[daberlin]

Good morning everyone,

Performed the BBK install last weekend and thought I'd share a few comments and some eye candy photos. The job is quite manageable as a DIY; only complaint I ever have working on brakes is it's a dirty job.

As background the car is a 2013 335i M Sport; it came with the gray 4 piston fronts, and single floating piston rear set up. The reason for the upgrade was primarily cosmetic; I was unimpressed with the appearance of rust (primarily on rear rotor hats), brake squeal coming to slow stops at lights, and excessive brake dust. BMW service dept claims the rust was due to the chemicals I used treating the wheels prior to washing. I call BS on that (use same chemicals on Porsche brakes and no rust), but after 2 years watching the rust get worse, the old set up needed to go. I don't track this car, so I wanted a nice looking set of rotors, low dust/noise pads, and improved bite over the much maligned M Performance pads.

Before:



After:



I added stainless steel brake lines (~ $100) and upgraded to Porterfield R4S on fronts and rears (~$290). Go put some anti-seize on those hubs. Wheels are a PIA to get off without it.





To keep brake fluid from spilling out when disconnecting brake line, keep the brake pedal depressed. Here was my approach.



Make sure you secure the front stainless steel lines. Used vice grips to remove and to re-seat the clip.





6mm rusted rotor screws can be a NIGHTMARE to remove. Use an impact driver and they come off easily after two strikes. Lame looking gloves I know, but they do work in staying clean. :-)



Did both rears and then fronts. Rear caliper retaining bolts are a pain to remove; either use a rubber mallet on your wrench or in my case, air equipment.



Big shout out to shawnsheridan and Rob at BA Coding for lending a hand with some questions and coding assistance. A few head scratches in HO-WORT to add the SPBR line, but otherwise, car coded with little problem.



I bled brakes twice with a Motive Bleeder 5 days apart. Huge difference after the second bleed. Pedal travel is tight and predictable initial bite. Brakes feel as solid as the four pot Brembos on my 911. Very pleased with results.



Circle BMW actually wanted $2,300 for the INSTALL, FLUSH, and CODE. I was absolutely dumbfounded. Lowest estimate from an Indy was $650. Even though I thought the Indy estimate was reasonable, I had no problems completing the job on my own.

End Result and a good looking job well done.

[.BMW.]

Great write up!

The M Performance brakes looks good.

[zaki671]

Great job! Thanks for the write up.

[Polo08816]

Did you use this adapter for your Motive Power Bleeder?

https://www.motiveproducts.com/colle...ropean-adapter

[daberlin]

Originally Posted by Polo08816

Did you use this adapter for your Motive Power Bleeder?

https://www.motiveproducts.com/colle...ropean-adapter

No, I have the cheaper model 1100 European adapter.

On a side note, after finishing up the 2nd bleed yesterday morning on the BMW, I was doing another brake flush on a friend's 987 Porsche Cayman. I'm not very good about cleaning the bleeder hoses with mineral spirits after a flush, and unfortunately after doing the first caliper on the Cayman, the clear hose that connects the bleed tank to the 1100 adapter split creating a small leak. Made a little mini mess of brake fluid on the floor of my garage but thankfully the car was covered up so I didn't get any on it.

I also own a Mitivac air compressor brake fluid extractor, so I finished the job up with that and still had excellent results. I think in the future, I'll not put any brake fluid in the Motive tank and just depressurize/top up reservoir/repressurize after each corner. May take a few more minutes to do a brake fluid flush, but will be far safer in the case of an accident.

[lens]

Originally Posted by daberlin

Good morning everyone,

Performed the BBK install last weekend and thought I'd share a few comments and some eye candy photos. The job is quite manageable as a DIY; only complaint I ever have working on brakes is it's a dirty job.

As background the car is a 2013 335i M Sport; it came with the gray 2 piston fronts, and single floating piston rear set up. The reason for the upgrade was primarily cosmetic; I was unimpressed with the appearance of rust (primarily on rear rotor hats), brake squeal coming to slow stops at lights, and excessive brake dust. BMW service dept claims the rust was due to the chemicals I used treating the wheels prior to washing. I call BS on that (use same chemicals on Porsche brakes and no rust), but after 2 years watching the rust get worse, the old set up needed to go. I don't track this car, so I wanted a nice looking set of rotors, low dust/noise pads, and improved bite over the much maligned M Performance pads.

Wow, orange looks nice on EBII.

I did my rear brakes (stock 1 pot rear) last friday and they were a PITA to do as the same caliper holding bolts you were talking about was stuck on, almost seized.

I had a buddy and myself on a bar adapter force it out before I put on tons of anti-seize on every bolt I removed.

The brake pad isn't flush (sticking into the middle of the rotor a tiny bit) but I was planning on upgrading to m-performance BBK by the end of the year, the only problem was getting either yellow or orange, and I think I know my answer after this thread

Awesome!

P.S:

2 piston fronts?

Don't they come 4 front and 1 rear?

[daberlin]

Originally Posted by chaungo

Wow, orange looks nice on EBII.

I did my rear brakes (stock 1 pot rear) last friday and they were a PITA to do as the same caliper holding bolts you were talking about was stuck on, almost seized.

I had a buddy and myself on a bar adapter force it out before I put on tons of anti-seize on every bolt I removed.

The brake pad isn't flush (sticking into the middle of the rotor a tiny bit) but I was planning on upgrading to m-performance BBK by the end of the year, the only problem was getting either yellow or orange, and I think I know my answer after this thread

Awesome!

P.S:

2 piston fronts?

Don't they come 4 front and 1 rear?

You're right. Corrected my post.

Yellow ones are about $400 cheaper than Red or Orange. UVA alumni here. No way to not get anything but Blue and Orange :-)

[ShawnOST]

Wow! Looks great!

Do you have the specifics on what needs to be changed in the coding?

[steelerfan]

looks great man... my rear rotors were so stuck... i had to take a dead blow hammer to the back side of the rotor, they weren't coming off hammering on the front around the lug holes. My set screws were non issue.

I'm really surprised you had that must rust living in LA... that looks similar to something you were see up north... Even your retaining clips were rusted... i'm not sure what that cleaner is.. but i don't think i would use it...

Originally Posted by ShawnOST

Wow! Looks great!

Do you have the specifics on what needs to be changed in the coding?

I coded mine last week & would be curious if you could elaborate. the instructions in one of the post didn't exactly match up for me.. i was able to figure it out i believe but even after adding SPBR, and VO code DSC and I still had to manually change the rotor sizes.

[yoandry]

Looks good. My yellow ones were actually $700 less than orange/red.

For coding regarding what my dealer did. I went to add the SPBR folder but it was there so I just hit code DSC.

[_bdiddyb_]

wow, for an LA driver - that is some rusty rotor hat! Yup, impact driver + anti-seize took care of all the stuck bolts.

[daberlin]

Originally Posted by _bdiddyb_

wow, for an LA driver - that is some rusty rotor hat! Yup, impact driver + anti-seize took care of all the stuck bolts.

Ridiculous is more like it. This car is garage kept and has 14,000 miles on it. There is absolutely zero reason why the rotors rusted like this.

[daberlin]

Originally Posted by steelerfan

looks great man...

I coded mine last week & would be curious if you could elaborate. the instructions in one of the post didn't exactly match up for me.. i was able to figure it out i believe but even after adding SPBR, and VO code DSC and I still had to manually change the rotor sizes.

Thanks. I had the exact same issue I suspect - couldn't 'edit' the HO-Wort file like the online procedure stated (needed to enter 'new' instead and then enter SPBR) and performed the same manual task to change rotor size.