Brake changes?

[keen 6]

I have a F/L e30 318 and the wof man says it would be wise to fit new brake lines as the present ones are on the way out.No problem with that but I was thinking stainless to replace.I know extra cost but longer lasting and better feel I'm told.Is this correct? also the car has 16 in Schnitzer rims and was wondering if I had a bracket made and moved the calipers out and put larger discs on if that would be good bang for bucks? And can someone here put me onto a stainless supplier that is good value or who has some secondhand ones they are wanting to sell?

[Forrest 35]

^ Just upgrade to E30 325i 51mm front struts, that way you can run bigger 260mm front discs and larger calipers, obviously you will need bigger diameter front shocks also 45mm vs 51mm. Also if your car has a drum braked rear end, a disc rear end swap is beneficial too. Braided lines are excellent and not much more expensive in the long run.

[keen 6]

Thanks for that I'm lucky that it has the 325 front struts already and rear disc's also.But there is still a lot of room for a larger disc's and I thought that could increase braking further by going down that road.

[JiB 0]

Caliper brackets will need a cert $400 or more.

Rotor problems in order of difficulty:

-bell height

-thickness

-hubcentricity

-stud pattern

Good luck finding a rotor that matches all of the above! IIRC, some Citreon ones might do the trick.

Caliper problems:

-the pad area won't utilise all of the rotor surface (defeats the purpose somewhat)

-caliper internal radius will be designed for a smaller rotor, monoblock calipers can be machined to work, not sure about the poo BMW sliding callipers

However, going to a larger caliper will still have problems:

-wheel clearance issues

-BMC size

-plumbing

Cater about $1500 to do it right, this is not including pads, fluids, etc. But if you're still interested, I think there's details of my brakes in my build thread. (4 piston monoblock 300mm, front. 2 piston monoblock 296mm rear).

To be honest? On a 318? Don't bother, spend the money on stainless lines and bushes. A caliper rebuild if you're really keen.

edit: I think "Sammy J" might have a better solution than my BBK setup if you're adament on bigger brakes

Edited October 28, 2009 by JiB

[keen 6]

Hey that was a fantastic explanation, I now understand perfectly.I had intended to stay with the same calipers just move them out further onto a bigger disc.My thoughts were that the circumference is enlarged giving greater stopping power and as there was more room now. But I think that I will start with the stainless lines.And if anyone can direct me to the place to go that will be good and maybe the bigger brake option will have to die off.What started this was I saw that EBC had different size discs for the same car and I thought why was that?

[JiB 0]

The greater the distance from the centre of the hub = greater the force on the hub (leverage). But you shouldn't ignore other factors like the ones I mentioned in the above post.

Different disc sizes can be for different trim levels/facelift/region specific models = different brake systems. For example, DC5 Type R's of the same year and trim level would have different brakes. The ones from Japan had 4 piston Brembos, whilst the ones form NZ have pathetic single piston jobbies = hence different rotor sizes.