nicke60gre

..not really, the M5 which is the most powerful BMW ever made (so far) has them

You must understand that rear brakes are not there just for the hand brake, but most importantly they are supporting the front brakes against overheating on heavy, high speed braking situations, especially when the car is loaded

M5 rear: 370x24mm semi-floating, compound, drilled, with directional air ducts, light-weight rotors

550i/545i/535d rear: 345x24mm compound rotors

No comparison, M5 has better (and they are useful) rear brakes than 550i/545i/535d which they also have very good rear brakes compared to the plain steel rotors (530i, 525i, 520i, *.*d)

andy545

I agree, if ya gonna do brakes, do it right.

AlexFW

135i has better brakes .
M5 brakes are better than 545/550 brakes but if you need to play hard they are weak: only you with 170 HP and Andy545 who use them on highway can be so happy .
My conclusion is a good upgrade, with the BMW logo (and it is useful because we can't swap brakes here and with BMW written on the caliper in an accident the police wouldn't notice them) and with pads/rotors are available in each dealer in the world .


Front brakes hare more powerful due to two pistons instead of one (545i/550i/535d/etc have one) .
M5 rear brakes are 1 piston and the drilled feature is useful on track to allow the dust from the pads to come out through holes .


The difference, I bet, can't be so much, between one piston and one piston with drilled rotors (and I repeat, holes are made to allow the dust ... on track - The Alpina B5 doesn't have drilled rotors and neither the 760i)


Try to play a bit : brake hard then accelerate and let us know .

Rizbel

They (M5/535/545/550)all share the same rear wheel brake pads. Meaning same pad/rotor surface contact, regardless how big(or heavy) the rotor diameter. They look identical anyway.

11 REPAIR KIT, BRAKE PADS ASBESTOS-FREE TEXTAR T4166 1 34216768471 $112.16

Source:
E60 545i REAR WHEEL BRAKE-BRAKE PAD
E60 550i REAR WHEEL BRAKE-BRAKE PAD
E60 M5 REAR WHEEL BRAKE-BRAKE PAD

You also need 19 inch wheels to accomodate bigger M5 calipers. I switched from 124s to M166s.
-Joe

acuteperformance

i beg to differ. cross drilled rotors are to help dissipate heat better. However, the structural integrity is compromised causing them to fail quicker. The rotor I'd go for is slotted which dissipates heat better than normal rotors yet has better durability when compared to cross drilled.

though... cross drilled looks sexier

michael

Rizbel

167s- So you'll have no problem then. Good luck!

acuteperformance

To add

When you brake it produces gasses, the cross drilling also helps the gasses escape thereby increasing contact pressure.

Michael

nicke60gre

That's true about pads, but rear M5 rotors are about 10% bigger in diameter, what means cruising at the same speed, M5 pad will have to face 100 turns with excellent directional ventilation, while 545 pad will face 110 turns (at the same time) with typical ventilation.

ivan545

I have the m5 rotors and calipers front and back. The front has no issues with installing. The rear rotors doesn't fit the back completely without removing the metal bracket. YOu'll find out when you install it. As far as with rims, i have 20" rims so the clearance is fine, not sure about 18" rims fitting on the m5 rotors.

nicke60gre

That's why I didn't installed the rear brakes yet, I've ordered the M5 protection plates which they are much bigger. I hope they'll fit without problems.



18" wheels (8JX18 ET:14) are available by BMW for the M5/M6

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=36&fg=15