New brakes

[ATPDK]

Hello,

I have read a lot in here about new brakes for a Z4 E85 3.0i.
But I would like a fresh perspective here in 2019...

First of all, cars here in Denmark costs a fortune and you first born, so I would like to maintain and keep the car in an original shape.
BUT on the other hand - standard brakes are pretty weak.

So I'm wondering, if I can get some better brake discs and some better pads (that gives LESS dust!) than standard.
I just require, that the brakes are standard size.

It is for the roads only - so just a bit better brakes would be preferably.

Any opinions and experiences?

 

[mmm-five]

What is your definition of 'weak'? Answering that might give us an idea of what you're trying to achieve.

• Is it 'lack of bite'?
• Is it 'lack of fade resistance'?
• Is it 'too much dust'?
• Is it 'soft pedal'?

Some/most of these can be rectified with just better pads & fluid - other traits might require different discs, calipers, brake hoses.

 

[ATPDK]

What is your definition of 'weak'? Answering that might give us an idea of what you're trying to achieve.

• Is it 'lack of bite'?
• Is it 'lack of fade resistance'?
• Is it 'too much dust'?
• Is it 'soft pedal'?

Some/most of these can be rectified with just better pads & fluid - other traits might require different discs, calipers, brake hoses.

Mostly like not enough bite.
They are already well maintained with fresh fluid.

Besides, it is time to change the brakes - the light came on.
Therefore I'm looking into new discs and pads for the front.

I'm a bit hooked at Brembo brakes, but not so sure that they still stands for good quality like "in the old days".

 

[MACK]

Brembo are still a top noch brand so no worries there.
Upgrade wise, it would appear BMW themselves recognized that the 300mm standard brakes on the pre facelift 3.0i weren't quite cutting it. Hence on the post facelift 3.0 cars these were upgraded to 330mm. Its a popular upgrade many owners have done if their zed came with smaller brakes as its only involves a swap of caliper and carriers and new discs of course! Its easy to source the parts as they're the same as the e46 330i/d bits. Brake pad wise you can get low dust pads such as textar (who are an OEM BMW supplier) Epad. A word of caution though, although they do stop the car very well they lack the initial bite of the regular type of pad so if you like that you'd be better sticking with a normal type of compound. I have first hand experience of this as I've done both the 330mm caliper upgrade and fitted the Textar Epads when I did. They definitely dont have the bite of the Pagid pads (standard compound) they replaced but that said the car stops well, better than it did on the 300mm setup. Brake dust is also greatly diminished and what there is comes off a hell of a lot easier than the standard stuff

 

[ATPDK]

Brembo are still a top noch brand so no worries there.
Upgrade wise, it would appear BMW themselves recognized that the 300mm standard brakes on the pre facelift 3.0i weren't quite cutting it. Hence on the post facelift 3.0 cars these were upgraded to 330mm. Its a popular upgrade many owners have done if their zed came with smaller brakes as its only involves a swap of caliper and carriers and new discs of course! Its easy to source the parts as they're the same as the e46 330i/d bits. Brake pad wise you can get low dust pads such as textar (who are an OEM BMW supplier) Epad. A word of caution though, although they do stop the car very well they lack the initial bite of the regular type of pad so if you like that you'd be better sticking with a normal type of compound. I have first hand experience of this as I've done both the 330mm caliper upgrade and fitted the Textar Epads when I did. They definitely dont have the bite of the Pagid pads (standard compound) they replaced but that said the car stops well, better than it did on the 300mm setup. Brake dust is also greatly diminished and what there is comes off a hell of a lot easier than the standard stuff

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences.
Can you tell me, if the mounting/fixing point is the same for the upgraded calipers (330 mm)? I mean - do I need some sort of spacer to make it fit? Of course som bigger discs!

 

[LittleZ4]

If you're upgrading to what is basically the 3.0si set up by using the set up from the BMW 330, then no. You need the calipers and carriers (obviously associated discs and pads)
I've done this on mine, fully rebuilt fronts, including braided lines front and back. Feels much better, looks better too

The rears from the 330's can't be used......unless you can find a way to make the handbrake work.

Hope that helps.

 

[MACK]

Brembo are still a top noch brand so no worries there.
Upgrade wise, it would appear BMW themselves recognized that the 300mm standard brakes on the pre facelift 3.0i weren't quite cutting it. Hence on the post facelift 3.0 cars these were upgraded to 330mm. Its a popular upgrade many owners have done if their zed came with smaller brakes as its only involves a swap of caliper and carriers and new discs of course! Its easy to source the parts as they're the same as the e46 330i/d bits. Brake pad wise you can get low dust pads such as textar (who are an OEM BMW supplier) Epad. A word of caution though, although they do stop the car very well they lack the initial bite of the regular type of pad so if you like that you'd be better sticking with a normal type of compound. I have first hand experience of this as I've done both the 330mm caliper upgrade and fitted the Textar Epads when I did. They definitely dont have the bite of the Pagid pads (standard compound) they replaced but that said the car stops well, better than it did on the 300mm setup. Brake dust is also greatly diminished and what there is comes off a hell of a lot easier than the standard stuff

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences.
Can you tell me, if the mounting/fixing point is the same for the upgraded calipers (330 mm)? I mean - do I need some sort of spacer to make it fit? Of course som bigger discs!

