Brake upgrades - what are my options

M

marriedblonde

Member
The brakes on my Coupe are ok but sometimes lacking during a spirited drive.

What are my options for upgrading? I've got a 2007 Sport Coupe. Can I get away with discs/pads or do I need to go for 4 pots?

My car is mainly used on the road but I do plan to do the occasional track day (but I haven't so far in 12 months of ownership!)

J.
 
thegrape said:
Ive heard that the one thing that lets Bimmers down is the brakes...Id also be interested...
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Beg to differ. If there is a strength that BMW's (newer ones) have, it is their brakes. Z4's have excellent brakes.

I use for daily driving Axxis Ultimates, for road course (HPDE's) Hawk is very good.
 
I just switched in EBS green pads and they perform perfectly for me, but that's road use only.

I'm sure Curtis will be along soon and have a good suggestion on track biased upgrades.
 
you DO NOT need 4pot. if you throw em on, it'd be purely a bling factor and any improved feel would be coming from your butt. =)

upgrade to better pads. the only good thing bout oem pads is that they don't dust but if u upgrade to a better biting pad, most likely will see more dust and less life on pads/rotors. but also keep in mind the tires are the first point of contact on the road. if you feel the car doesn't come to a complete stop fast enough, you may want to consider upgrading your rubbers.

big brakes come in handy when dealing with fade issues on the track. you won't have fade issues in your spirited driving.
 
20ducks said:
thegrape said:
Ive heard that the one thing that lets Bimmers down is the brakes...Id also be interested...
Click to expand...

Beg to differ. If there is a strength that BMW's (newer ones) have, it is their brakes. Z4's have excellent brakes.

I use for daily driving Axxis Ultimates, for road course (HPDE's) Hawk is very good.
Click to expand...

i used ultimates on my other cars. great pads but they wear out way too fast. not fan of the hawk. see if carbotech has an application for our cars. those are hands down best pads for street app imo.
 
There are loads of options, it just depends how far you want to go.

As a first step upgrade the pads, fit braided hoses and use a good quality brake fluid. That should give you a much firmer pedal and better stopping power for general road use and will help at the track for a few laps before they overheat!

You can upgrade to M3/CSL brakes as the next step up but I've never understood the point as the cost can be as much as fitting a BBK.

If you decide you want to go further you could fit a front BBK and simply upgrade the pads in the rear. This works well as the fronts do the vast majority of the braking anyway, upgrading the rear pads still gives you a good balance between front and rear.

As the ultimate upgrade you can fit a front and rear BBK. I did this early on and I can honestly say it was one of the best mods I made. My one mistake was to try doing a track day on the road pads that were supplied with the kit. Ferodo 2500's if I remember rightly. These overheated within 5 laps of Donnington! Nowadays I use Pagid RS29's for the track and Ferodo's for road use. Having said that I've left the Pagids in due to lazyness after a track day and they work fine on the road but they don't opperate to their full potential until they heat up.

I have to admit I'm very hard on the brakes at track days so perhaps you won't need to go to such extremes but I strongly believe in the saying " it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it"!

As someone mentioned already, all the braking effort in the world is useless unless you have a means to transfer it to the ground so tyres are critical. I use PS Cups on the track. Again like the pads they work brilliantly once they reach peak temperature.

Remember the number one rule of heavy braking ( apart from only do it when your travelling in a straight line ). Rather than just standing on the brake pedal which will either lock up the brakes or trigger the ABS, use a double pressure approach. As you enter the braking zone firstly apply light pressure to the pedal, this will shift the weight of the car onto the front, at this point you can apply full pressure to the pedal and avoid lock up. That's when a BBK really shows it's worth!
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I'm running bridgestone RE050's all round now which I quite like and they seem to have decent grip (although tyre life is not great - to be expected)

With the standard set up I dont have much confidence, they are great initially but lack bite quite quickly during a fast b-road blast. So I'd like something with a bit more bite. From the sounds of it upgraded pads/braided hoses and fluid are the way forward initally.
J.
 
Curtis said:
There are loads of options, it just depends how far you want to go.

SNIP

Remember the number one rule of heavy braking ( apart from only do it when your travelling in a straight line ). Rather than just standing on the brake pedal which will either lock up the brakes or trigger the ABS, use a double pressure approach. As you enter the braking zone firstly apply light pressure to the pedal, this will shift the weight of the car onto the front, at this point you can apply full pressure to the pedal and avoid lock up. That's when a BBK really shows it's worth!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed reply Curtis, appreciate your comments!

J.
 
Perhaps I should have been more specific. It's better to upgrade to a fluid that's superior to the OEM, not inferior.
 
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