Brake upgrade for 03 roadster.

[misterawa]

I'm not try to go BBK or spend a ridiculous amount, so I'm considering Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors and textar ceramic pads for my 03 Z4 for a very reasonable price installed, including brake fluid flush, cleaning, and painting the calipers (black or silver). Let me know what you think about this set-up and whether I need to upgrade my brake lines. Thx!!!!

[Juice84]

Do you need the lines as in are you going to be rough on the brakes?

But since they are not that much I would say go ahead and do it since you are already doing a flush.

[pokeybritches]

What do you mean by "upgrade," as in what are your goals? Cosmetic? Performance? Too much brake dust?

If it's performance, I'd stick with blanks. Cross-drilled rotors are weaker than standard blank rotors. The extent that they are weaker is going to depend on the quality, and if they are cast or actually drilled. Blanks are going to have more surface area and more mass to absorb more heat. The only time cross-drilled rotors will really help you is if your pads start to melt, and the leading edges of the holes in the rotors (which normally eat up pads faster than standard blanks) will take off the very top layer and expose fresh pad underneath... or your pads bubble, and the cross-drilled holes allow that air to escape. But, if your brakes are that hot, you should probably be concerned with the cross-drilled rotors warping or cracking where normal blanks wouldn't.

If you are reaching the thermal limit of your brakes, I'd definitely recommend changing to a higher temp fluid (once it boils, it's ruined). Some of the track guys talk a lot about which pads to use; you could do a search and see which have worked out for them. Hope this helps!

[pokeybritches]

Edit: One more thing... there is usually a trade off with brake pads: race pads are much noisier than OEM. You'll also want to find out how much brake dust they produce. So, if you're looking for a cosmetic upgrade with painted calipers and cross-drilled rotors, you'll probably want to avoid squealing pads that will dirty up your wheels.

[misterawa]

Originally Posted by pokeybritches

What do you mean by "upgrade," as in what are your goals? Cosmetic? Performance? Too much brake dust?

If it's performance, I'd stick with blanks. Cross-drilled rotors are weaker than standard blank rotors. The extent that they are weaker is going to depend on the quality, and if they are cast or actually drilled. Blanks are going to have more surface area and more mass to absorb more heat. The only time cross-drilled rotors will really help you is if your pads start to melt, and the leading edges of the holes in the rotors (which normally eat up pads faster than standard blanks) will take off the very top layer and expose fresh pad underneath... or your pads bubble, and the cross-drilled holes allow that air to escape. But, if your brakes are that hot, you should probably be concerned with the cross-drilled rotors warping or cracking where normal blanks wouldn't.

If you are reaching the thermal limit of your brakes, I'd definitely recommend changing to a higher temp fluid (once it boils, it's ruined). Some of the track guys talk a lot about which pads to use; you could do a search and see which have worked out for them. Hope this helps!

That's a lot knowledge you have about brakes . The upgrade is for cosmetics, as wells as for less brake dust. I don't plan on tracking the car. The main reason I'm not going with OEM is because this is the first time I have to pay out of pocket for brakes and I'm getting a very good price on the Zimmerman/textar set-up! Thx for the info .

[misterawa]

Originally Posted by Juice84

Do you need the lines as in are you going to be rough on the brakes?

But since they are not that much I would say go ahead and do it since you are already doing a flush.

I probably won't be going too rough on the brakes, not much rougher than how I drive now . I'm most likely going to upgrade the lines too!

[Juice84]

You might want to consider slotted vs cross drilled if you can get a good price on them too.

[EAS]

I would definitely recommend slotted rotors over drilled or drilled & slotted for the same reasons mentioned above. You should also take a hard look at Cool Carbon Street performance pads.

We have many happy customers with this set up and with a good performance gain over OE pads. We also use them ourselves! Our great sale on CC pads ends tomorrow!

Enter coupon code: ccaugust15

[pokeybritches]

Originally Posted by david @ eas

I would definitely recommend slotted rotors over drilled or drilled & slotted

+1

Slotted can take off the top layer of the pad when it melts, and don't have the warping/cracking problems of a cheap set of drilled rotors. They look good and don't make (as much of) a mess of the pads like some drilled rotors. Cheap drilled rotors = pads don't last as long and generate more dust. And slotted rotors still look good!