What to do about the brakes..

8

85genius

Senior member
So took my car for the first proper blast since I got it a month ago, and when I say proper I mean there was my mate in an e36 m3 that I was trying to keep up with (and actually doing it most of the time) but I noticed after about 10 minutes on some serious twisties I started getting some pretty bad brake fade....

Up until now I have been happy, no actually really happy with the stopping power and was for the 10 or so minutes of giving it some with the m3 in front of me right up until it got hairy!

So the question is what has anyone else done by way of increasing the cooling to the brakes, and what do I change front or back?

Like I said I don't want or need any more stopping power just want to be able to keep on doing like I was for longer. Ideally the solution will be cheap!

Should also mention that I had new front pads only about threeweeks ago when I had it serviced but done almost a thousand miles so they were well bedded in before I gave them any real hamner
 
Bigger rotors from a 3.0 will help as they will give more power so you need less of their performance to get what you are using now plus they will take more heat due to their larger size.

Otherwise you're looking at fast road pads which withstand higher temperatures but also don't tend to work as well as stock when cold. Motul RBF600 brake fluid may also help as it has a higher boiling point than your standard stuff.
 
I have just had new front pads and brake fluid done at the service so would ideally like to avoid changing it unless I have to, do you think if I just did the discs it would make a good difference to the overheating problem?

Is it just the front ones that are important to change or the back ones? My last car was front wheel drive and I know the front brakes did most of the work but not really sure how it works on a BMW?

Would I be better going for the OEM ones of the 3.0 or after market drilled and grooved ones, I think its really just extra cooling I need but assume a bigger surface area would give that.

Sorry for all the questions just trying to work out how to get the improvement I need as cheaply as possible as I'm going on a European road trip at the end of the month and there's going to be a couple of M3s E36 and E46 and a 330 and whilst the Z4 can pretty much hold its own in other respects the brakes overheating could be an issue for me
 
Changing discs will require at least 3.0 carriers but at worst the calipers and master cylinder will be different too. It won't be cheap and you have to source the parts but larger thicker discs will resist fade much better.

Based on what you're saying you're probably better off going for fast road pads all round and some better fluid. The pads will work better at high temperatures caused by heavy use and be less likely to crumble. Best avoid pure track pads though as they won't work well in say an emergency stop on a motorway when the brakes are stone cold. The fluid boiling or coming close to it is what gives a lot of that faded feeling so a higher boiling point will help. Bigger discs would create less heat for the same stop but as above it's more involved.

It's best to upgrade all round to maintain brake balance front and rear but if budget is an issue then fronts first. They still do the lion's share of the work in any drivetrain configuration.

Aftermarket discs with holes in are usually drilled rather than cast with holes in and as such are quite prone to cracking around the holes. They do basically the same job as grooves which is to let the gases that are created at high temperature be released away from the disc surface plus to an extent keep the pad face fresh. I'd go with decent quality normal ones or maybe decent grooved. Cheap grooved or drilled will be worse than normal quality parts.

Have a search on here for brake upgrades as it's bound to have been covered before in detail.
 
Doesn't look like you have a cheap solution to this; 'racing pads, steel braided brake lines and Castrol SRF brake fluid' is all going to cost :(
 
Don't forget to tell your insurers either as aside from the brake fluid most will count everything else as modifications.
 
Marlon said:
Doesn't look like you have a cheap solution to this; 'racing pads, steel braided brake lines and Castrol SRF brake fluid' is all going to cost :(
Click to expand...

Pads - Yellowstuff are what circa £80?
Braieded Lines - Driftworks do a 6 line set for the E36/46 for £60 delivered IIRC
5.1 FLUID - Another £20 maximium

£160 isn't a huge amount compared to going down the 330 or alternative route. With a very similar setup to the above i was getting 40+ minute sessions out of my e36 track car with little to no fade at all.
 
Thanks for the advice! Will probably go down the better pads and better fluid route and hopefully that will sort the issues out, just annoying that its 2 things I have just had replaced :headbang:

Got another brake problem just come through as well :headbang: went to put on the handbrake and its come up about an inch higher than it should and doesn't seem to be disengaging properly (at least i think thats whats happening) as I'm getting a scraping sound that appears to be coming from the rear brakes when I'm going slowly, what's weird is I can take it off and go forward fine for some reason it only sounds to be catching/scraping when I reverse
 
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