Brake upgrade, on the cheap...

D

Ducklakeview

Lifer
 Merseyside
Ok, so being less than impressed with the anchors in my Zed, even with new Mintex pads and dot 5.1 fluid, I've been reading on here about upgrade options.

Don't want to throw mad money at it, but it seems that the 325mm disc and caliper upgrade seems to provide worthwhile improvement?

Have read the thread on upgrade options, and it seems that the E46 330i front discs and calipers are a straight swap, I presume using the donor car brackets?

With this in mind, I've just nabbed a front pair of hubs from an E46 330CD, which are the same 325mm rotors and calipers, for £100. They'll be here tomorrow, so that's my Thursday job.. Typical that I painted my existing calipers and discs on Monday!

Anything I need to be aware of with this swap out guys/gals?

Mike
 
Ducklakeview said:
Ok, so being less than impressed with the anchors in my Zed, even with new Mintex pads and dot 5.1 fluid, I've been reading on here about upgrade options.

Don't want to throw mad money at it, but it seems that the 325mm disc and caliper upgrade seems to provide worthwhile improvement?

Have read the thread on upgrade options, and it seems that the E46 330i front discs and calipers are a straight swap, I presume using the donor car brackets?

With this in mind, I've just nabbed a front pair of hubs from an E46 330CD, which are the same 325mm rotors and calipers, for £100. They'll be here tomorrow, so that's my Thursday job.. Typical that I painted my existing calipers and discs on Monday!

Anything I need to be aware of with this swap out guys/gals?

Mike
Click to expand...

Nope straight bolt on swap. Just make sure you have the carriers too and of course buy new disks and pads
You my find you also need to bend the flange on the grit guard slightly so it doesn't touch the disk.
Small tip that if you remove the caliper you can unscrew it off the hose so don't need to disconnect it at the top first.

Nothing else needed in terms of balancing front/rear as they fitted these on facelift 3.0
 
cj10jeeper said:
Ducklakeview said:
Ok, so being less than impressed with the anchors in my Zed, even with new Mintex pads and dot 5.1 fluid, I've been reading on here about upgrade options.

Don't want to throw mad money at it, but it seems that the 325mm disc and caliper upgrade seems to provide worthwhile improvement?

Have read the thread on upgrade options, and it seems that the E46 330i front discs and calipers are a straight swap, I presume using the donor car brackets?

With this in mind, I've just nabbed a front pair of hubs from an E46 330CD, which are the same 325mm rotors and calipers, for £100. They'll be here tomorrow, so that's my Thursday job.. Typical that I painted my existing calipers and discs on Monday!

Anything I need to be aware of with this swap out guys/gals?

Mike
Click to expand...

Nope straight bolt on swap. Just make sure you have the carriers too and of course buy new disks and pads
You my find you also need to bend the flange on the grit guard slightly so it doesn't touch the disk.
Small tip that if you remove the caliper you can unscrew it off the hose so don't need to disconnect it at the top first.

Nothing else needed in terms of balancing front/rear as they fitted these on facelift 3.0
Click to expand...

Happy days. Next step would have been some grooved discs anyway, and that would have cost me as much, if not more! The discs on these look pretty new as there is no visible wear lip.

Mike
 
You'll love the results - did it on mine years ago and made a really big difference to performance and also looks, with red calipers and grooved disks filling the 18" rims much better
 
cj10jeeper said:
You'll love the results - did it on mine years ago and made a really big difference to performance and also looks, with red calipers and grooved disks filling the 18" rims much better
Click to expand...

Have you got a pic?
 
Did mine for my last MOT after getting a binding calliper. Haven't had the opportunity to notice a performance difference but love the looks :thumbsup:

You can see the silver coating hasn't been removed yet (and I haven't cleaned my wheels!).

IMG_5571.jpg
 
i currently have some 330 calipers i got off a forum member but i think im missing the carriers. i wanted to clean them up and paint them etc myself but got stumped at 1st hurdle when i couldn't remove the piston lol. haven't had a chance to sort them yet as been concentrating on wheels, as the new wheels are being fitted this weekend ill be looking into carrying on my front brake upgrade ASAP so any photos or tips etc you can offer would be good :D
 
JINGLE said:
i currently have some 330 calipers i got off a forum member but i think im missing the carriers. i wanted to clean them up and paint them etc myself but got stumped at 1st hurdle when i couldn't remove the piston lol. haven't had a chance to sort them yet as been concentrating on wheels, as the new wheels are being fitted this weekend ill be looking into carrying on my front brake upgrade ASAP so any photos or tips etc you can offer would be good :D
Click to expand...

You will need the carriers, as the calipers are bigger, and both the offset and bolt spacing are different. This will be a quick job, no more than an hour or so, as it's just a case of old caliper and carrier off, swap disc and replace with new carrier and caliper, bleed and done.

I'm going to paint these off the car first, so will get that done the night before, give it time to harden. You don't need to remove the piston, jus remove the sealing boot and mask it off.

Mike
 
the old 330 calipers i have were sitting in somebodies shed for ages so will prob need a new piston and seals so was gonna strip, clean, paint use new seals and new piston before fitting(there pretty corroded all over). i did email a few brake refurb places but as there prices were like £200+ i thought id rather just leave the job till another day and research it further and do it myself... that day is very near lol
 
cj10jeeper said:
Ducklakeview said:
So, just for future pad/disc replacement, am I ordering for a 3.0si from now on?

Mike
Click to expand...

Yes - but often cheaper to order for an E46 330D
Click to expand...

But this will only work if ordering Front replacements on their own. The rear setup is different.
 
Well, I'll use them "as is" for now, and get myself a nice set of slotted & dimpled discs & pads ordered. Thinking of EBC Greenstuff, although the rears can stay as is for now seeing as they have what look like brand new discs and Bosch pads in there..

Mike
 
JINGLE said:
the old 330 calipers i have were sitting in somebodies shed for ages so will prob need a new piston and seals so was gonna strip, clean, paint use new seals and new piston before fitting(there pretty corroded all over). i did email a few brake refurb places but as there prices were like £200+ i thought id rather just leave the job till another day and research it further and do it myself... that day is very near lol
Click to expand...
You could try big red for refurb an powered coat,
http://www.biggred.co.uk
Also search on here as someone recently used them
 
All the real data/pic is on this thread http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8399

Rear brake disc upgrade is not straight forward due to the handbrake and hub offset

A great tool for checking BMW component compatibility is http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do Then you know the parts are exactly the correct ones and will be compatible.

This was my upgrade and ................................. yes my slotted discs were fitted the wrong way round in this picture! :lol:

 
Toe-side said:
All the real data/pic is on this thread http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=8399

Rear brake disc upgrade is not straight forward due to the handbrake and hub offset

A great tool for checking BMW component compatibility is http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do Then you know the parts are exactly the correct ones and will be compatible.

This was my upgrade and ................................. yes my slotted discs were fitted the wrong way round in this picture! :lol:

Click to expand...

Is that the E46/325mm combo?

Mike
 
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