New E46 M3 owner
Discussion
I have just bought myself a manual silverstone edition E46 M3 with 48,000 miles on the clock. It is in great order and I absolutely love it. There are two issues that I want to get sorted, brakes and suspension. Can anyone recommend a brake pad for fast road use as the standard ones are useless? In regard to the ride (19" wheels) and given I haven't driven an E46 m3 until now, it is pretty atrocious and crashy. Given the car is 15 years old and shock probably past their best, would any experts out there suggest replacing the shocks for a more compliant ride? The springs are all ok. I am keen to keep the car generally standard with a few fast road mods, so any suggestions welcome.
Standard pads are fine, but they need to be the right ones 
. Genuine only would be my call. Not Textar OE, but actually from BMW.
Many motor factors will sell 330Ci pads for the M3 as they are both the same size, but different in compounds, and if my Mondeo is anything to go by (in addition to seeing suppliers at work), even they can be pants; some pad manufactures jsut don't seem to care what they put into the pads!! With the Brembo brakes on other cars, this situation is less likely.
With fresh discs and genuine BMW pads, I've found mine to be fine on track
. I was a little slow in places on this day (I didn't want to hold people up and I didn't expect me to be keeping up with the RS4 of my friend's who I thought would move across to let me be quicker in the corners).
Mine aren't as good now, but the discs are below the minimum thickness and the pads are nearly done for.
If genuine pads are not your thing, I'd go with either:
-Carbone Lorrane RC5s
-Pagid RSL29s . Martin at MS Motorsport (raceparts.biz) will sort you out here. He's a very fair chap.
I've been in a car on stock brakes but RSL29s and that was good. I'm going with a similar setup, so I'll say more once that's done.
. Genuine only would be my call. Not Textar OE, but actually from BMW.Many motor factors will sell 330Ci pads for the M3 as they are both the same size, but different in compounds, and if my Mondeo is anything to go by (in addition to seeing suppliers at work), even they can be pants; some pad manufactures jsut don't seem to care what they put into the pads!! With the Brembo brakes on other cars, this situation is less likely.
With fresh discs and genuine BMW pads, I've found mine to be fine on track
. I was a little slow in places on this day (I didn't want to hold people up and I didn't expect me to be keeping up with the RS4 of my friend's who I thought would move across to let me be quicker in the corners).Mine aren't as good now, but the discs are below the minimum thickness and the pads are nearly done for.
If genuine pads are not your thing, I'd go with either:
-Carbone Lorrane RC5s
-Pagid RSL29s . Martin at MS Motorsport (raceparts.biz) will sort you out here. He's a very fair chap.
I've been in a car on stock brakes but RSL29s and that was good. I'm going with a similar setup, so I'll say more once that's done.
18's were a massive improvement.
But I felt 18's looked a bit wrong (sits high and a big gap in the arch) unless the car is lowered so I went with some adjustable shocks and uprated ARB's. Which has made it quite stiff, but still less crashy then the 19's!
Its not sitting that low but the wheels look to fill out the arches well.
Standard OEM pads are fine for the road imo.
But I felt 18's looked a bit wrong (sits high and a big gap in the arch) unless the car is lowered so I went with some adjustable shocks and uprated ARB's. Which has made it quite stiff, but still less crashy then the 19's!
Its not sitting that low but the wheels look to fill out the arches well.
Standard OEM pads are fine for the road imo.
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