[ErikB]

Figured I would share my last project since other shared F30/F32 swaps using other brackets. I was going to get the brackets from Kern417, but after looking at the rears, I decided on the Seems Legit Garage adapter plates. I liked how they made recessed bolts and both adapters simply spaced the calipers out radially without an clocking shift or offset.


Anyway, issues I ran into:
On the rear, es, you have to cut the dust shield backing plate to clear the bracket mounting bolts. What I found is that the drum brake portion of the hat extended further in and was pressing on the e-brake backing plate. I used angled tin snips to trim the plate about 4mm smaller all around. Leaving just enough to keep the pads in place but clear the drum hat. The big dust shield, I was just able to bed it inwards all around to make clearance for the new disc rotor. The only other thing I noticed is that the retaining/fixing bolt hole on the F80 rotor doesn't line up with the hole on the hub flange. Not a big deal. Everything else bolted up perfect, no clearance issues with the caliper itself.



On the front, dust shield was fine. Adapter and caliper mounted fine. I am reusing my stock 340mm calipers and hawk 5.0 pads (nearly new). With the SLG front bracket, I found the center center hole spacing was 23mm, not 20mm as you might guess. This made the hawk pads sit past the outer edge of the rotor by a few mm. I asked SLG and they said that was in order to clear aftermarket 2 piece rotor hats. So, I tossed some OEM pads in I had, and they sat flush to the edge. Weird. So I used a step drill bit and small file to extend the holes in the pad backing a few mm. These are the holes that the retaining pins go through. This did the trick, the spring clips and pis keep the pads in place flush with the outer edge of the rotor. Minor issue solved, must just be a hawk pad thing.


I did a full bleed and proper break in and they definitely have more power, from 60 I am at the limit of front tire grip. The 340mm rotors didn't do that. So while this wasn't a real cheap upgrade, it was something I have wanted to do for a while and it looks and performs better.


Side note, front rotors added 1.9lbs per wheel and the rears almost 4lbs each. Not a big deal since I already lost a ton with the VS-5RS wheels haha.


Anyway, thats my write up, I hadn't seen anyone with the rears completed on a F36, so maybe this will help someone out.

[Crispydips]

Good Day,

First off, the full f8x set looks great on the car!

I'm looking at doing this conversion myself for my f30 340i. I purchased a full f80 brake set (Calipers and Rotors) and I'm going to be using kern's front bracket mounts as they seem pretty straight forward in just changing out the caliper bushings. For the rear set, I'm looking at using SLG's rear bracket. These should work on the 2-piston M3 rear calipers as well? You mentioned that you cut dust shield backing plate to clear the bracket mounting bolts by 4mm. Did you have to make any altercations the the ebrake/parking brake? on SLG's site they state that you may need to slightly trim the brake shield/ebrake, so just seeing if that was the case for you ? Any advice that you have before i tackle this project in the coming weeks would be greatly appreciated lol. EDIT: Also do you have to make any altercations to the rear caliper body?

[ErikB]

Originally Posted by Crispydips

Good Day,

First off, the full f8x set looks great on the car!

I'm looking at doing this conversion myself for my f30 340i. I purchased a full f80 brake set (Calipers and Rotors) and I'm going to be using kern's front bracket mounts as they seem pretty straight forward in just changing out the caliper bushings. For the rear set, I'm looking at using SLG's rear bracket. These should work on the 2-piston M3 rear calipers as well? You mentioned that you cut dust shield backing plate to clear the bracket mounting bolts by 4mm. Did you have to make any altercations the the ebrake/parking brake? on SLG's site they state that you may need to slightly trim the brake shield/ebrake, so just seeing if that was the case for you ? Any advice that you have before i tackle this project in the coming weeks would be greatly appreciated lol. EDIT: Also do you have to make any altercations to the rear caliper body?

Thanks! Yes, the dust shield diameter needs to be trimmed some to clear the drum portion of the hat. I used tin snips, the metal isnt too hard to cut. I also unbolted it so it would rotate and make more clearance for the snips. The pads and all that are fine, work like normal. Its just the small dust shield hits that portion of the hat.


When you have the e-brake shoes adjusted in all the way, just trim enough so the edge is the same as the edge of the shoes. Theres a pic above of the metal I trimmed off, here is a link to the ebrake shield
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...mm-34216771430


As far as the rear caliper are concerned, the 2 pistons all work for this swap, OE part numbers 34216799461 and 34216799462. The 2 piston rear calipers for a 345mm rear brake will work. Many cars F2x, F3x, F4x and f8x (370mm) use them.

