Brake cooling woe's

[Pereldh]

Hi all!
I'm considering this cooling kit for my Z4M Coupe, however I'm worried about heat around ABS-sensor, wheel bearing and joints.
At a full-on-trackday.
The OEM heat shield cover them all.

Anyone had experience w overheated sensors etc?

Should I try to cover it better?



Std shield:

Edited by Pereldh on Wednesday 13th April 10:15

[Gouki]

I've experienced too many trackdays with an E46 M3 (csl weight) and E92 M3. My advice is get the CSL 345mm discs and caliper carriers if not already on the Z4M, RBF 660 brake fluid and Pagid RSL 29s and you'll be fine. Just don't ride the brakes, brake hard, brake once!

Never needed brake cooling ducts, eventually upgraded to the F80 M3 set up on both for better pedal feel.

[E-bmw]

I would have thought the bulk of any heat in the area of the sensors would be coming from heat-soak, so better brake cooling will reduce the heat in the metal parts in the area, then heat-soak will naturally be reduced by better cooling.

[Pereldh]

All Z4M have the M3 CSL 345mm brakes yes.
However the cooling funnel from the bumper isn’t ideal, it points straight to the tire. Even with PFC disc’s, XP8 pads and fresh fluid (obviously) the pads wear pretty quick. Albeit w no fading (until the pads wear out).
This new cooling kit has new custom 3D printed bumper funnels for 2.5” hoses.

I’m also changing to new 4-pot Brembo’s so I’m thinking the cooling kit might be a bit overkill.

[E-bmw]

I wouldn't have gone drilled, but each to their own, keep a close eye out for cracks spreading out from the holes.

[shalmaneser]

I ran csl discs and Porsche brembo caliprs on my e46 m3 (so I assume heavier than the z4), no other mods but it was great on track. I'd say if you're upgrading the calipers then I wouldn't think you needed any additional cooling.

[Pereldh]

Thanx, great info. Yeah I think I’ll keep the OEM cooling inlets & OEM protection plates.

E-bmw said:

I wouldn't have gone drilled, but each to their own, keep a close eye out for cracks spreading out from the holes.

These are the OEM disc’s, not sure its possible to find blank disc’s for Z4M.

Edited by Pereldh on Monday 18th April 23:04

Edited by Pereldh on Monday 18th April 23:04

[E-bmw]

Pereldh said:

Thanx, great info. Yeah I think I’ll keep the OEM cooling inlets & OEM protection plates.

E-bmw said:

I wouldn't have gone drilled, but each to their own, keep a close eye out for cracks spreading out from the holes.

These are the OEM disc’s, not sure its possible to find blank disc’s for Z4M.

Unfortunately drilled don't tend to do very well on track with the more extreme heat cycles they have a tendency to crack.

Whether they are oe or not the problem can still occur.

I am not saying it will, just keep an eye on them whoever made them.

If they do, see if you can find someone who makes slotted versions.

[AW10]

Never considered those to be heat shields but rather splash shields to keep water and muck off the backs of the discs to improve foul weather braking performance.

[Pereldh]

Yeah they're kind of both. 278grams each they are, just amazed how light! Cant be regular steel..

The calipers however, std M3 CSL / Z4M are 5,865kg each!
Brembo Renault: 3,252kg.. (incl. M-brackets & bolts, 2.66kg without)
That's -2.61kg saved per wheel.

Edited by Pereldh on Tuesday 26th April 09:27

[MOTK]

Pereldh said:

Hi all!
I'm considering this cooling kit for my Z4M Coupe, however I'm worried about heat around ABS-sensor, wheel bearing and joints.
At a full-on-trackday.
The OEM heat shield cover them all.

Anyone had experience w overheated sensors etc?

Should I try to cover it better?

I've been running an older version of this kit I think for quite a few years now. The 'dust' guard's only other real function is to protect the track rod ball joint which this shield does, I don't think you have anything to worry about.



Depends on your driving of course but I had big heat issues in the past, the original cooling design (or lack there of) being a large part of that I suspect.

E-bmw said:

If they do, see if you can find someone who makes slotted versions.

I never had a problem with the CSL drilled discs the car comes with as standard, albeit that was a long time ago and I didn't drive the car as hard back then I suspect. Slotted discs will crack with ease I have found with my old AP 5575 bbk and no cooling. I've cracked 352x32mm AP and Performance Friction discs a number of times which at their cost began to get annoying.
I now have Malc's 368x36mm AP discs and 9660s and the cooling kit, no issues anymore thankfully.


Incidentally the calipers weigh even less ~2.7kg but of course the discs are heavier. Mega stoppers, noisy AF though.

Edited by MOTK on Monday 25th April 16:24

[E-bmw]

OK, never had problems with slotted personally, those are a bit worrying.

[Pereldh]

MOTK, thanx for your reply!
I'm starting to realize the sheer amount of cooling air prob. helps cooling joints, sensors etc too.
I still like to keep my car OEM-ish which is - I suppose - my biggest issue.

(Sill haven't had heat issues yet myself, if it depends on my modded OEM ducts/heat shields I don't know)

[Pereldh]

In the end the front funnels/intakes didn't match the bumper very well, also there's a lot of cutting in OEM plasting panels & mounts - not for me, my car is too nice and factory, no track-rat.

I did some cooling mods to the std shields instead:

Std:



Modded:







The new discs/fluid/pads/calipers will be the biggest improvement but at least the cooling isn't worse than before!
Also keeps it "factory" enough and also OEM heat protection for hub/sensors/joints.

Actually never seen any car with cooling hoses from factory... Ok maybe a Koenigsegg..

(Dunno whats up with the pics on here...)

Edited by Pereldh on Tuesday 31st May 15:46