New brakes finally worn in now

(posted this on bimmer.org first because it's easier to copy and paste)

Okay, it's been about 3 weeks since I had put on larger 328i brakes on my 323Ci. It looks like the pads have been nicely worn in...It's about time to write up a little about them.

First off, I have a 323Ci with sports package, and some minor modifications. If you are looking to upgrade your 323 brakes be sure that you either have the Sports Package or Premium Package, or get the coupe so you'll have 16" or larger wheels...Since the larger rotors will NOT clear 15" wheels. My wife has a relatively stock 323Ci, the only difference between the two are the sports package (my car), automatic transmission (her car), and color...All options are identical. Last week I had the "opportunity" to drive her car for a short period of time and was shocked at how "mushy" her brakes are. It takes almost 1/3 pedal travel before I can feel any sort of brake engagement. Anyway, I chose to flush her fluids today so now we both have new, fresh brake fluids in our systems, her's ATE Superblue, mine's ATE Type 200 (spec wise they're identical brake fluids, except one's blue and one's piss yellow). I'm using her car as the control for the "stock" comparison.

I upgraded my brake rotors to 328i size all around, that's 12" up front and 11.6 in the back as oppose to the 11.2 up front and 10.8 in the rear on the 323Ci (if I remember correctly). I bought a whole set of original Brembo rotors from Gino Yan at Elite Auto, www.elitauto.ca (one of the board sponsors...Give them some business, eh?) as well as Pagid street pads. From what I read the Pagid street is very close to OEM pads in compound and performance for about 1/2 the price. 328, 325 and 323 all share the identical brake pads, so parts are easy to come by. The only additional parts that I needed were front and rear brake carriers...And those came out to be MORE than the pads and rotors. Anyway, I've enclosed the URL to the post I made on bimmerfest.com regarding the installation, sorry for the lack of pictures but my hands were dirty.

At first the brakes didn't feel stronger or grippier. Obviously the pads hasn't worn in properly yet. However, lately I've noticed a slight increase in brake performance, the pads feels a lot grippier now that they've worn in. Since the increase in brake performance has been very gradual, it's hard to do a good comparison between before and after, so I'm using my wife's car as the control now...I'm used to the way my car brakes, now let's see how her car brakes. First thing I noticed is that the larger brakes are SNAPPIER, I feel the brake grab and slowdown the car with less pedal travel on my car vs. her car. Second is a little tendency to rock back a little when I come to a full stop...The smaller brakes makes for a smoother braking, the larger brakes makes for a slight "stabby" feeling. It's a little hard to judge brake performance since her car is much heavier than mine (due to automatic transmission adding some weight), and without some actual measurement I can only go by feel, but I can say that upgrading the brakes has improved the performance from "great" to "phenominal". I can only imagine what it would feel like if I had opted for the 330i brakes instead.

I have yet to have an opportunity to test brake fade, but stuck in L.A. traffic yesterday for 1/2 hour of none stop brake application with my car didn't yield a scintella of brake fade. The only way to tell is if I ever go on the tracks to see if the Brembo rotors are a true improvement over stock rotors...California Speedway in June, anyone?

Anyway, if you have a few miles under your 323 and your brakes are in need of replacing, instead of paying up to $600 for a brake job this would be a better alternative. I wouldn't suggest anyone DIY unless you have the proper tools and have had experience working on brakes before. Personally I think a trained monkey can do this, but if you do not feel confident working on your own car, it's a 2 hour job and labor shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred bucks.

The Bentley manual takes great pains to warn not to flush the brake system without using a MoDIC to access the car's brake flushing program. Apparently, this program activates some hydraulic pumps in a certain order to properly flush the system. (kinda cool, eh?) How did you flush your system? Do you think it matters that you didn't do it that way? That's my only hesitation about doing my own brakes when the time comes.

One other small thing-- the front 328/25 brakes are 11.8". Glad you're happy w/ the new brakes.

Would you also be able to list the tools that you used? I have the Bentley- but just wanted to see what you actually needed and used.

Originally posted by robg

The Bentley manual takes great pains to warn not to flush the brake system without using a MoDIC to access the car's brake flushing program. Apparently, this program activates some hydraulic pumps in a certain order to properly flush the system. (kinda cool, eh?) How did you flush your system? Do you think it matters that you didn't do it that way? That's my only hesitation about doing my own brakes when the time comes.

I flushed my brake lines before the Bentley manual was available, and I didn't know anything about using the MoDIC to flush breaks. I just pressurized my pressure bleeding (made by Motive) to 26psi and just did it myself. Afterwards I brake real hard and the ABS worked just fine. I guess if you really want to properly flush your ABS you could do it twice, but that's kindda a PITA.

Would you also be able to list the tools that you used? I have the Bentley- but just wanted to see what you actually needed and used.

The Bentley isn't all that useful for this, try this link: http://my330i.com/mod9.php

btw, Dan, why did u use Type 200? the SuperBlue comes in Red and Blue so you could alternate between the 2.

--Andrew

1) What was the approximate cost of this upgrade?
2) What's a MoDIC? (I'll resist the smart a$% comment)

The main difference I noticed between my 325 and Rips 330 was brakes, they seemed about 20% more responsive than the 325.

Thanks!

Originally posted by in_d_haus
2) What's a MoDIC? (I'll resist the smart a$% comment)
Thanks!

Mobil Diagnosztikai Számítógép (MODIC)
A Diagnosztikai és Információs Rendszer "öccse" a legáltalánosabban igényelt diagnosztikai funkciókkal rendelkezik. A szervizelést végzô számára már a jármûnek a mûhelybe való leadásakor gyors és átfogó diagnosztikai vizsgálat elvégzését teszi lehetôvé.

I think MoDiC is BMW's mobile diagnostic computer, the MoDiC can communicate with your vehicle via a radio interface.

Ask Google for more info...

--Andrew

So what language is that? Texan?

Originally posted by in_d_haus
So what language is that? Texan?

I have no clue, I just copy and paste it from some BMW website... looks cool tho, right? =)