[Jaik]

Thanks for posting ErikB

I am currently trying to install SLG adapters on F20 M140i with OEM BMW M3 rotors and have some fitment concerns that I'm in discussion with SLG over.

Rear
- Firstly, the wheel carrier bolts included in my kit had 25mm of thread, whereas the thickness of the included washer, the carrier and the adapter were 22.5mm. As you know the carrier bolt cannot protrude past the adapter... so I figured I could work around this with adding another 2mm washer between the included washer and the carrier. No biggy to have to go to the hardware store and find something appropriate, but still not ideal.

- Secondly, after getting the caliper and adapter mounted, the rotor was not centred in the caliper. I had caliper-to-rotor contact on the inside; thus 0mm of clearance, and on the outward side I had 4mm of clearance. To centre the rotor the caliper would have to move inboard 2mm closer to the wheel carrier - and the only way to accomplish that would be to have a bracket that is 5.5mm instead of 7.5mm. There is absolutely no way to make this bracket and F20 wheel carrier work... which in itself is interesting because the wheel carrier is NOT the same as F30 or F31, but is the same as F33 and F36 - which you have. To which I note I did not have any interference with the dust shield and handbrake mount plates that you did. All F2X carriers are the same according to RealOEM, so I do wonder how this clearance issue exists for me. I was also just about to mount my custom 185mm hand brake shoes that I made to suit new rotor/my carrier... what a PITA to roll back mid job only to put 160mm kit back on.

As a side note, I tried to estimate the thickness of your caliper mount tabs on the carrier based on the SLG bracket being 7.5mm thick and the included washers being 3mm. I estimate your carrier mounts to be between 16 and 17mm, whereas mine are 12.5mm.

- Thirdly, the caliper is offset too far, so the pad overhangs off the outside edge of the rotor by 1.5-2mm.

Fronts
- Firstly - the idea that a bracket that would extend your caliper 20mm to facilitate an OEM 380mm rotor is excellent. However, 23mm has introduced 2 unacceptable caveats that are not listed on their website - and nor is there any such explanation around the so called "benefit" of supporting other 2 piece rotors. The issue for me is that 23mm does mean your factory brake pads are now approx 1.5mm off the edge of the rotor. I do NOT believe anyone doing brake upgrades would accept a reduction in friction material contact patch in this scenario. My OEM pads do not make 100% contact with the rotor now, and its very evident when you observe the gap between the inner edge of the friction ring and the lower edge of the pad. I also measured the distance between the top of the caliper and the leading edge of the rotor ring - and between OEM 340mm rotor and 380mm rotor & bracket - bang on 3mm increase in caliper height. (29.5mm vs 32.6mm)

- Secondly, the tallest part of the caliper and the brake pad ears now interfere with the OEM style 719M wheels on the widest part of the barrel (not the narrowest near the spokes). I am already running a 12mm spacer. This interference would not exist if it were not for the 3mm of gratuity in the mount.

The website says Wheel Requirements: Wheels must have a barrel of 17" or greater to clear this setup. Fits most 18" wheels. In response to this claim, a 17inch barrel would be 431.8mm in diameter, or a radius of 215.9mm. Let's break down what we have.

190mm - Rotor Radius
+ 32.6mm - Distance of rotor edge to top of caliper/brake pad ears
= 222.6mm Radius / 445.2mm Diameter
Result: You are 13.4mm beyond a 17inch barrel. You are never fitting this kit in a 17inch diameter barrel, ever.

Wrap Up
Don't get me wrong, the SLG brackets are the best of what's available in the market, but there are clearly some things known by them (as you've replayed to us here about 23mm and aftermarket rotors) that they simply don't put on their website - that would enable consumers to make an informed choice around whether or not the benefits outweigh the caveats. This is what upsets me the most, not to mention the lost time and effort trying to fit this stuff only to be faced with dealbreakers mid job and have to roll back all the changes, start measuring stuff to see why things are not looking right, etc etc.

I am hoping there is a solution to both of these problems.
- For the rear bracket issue, SLG have said they've never seen this issue before, so I will either need to a) Look at Kern417's kit or make something similar that mounts the caliper from the other side of the carrier, or look at F30 carriers and see if this bracket and one of those will work - and scope out whether I can retrofit them or not.

- For the front bracket issue, I'll see if a 20mm bracket can come to fruition for customers who care not for the feature of supporting non-OEM rotors, or see if SLG are interested in creating eccentric caliper bushes to bring that 3mm back in check, or I'll look at Kern417s brackets.

Cheers!