BMW-Sport.net

After recentley changing all four disks and pads on my 328i and doing a brake fluid flush as well I have noticed a world of difference. I used mintex pads and disks all round from www.yes4mintex.com they supplied all 4 disks and pads with front and rear accessory kit for £140 delivered. After allowing them to run in I now have the confidence to brake a lot later and I would recommend mintex for the E36 bmw.

If anyone out there is planning on changing their disks and pads themselves I would say it is worth bleeding the brake system when they do them. It does not add much time to the job and dot 4 fluid can be picked up cheap enough or if you have more money to splash you could upgrade to dot 5.1.

I am interested to know how well other brands of disks and pads have worked on the E36 in particular performance groved / drilled disks and performance pads. Im not to sure their worth the money however if you have done this I would like to know if they have made a big difference. I also know that E46 330i brakes can be fitted to the front if you have the calipers, carriers, disks and pads and Z3 brakes can be fitted if you have the carriers and disks if anyone has done this is it worth the effort and does it upset the ballance of the brakes?

I had grooved/drilled discs on my E60 and they were not much better than the standard discs, and they warped within about 3 weeks.

If you fit bigger brakes you'll see much better braking performance, and the larger callipers/discs will not affect the balance of the brakes, the ABS pump will see to that.

I fitted S4 discs to my A4 when I had an Audi, they were MUCH bigger than the older discs and transformed the braking. Well worth doing.

Thanks for the advice Christian the next time I do my brakes I will probably use z3 caliper carriers and disks up front to increase from 286mm to 300mm disk size using standard disks and performance pads. I have 16" wheels on at the moment and upgrading to E46 330i front brakes requires a minimum wheel size of 17". I would also upgrade to braided brake hoses and dot 5.1 fluid to see if that makes much difference but hopefully the brakes I have just done last a good length of time so I can concentrate on other areas of my car.

Braided hoses will make a bit of a difference, as they don't swell as much as OE rubber ones.