As the response above, its just the calipers and their carriers you need. disc wise its the standard 330i/d discs as they're exactly the same as the 3.0si ones. basically the front hub on a e85 is the exactly the same as the e46 so its all a straight swap over. I paired brembo discs with the textar epad, simply because brembo doesnt do a low dust pad. I have to admit I have contemplated fitting the standard brembo pads just to see how much more bite etc they give, but haven't got around to it. I would certainly miss the low dust factor though!

 

[mjennings23]

Personal opinion, I'm using EBC yellow pads with plain disks (pagid or brembo, can't remember now) and they are more than enough for enthusiastic driving.

The bite is okay cold, no worse than a standard road pad, but with a bit more heat they become very sharp. Combine this with high quality fluid (ATE TYP200) and I can't say I've ever felt a need to upgrade to 330mm fronts. The whole idea of brakes is to have enough braking ability with minimal weight, fitting bigger disks naturally increases weight and, as it's unsprung mass, technically it has a much larger bearing on performance than sprung mass.

 

[paulc_bkk]

I have Porsche brembos with Z4M discs.... stops really well, but the pads (EBC) are really dusty

Recently clay-barred the car and the front wheel arches were covered in drake dust

The e46 330 upgrade with decent pads is a great upgrade and much cheaper than anything bigger

 

[Hutch]

I currently have the 3.0L 2003 model.

I’ve just started the process of upgrading my brakes to be the same as that on the 3.0si based on what I’ve read on the forum.

So far I’ve brought the following;

E46 330i front callipers & carries (used locally to me £50) - see pictures below as I had to soak these in vinger for about a week to remove the rust and grime

300mm rear and 325mm front drilled/groved/vented disks from the MTEC website.

EBC redstuff - for front and back (from MTEC Also)

It’s cost me around £330 so far (including callipers). However I’m getting both front and rear cappilers professionally painted M racing blue which will likely cost me another 50-100.

Should be installed in the next week or so. Once it’s all done I’ll post the pisctures up

 

[ben g]

My mtec drilled and grooved discs and textar e-pads are perfectly fine on my 3.0i 8)

The e-pads give out hardly any dust, which is always a bonus

 

[ben g]

Brembo are still a top noch brand so no worries there.
Upgrade wise, it would appear BMW themselves recognized that the 300mm standard brakes on the pre facelift 3.0i weren't quite cutting it. Hence on the post facelift 3.0 cars these were upgraded to 330mm. Its a popular upgrade many owners have done if their zed came with smaller brakes as its only involves a swap of caliper and carriers and new discs of course! Its easy to source the parts as they're the same as the e46 330i/d bits. Brake pad wise you can get low dust pads such as textar (who are an OEM BMW supplier) Epad. A word of caution though, although they do stop the car very well they lack the initial bite of the regular type of pad so if you like that you'd be better sticking with a normal type of compound. I have first hand experience of this as I've done both the 330mm caliper upgrade and fitted the Textar Epads when I did. They definitely dont have the bite of the Pagid pads (standard compound) they replaced but that said the car stops well, better than it did on the 300mm setup. Brake dust is also greatly diminished and what there is comes off a hell of a lot easier than the standard stuff

Surprised to hear that regarding the e-pads. I've never once felt like I needed more bite from them, and I do some fairly hard breaking just on the work commute (too many idiots live around here who enjoy pulling out on you in a gap barely wide enough to fit a smart car in!)

 

[ATPDK]

How much NM/torque do I need to tighten the M16 bolts with again? On the back side of the caliber.

By the Way - I ended with Brembo XTRA drilled and E-pods

 

[MACK]

Brembo are still a top noch brand so no worries there.
Upgrade wise, it would appear BMW themselves recognized that the 300mm standard brakes on the pre facelift 3.0i weren't quite cutting it. Hence on the post facelift 3.0 cars these were upgraded to 330mm. Its a popular upgrade many owners have done if their zed came with smaller brakes as its only involves a swap of caliper and carriers and new discs of course! Its easy to source the parts as they're the same as the e46 330i/d bits. Brake pad wise you can get low dust pads such as textar (who are an OEM BMW supplier) Epad. A word of caution though, although they do stop the car very well they lack the initial bite of the regular type of pad so if you like that you'd be better sticking with a normal type of compound. I have first hand experience of this as I've done both the 330mm caliper upgrade and fitted the Textar Epads when I did. They definitely dont have the bite of the Pagid pads (standard compound) they replaced but that said the car stops well, better than it did on the 300mm setup. Brake dust is also greatly diminished and what there is comes off a hell of a lot easier than the standard stuff

Surprised to hear that regarding the e-pads. I've never once felt like I needed more bite from them, and I do some fairly hard breaking just on the work commute (too many idiots live around here who enjoy pulling out on you in a gap barely wide enough to fit a smart car in!)

Yes obviously its just my opinion but the Mintex pads that came off with the standard calipers definitely felt like they had more initial bite but not more braking power overall than the Epad 330i calipers combo. I did wonder if the Mintex pads were uprated as I didn't actually fit them, they were on the car when I got it but I checked the parts no and they were a standard compound. I think I mentioned somewhere before I'm planning on trying some other pads just to see the difference in bite/braking when I get around to it.