Changing the front and rear brake discs of a...
Discussion
I have a E36 323i coupe. And i would like to know how to take off the front and rear discs.
I would like to change them over to a set of drilled ones as the ones that i currently have are warpped.
My reason for thinking that the current discs are warpped is because everytime i break the steering wheel shudders.
Has anyone come across this before. Are the discs warpped?
Thanks for your help.
I would like to change them over to a set of drilled ones as the ones that i currently have are warpped.
My reason for thinking that the current discs are warpped is because everytime i break the steering wheel shudders.
Has anyone come across this before. Are the discs warpped?
Thanks for your help.
Yes your discs are warped, and is usually as a result of severe breaking on a cold disc.
Whilst changing discs and pads around is not rocket science, if you have not done it before i would recomend paying someone who knows what they are doing. If you get it wrong you have no brakes. If you supply the parts a good local mechanic could put them on for very little money. You don't need to go to BMW, any local garage can do the work for you.
If you have not bought the discs and pads i would suggest giving Motormec a call as they have a large range of performance break upgrades for the E36 3 series and there price is very competitive. They can be contacted on 01502 500590
Hope this is helpful,
James
Whilst changing discs and pads around is not rocket science, if you have not done it before i would recomend paying someone who knows what they are doing. If you get it wrong you have no brakes. If you supply the parts a good local mechanic could put them on for very little money. You don't need to go to BMW, any local garage can do the work for you.
If you have not bought the discs and pads i would suggest giving Motormec a call as they have a large range of performance break upgrades for the E36 3 series and there price is very competitive. They can be contacted on 01502 500590
Hope this is helpful,
James
I get a similar feeling through the brake pedal after a few high speed stops when I am on trackdays, and that has nothing to do with cold disks, but rather overheating the discs.
The vibration normally lasts throughout the trackday, but a day or so later, with normal driving and braking it smooths itself out again.
How often do you drive the car, and for how long each time as you can also get a thin layer of corrosion on the discs overnight which makes the disc feel rough for the first few brake applications.
The other culprit could be the pads. If they've been subjected to heavy use (like mine are, regularly), then the pads can distort and when you apply the brakes the pads do not make consistent, smooth contact with the disc and hence you feel vibration.
Most discs do not warp, this is simply a decription of uneven disc wear where the pad has been gripping better in some places than others. Drilled discs will do nothing for your braking performance though and usually need replacing sooner than solid discs - I have an M5 and my discs are not drilled and they don't need to be.
Discs can be gotten for as low as £20 each from German, Swedish & French, or EuroCarParts so finding them is not a problem and if you know how to replace the pads on the car then replacing the discs is easy once you have the caliper off.
If you really want high perfomance braking, then upgrade the pads to Ferodo DS2500 (or similar), fit Goodridge braided hoses, and replace the standard brake fluid with DOT 5.1/4.1 (not DOT 5).
If this is not good enough then Brembo and AP can supply you a 4-pot braking system with 330mm discs (assuming you have 17" wheels, otherwise 280mm and 300mm are avalailable) for £500 upwards (AP price is more like £1500).
The vibration normally lasts throughout the trackday, but a day or so later, with normal driving and braking it smooths itself out again.
How often do you drive the car, and for how long each time as you can also get a thin layer of corrosion on the discs overnight which makes the disc feel rough for the first few brake applications.
The other culprit could be the pads. If they've been subjected to heavy use (like mine are, regularly), then the pads can distort and when you apply the brakes the pads do not make consistent, smooth contact with the disc and hence you feel vibration.
Most discs do not warp, this is simply a decription of uneven disc wear where the pad has been gripping better in some places than others. Drilled discs will do nothing for your braking performance though and usually need replacing sooner than solid discs - I have an M5 and my discs are not drilled and they don't need to be.
Discs can be gotten for as low as £20 each from German, Swedish & French, or EuroCarParts so finding them is not a problem and if you know how to replace the pads on the car then replacing the discs is easy once you have the caliper off.
If you really want high perfomance braking, then upgrade the pads to Ferodo DS2500 (or similar), fit Goodridge braided hoses, and replace the standard brake fluid with DOT 5.1/4.1 (not DOT 5).
If this is not good enough then Brembo and AP can supply you a 4-pot braking system with 330mm discs (assuming you have 17" wheels, otherwise 280mm and 300mm are avalailable) for £500 upwards (AP price is more like £1500).
m-five said:
and that has nothing to do with cold disks, but rather overheating the discs.
The other culprit could be the pads. If they've been subjected to heavy use (like mine are, regularly), then the pads can distort and when you apply the brakes the pads do not make consistent, smooth contact with the disc and hence you feel vibration.
Most discs do not warp, this is simply a decription of uneven disc wear where the pad has been gripping better in some places than others. Drilled discs will do nothing for your braking performance though and usually need replacing sooner than solid discs - I have an M5 and my discs are not drilled and they don't need to be.
If this is not good enough then Brembo and AP can supply you a 4-pot braking system with 330mm discs (assuming you have 17" wheels, otherwise 280mm and 300mm are avalailable) for £500 upwards (AP price is more like £1500).
If a cold piece of metal e.g. a brake disc that has not been used very quickly gets very hot ie under sudden breaking then this is usually the condition under which discs warp. We had a 530i which we set the discs alight under heavy breaking from 120mph and they warped by 1". BMW would not replace under waranty as they said they were abused, which was true, but worth a try.
If pads distort then they are of very poor quality, but they can get glazed by the heat causing poor breaking performance. Having good quality pads i.e. heat resistant pads is a good remedy for that and i would not recomend euro car parts or german and swedish brake disks and pads. They are cheap for a reason as they are of poorer quality materials. I have gone down that route before. Either buy original BMW Discs and pads which are stamped with the BMW logo and serial number or purchase good quality aftermarket e,g. Black Diamond, Brembo, AP etc.
Drilled discs will make a difference as they are designed to aid cooling. Brakes that dont get so hot have less chance of glazing and suffering from heat induced brake fade and thus you the driver have less chance of having a car that suffers from poor braking performance. Groved discs aid stopping as they create a surface with more friction, but as a consequence pads will wear out quicker. Groved and drilled discs also are designed to run at hotter temperatures than a standard disc. Look inside the wheels of any modern porsche and you will see these discs.
As for comparing M5's to a standard three series, the brakes have been modified heavily from BMW and are huge. They run large wheels on these cars as smaller wheels would not fit over the huge four pot calipers. 3 series cars will have 2 pot or 1 pot calipers which gives a less even braking pressure than a four pot on an M5 and so makes them more suseptable to brake warp. I agree that going for a brake upgrade will make a big difference, but this is a much higher cost option. By putting modified discs and pads you should be able to vastly improve braking performance of the car whlist keeping to a relativly modest budget.
Have a look at a Haynes manual of a BMW. The process is the same for all cars although you may need to buy some tools which you may not have and would then cost more than a mechanic doing it for you. It's probable no more than one hours labour to change a set of discs and pads and a local small garage will probable charge you £25 per hour.
Just found this on total bmw car magasines web site which gives step by step instructions.
www.totalbmwmag.co.uk/HandsOn/TechJun02.PDF
>> Edited by sohlman on Friday 25th July 18:35
Just found this on total bmw car magasines web site which gives step by step instructions.
www.totalbmwmag.co.uk/HandsOn/TechJun02.PDF
>> Edited by sohlman on Friday 25th July 18:35
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