Front brake upgrade options

[shuey]

Can someone advise on front brake upgrade options for z4 coupe?

I’m thinking of upgrading my current front discs / pads and possibly callipers.

Currently I have OE Brembo grooved discs, with standard Brembo pads, using original BMW callipers.

I won’t be tracking the car, but I want a decent level of performance for mountain rod driving.

I think I might have warped discs up front as after a bit of heavy braking, I get a fair bit of brake judder. Not looking to spend thousands but have a decent budget to play with.

Also how many pot callipers are in the z4 coupe front? Are they 4 pot or two pot?

 

[mjennings23]

The standard brakes are a 325mm rotor with a single piston floating caliper system. For the weight and speed of the car, they should be more than good enough when combined with decent rotors and, more importantly, high friction pads and good fluid if you're concerned about performance.

If you want to upgrade, probably the easiest big upgrade is Porsche 996 Turbo calipers with adaptor brackets and new fluid pipes combined with 345mm M3CSL disks, looking around £1k probably (Disks are around £250 a set, brackets £120, lines £70ish, then some second hand calipers and a refurb if you wanted)

Consider if its really necessary though, as you're then adding more unsprung mass to the front wheels plus the stock wheels will not fit over 4 pot calipers without spacers (and thus more mass again)

 

[mmm-five]

Z4 calipers are single-sided, single-piston (on the back of the disk).

This is why double-sided, multi-piston caliper upgrades may require a spacer (need more space for the outer pistons).

The easiest upgrade would be decent fluid and good bleed (to remove sponginess) and fast road/pads (I use quite expensive Pagid RS29, which are a track pad, but work fine on the road - but there are similar pads at lower price points that I haven't tried myself). Hard driving on standard road pads may leave pad deposits behind, which could feel like warped discs.

 

[ph001]

The 325mm discs fitted the 3.0Si should be good enough for any fast road driving imho. The pads are the key component... see if you can hunt down some performance friction .11 compound for the fronts at least. Part code:

Z4 3.0Si

Front: Performance Friction 0558.11
Rear: Performance Friction 0396.11

If could well be that you have uneven pad deposits on your existing discs which feels like warped discs. You could try rubbing them down with emery cloth to remove the deposits.

 

[Darkangelv2]

As above - 99% of the time brake judder is down to material deposits on the disc rather than warping. Definitely worth getting the wheels off and checking

 

[yg54sg]

I found the biggest difference made is renewing the rubbing around the sliding pins pedal feels more solid.

 

[PDJ]

The other thing to bear in mind is that most of the time brake fade is caused by early and lighter use of the brakes and trailing the brakes into the corner therefore longer time for heat to build up.

So some people who race or track day their cars will say use this or that pad their style or brake use is very different, as their are on the brakes or off the brakes

Most people think they can drive fast but trust me you need to sit next to a pro driver on a race track you are thrown forwards more from braking that you are pushed into the seat. Even in the likes or Caterham R500’s and Radical SR8

If you know all about the above fine if you have never been on a track day try an airfield day and pay for some proper tuition you will be shocked as to what you and your car in standard for can do.