E34 540i brakes

[Marshy]

Following on from DeR's post about improving his M5 brakes, has anyone got suggestions for pads to suit a 1993 E34 540i?

Mine's got some sort of powered brake system rather than the normal vacuum servo assist thing, and *big* single pot calipers. I only mention this because one or two spares sites are convinvced that E34 540s came with twin pot calipers. Some may have done, mine just doesn't. And TBH I don't know if that makes a difference when it comes to the pads themselves.

The standard brakes feel slightly weedy for my tastes.

[Steve W.]

All E34's with the exception of the M5 3.8 have single piston calipers.

I have to say though that if your brakes feel a bit weedy, then there is probably something wrong with them.
My 95 E34 540 brakes are extremely strong under all conditions. The rear brakes have vented discs and are exactly the same parts fitted to both the 3.6 and 3.8 M5's.
The fronts are basically the same as the M5 3.6 discs and calipers.
The 3.8 got floating discs at the front, hence a four pot caliper

[sohlman]

Basically the e34 540 shares the same brakes as a 750 e32. They are 302x28mm discs with single pot calipers rather than 302x22mm discs on all other e34's. The 3.6 M5 had 315x30mm discs and single pots and the M5 3.8 had 345x30mm discs running with 4 pot brembo calipers. Another brake kit that will fit will be the 840/850 4 pot calipers which are also made by brembo and will give you a 325x32mm disc. This information is relevant to the fronts. The e34 540 has a vented rear disc and is the same as those on a 3.6 M5 as far as i am aware whilst the other e34's has non vented rear discs. The 540 definantly did not have 4 pot calipers, but the 840/850 had both single pots up to 93 and 4 post afterwards and they might be getting confused

>> Edited by sohlman on Wednesday 18th February 09:20

[Marshy]

OK, all that aside (I don't want to get into changing discs or calipers yet) any pad recommendations aside from the uber-dusty BMW ones?

[m-five]

If you are worried about brake dust them stay away from most of the better performing pads (Mintex M1144, Ferodo DS2000/DS2500/DS3000, and Pagid RS-15 Grey) as they all create more dust than OEM.

I don't mind cleaning the wheels every so often anyway!

BTW the OEM pads are Textar, which are the same company as Mintex & Pagid.

[Marshy]

A friend of mine just recommended Pagid fast road pads, but had the same to say: dusty as hell.

Mind you, I don't clean the wheels more than once a month, so perhaps that's not a problem after all? At the end of the day, it's a three grand hack so I'm that precious about it.