ucsbwsr

The fronts are on. More to come...

bmwmonkey

Excellent work! Love the progress so far!

Lotus99

Wow, you went for a BBK on the car?

Which brand rotors and calipers?

PS You better be planning on taking her to the track with all these mods! She'd whip some serious booty!

Island Road

Correct me if i am wrong but that's not BBK, looks to be just M5 brakes.

I am thinking about doing this myself. Have you done any research to see if it changes the brake bias at all? How do the rears look?

Lotus99

Doesn't the fact that the drilled rotors look a lot bigger than the ones he had not qualify it as a big brake kit? What difference does it make if it's from an M5 or not?

I don't know if the calipers have more pistons in them as well, but if they do / are stronger than the ones he had, then the same goes.

ucsbwsr

I guess with correct forum jargon I did an OEMBBK upgrade, or as I like to think about it: I upgraded from salad plates to diner plates!

The brakes are OEM M5 units, they have aftermarket ceramic pads along with steel lines.

At this moment there is definitely a brake bias towards the front as every individual part of the braking system is upgraded.

I am installing my rear units tomorrow morning so I will report back after the install is complete. It is not terribly difficult to run M5 brakes on the E61 (I will confirm this after tomorrow morning) but there are a few extra parts needed, I plan on doing a brief DIY post for people to reference as there is not much info on this currently.


..and YES, this car is becoming pretty beastly, performance is on par or better than an OEM M5 in almost every category with the glaring exception being the 100 less hp (got it beat handily in torque though)!

Brakes= TIE
Handling= I WIN
0-60mph= I WIN
60-1XXmph= I LOSE
Groceries= I WIN
Snow?= I WIN
MPG= I WIN (but who cares)
Everything Else= WINING!!

Evan

Lotus99

Slightly OT, but which pads are you running? I'm about to replace mine, and I really love the initial bite of the OEM pads, but am considering either Axxis Metal Master pads that Turner sells, as they say they are supposed to have very good initial bite, but with much less dust. I'm a bit nervous getting them though, as their bite I'm sure won't be as good as OEM, but how much less, I won't know....

When I look them up on Axxis' site, I presume they're the XBG's, but their friction levels aren't great...
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ucsbwsr

I just checked my pads and there are no visible marking on them, I looked around on the internet at available pads and the backing plates/rivets/clips look most similar to Hawk pads.

As long as total braking power is equal or greater to OEM, they don't squeal, and don't prroduce obnoxious amounts of dust then it's all good. I actually don't mind brakes which don't bite very hard; I have a strong leg and sometimes appreciate the greater modulation less edgy brakes offer... assuming total stopping power is not decreased.

Evan

Lotus99

Good point... I have gotten used to it (less initial bite) in my 3 series, where I put in the Stoptech Street Performance pads, which are otherwise great.

ucsbwsr

Update: These rear brakes are a pain.

Changing the hubs has proven to be a real challenge; removing them takes some special tools (hub puller) and working in awkward positions (the hub is held on by 4 bolts which much be removed from the inside of the steering knuckle).

My father and I tried building our own hub puller with a small 2-ton floor jack, a steel bar and some chains. The end result was slightly bent/compressed threads on the 1/2 shaft, the hub was content staying where it was. A 12-ton puller from Harbor Freight saved the day, with me (6'8" 250lbs) putting all my muscle into pumping the jack and my father shocking the hub with a small sledge - we became successful.

We now have to re-thread the damaged shaft, replace a bearing has some play in it and appears to be damaged (probably damaged during it's previous removal.... I understand), service and readjust the parking brake, and we will be good to go.


Here are some pictures of this month-long weekend project. I included some shots of the stock E61 hub and M5 replacement which is required to have the rotor and caliper properly align. There is a roughly a 1" difference between the 2 units.


Evan