a pair of original 3.0i carrier on your hands ?

Yes - it does. Calipers and carriers for the OEM 300mm vented disc set up (and I have new EBC pads and the old discs too, not that they should be used)
Someone has expressed an interest, but if you want them PM me with an offer.

[Shooter]

OK, in case that "someone" has no more interest in them, i do.
I'll get back to you with an offer (only problem will be the shipping to France...).

[Curtis]

I'd be interested Curtis, if I knew what I'll be doing with my Z4 in a couple of weeks
I bet someone here will be able to give you more for them than I would though, and sooner.

I'm not in any rush, I have to check out what I have anyway. It should all be there but it's been over two years since I swapped it all so who knows! I'll let you know.

[cj10jeeper]

So for the first time since the upgrade I tried my handbrake in the drive and well it didn't have one... I could have stopped the car better by putting my foot on the ground outside the door

So set about adjusting it in the recommended way. Remove a wheel bolt, find the adjuster by revolving the wheel and then click it until the wheel won't rotate then back off 9 clicks. Oh sure p*ss around with a screwdriver down a 2" bolt hole flick the adjuster wheel round uncertain if it's getting tighter or looser. Well it's functional now and will overcome the auto on tickover, but I'm not happy with the result and it was cold and getting dark. Anyone a better method? Perhaps take the wheel off to ease access??

[ZetaTre]

Isn't that the most absurb way to adjust a parkind brake??!!!

Well, the Z4 is actually MUCH MUCH easyer than the Z3: at least there is right-left cable equalizer. It took me a solid 3 hrs to fix the parking brake on the Z3 as it was keep pulling to one side or the other...

Maybe cutting a slot in the shield to gain access from the rear could have made it easyer...

[cj10jeeper]

Isn't that the most absurb way to adjust a parkind brake??!!!

Well, the Z4 is actually MUCH MUCH easyer than the Z3: at least there is right-left cable equalizer. It took me a solid 3 hrs to fix the parking brake on the Z3 as it was keep pulling to one side or the other...

Maybe cutting a slot in the shield to gain access from the rear could have made it easyer...

Yes - it would have. Other cars have slots in the rear cover plate, or exposed adjusters to work with. This is just devious.

On a more upbeat note the discs are now somewhat bedded in and for a mere 25mm diameter increase (yes I know as a percentage it's a lot bigger and the greater leverage and much bigger calipers and pads, etc) the improvement in braking performance is quite outstanding. On a longer run I've consistenly ended up overbraking and having to 'lift off' as I was falling 10 to 20 metres short of traffic lights even from fairly low speeds. It's like someone is increasing the braking effort I'm applying to the pedal. Some way to go yet before I ask them to truly deliver and I can feel if the front to rear balance is right (it shoudl be as it's identical to the newer 3.0Si), but a seriously worthwhile upgrade

[Shooter]

Done mine !
So, i got the brake carriers from cj10jeeper (thanks again, man !), originally from his 3.0i, then i got 300 mm slotted rotors from EBC and Redstuff pads, and everything just fit perfectly.
This setup still fits in the original 16" rims of the 2.5i.

[cj10jeeper]

Done mine !
So, i got the brake carriers from cj10jeeper (thanks again, man !), originally from his 3.0i, then i got 300 mm slotted rotors from EBC and Redstuff pads, and everything just fit perfectly.
This setup still fits in the original 16" rims of the 2.5i.

Cool - glad you got it all done

[RichardG]

Hardest part of this upgrade is tracking the parts down, I have spent the last 2 days trying to find to find 330 calipers and come up lacking, I did manage to find one set at a breakers, 'how much are they' I asked, 'don't know' was the reply 'the boss is in hospital can you ring back tomorrow when we've had a chance to ask him' phoned back the following day '£50 a corner' they told me, 'great I said, can you send them to me' 'don't know we'll have to ask the boss and he's still in hospital'.

Then to cap it all the company I'd ordered the disc's and pads through phoned to me say they rears were out of stock and had no idea when they would have some, have now resigned myself to replacing like for like be it with EBC components.

I might look at doing it again later but go the whole hog and look at multi piston calipers.

[Mr Whippy]

I honestly don't think the 325mm's are needed really, I wouldn't go after them unless you feel the 300mm's are lacking on good new pads/discs and fluid, lets put it that way.

I'm surprised the 300mm setup fit under 16" wheels though, I was after some of those as temp wheels locally for £100, would have done the trick but I didn't think they would fit, hey ho

[RichardG]

I honestly don't think the 325mm's are needed really, I wouldn't go after them unless you feel the 300mm's are lacking on good new pads/discs and fluid, lets put it that way.

I'm surprised the 300mm setup fit under 16" wheels though, I was after some of those as temp wheels locally for £100, would have done the trick but I didn't think they would fit, hey ho

Your right, they probably are not needed and probably a bit of overkill, but I was only looking at doing it as I need to change the discs anyway, and as I have the 2.5 which only has 284mm discs and to go to 300mm discs would still have meant new carriers, so I just thought lets go the whole hog if I can get the bits, easier said than done as I've now found out.

I think your right about the 16" wheels but they should go in17" ones.

[Mr Whippy]

Ah sorry, thought you had the 300mm's already and a 3.0

Not sure what the 2.5 ones will be like then... probably worth an upgrade as they are still capable of the same kinda speeds still pretty quickly

[cj10jeeper]

Having done the conversion I can say it's night and day between them. Also remember that BMW thought it worth the upgrade from the 3.0SE to the 3.0Si

If you are at the point hat you need new discs and pads then it's a conversion that can be done for £100 so has to be worth it.

I have a 16" spare and it fits the rears that are IIRC 294mm but not the 325mm front. I'll need a 17", except that 90% of flats are on the rear anyway.

[ZetaTre]

16" rims clear anything below 300mm. That's the setup I have in my car