E46 M3 brakes - pants or what!?

[buzzerm3]

I have recently purchased a 2003 E46 M3 and am enjoying the car - all except the bloody brakes! Have gone through 2 sets of discs (1st as supplied when car was sold by the dealer were knackered, second set warped for some reason). Have had another set fitted (all parts standard) but seems to be going the same way. Braking from anything above around 60mph, say coming into a roundabout on a dual carriageway, means get plenty of shake and vibration through the steering wheel.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a common problem on the M3 and any suggestions for curing?

[Zod]

The brakes are more than enough for the road, although they suffer badly from fade on track. BMW has a blind spot about them.

Yours, however, have something badly wrong with them. That is far from normal behaviour.

[RobbieM-Evo]

When at a set of lights do you put the handbrake on or do you use the brake pedal?

The only reason for asking this is, if you sit at lights or in traffic using the brake pedal it grenerates a lot of heat on the disc's and they can warp.

[adamb]

Did you bed them in properly? Sounds like it might be uneven pad deposits...

[adom]

RobbieM-Evo said:

When at a set of lights do you put the handbrake on or do you use the brake pedal?

The only reason for asking this is, if you sit at lights or in traffic using the brake pedal it grenerates a lot of heat on the disc's and they can warp.

Think its more that if the brakes have a lot of heat in them and you then sit at a standstill with pedal depressed, pad transfer can occur which gives the effect of warped discs.

Sounds like there is something pretty wrong with the OP's car though - they should easily be up to the job of nearly all road driving.

[DeadEye]

When you say your disks have warpped, what exactly do you mean?

I hear the phrase "warpped disk" bantered around a lot, but

a) I doubt they are warpped

b) if they where just warpped then you probably wouldn't feal it

As mentioned above - more likely pad transfer - even more likely from crap pads.

If your feeling speed related juddering when braking its more down to differences in the thickness of the disk, a warped disk would more likely make the calipers slide from side to side.