[xxx7]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend brake pads which provide similar or better performance other than oem BMW pads?

Thanks

[xxx7]

Originally Posted by xxx7

Hi,

Can anyone recommend brake pads which provide similar or better performance other than oem BMW pads?

Thanks

Sorry was meant to say similar or better performance than BMW brake pads..

[suff]

Either EBC Greenstuff from ECS Tuning, or Cool Carbon.

I have the Greenstuff and have had them for years on various cars, dusty but good pads. Cool Carbon's get some rave reviews in the US, but haven't tried them myself

[NBTBRV8]

What's wrong with OEM? OEM are Textar too.

[xxx7]

Originally Posted by suff

Either EBC Greenstuff from ECS Tuning, or Cool Carbon.

I have the Greenstuff and have had them for years on various cars, dusty but good pads. Cool Carbon's get some rave reviews in the US, but haven't tried them myself

Thanks Suff.

Im looking at different brake pads because I reckon the standard ones are dusty. Looks like I'll stay away from the Greenstuff but will check out Cool Carbons.

[yru12bnvs]

I've used Akebono and EBD Reds on my CL500 in the past. I was very pleased with Akebono, good pedal feel and nearly dustless.

[SharifE]

EBC redstuff.
Excellent Performance and noticeably less brake dust.

Originally Posted by xxx7

Hi,

Can anyone recommend brake pads which provide similar or better performance other than oem BMW pads?

Thanks

[WOPALX]

Just installed some Hawk Performance street pads and DBA 4000 series rotors.

Good pedal feel (improving still as they bed in), not a huge amount of dust (compared to OEM) and quiet (no rattles or squeals).

Got them from Turner Motorsports in the US, they included FOC the sensors (but they did accidentally send 2 x front sensors rather than 1 each for the front & rear).

[johnnydad]

I've tried Greenstuffs on Libertys, Lotus and on my Renault. I chucked them in the bin only 20% worn with the Clio and replaced them with DS2500. Found Greenstuffs recalcitrant when cold, soggy pedal feel with poor modulation and scary levels of fade compared to OEM and Ferodo.

OEM BMW pads are fantastic IMHO. Never had noticeable fade in the hardest driving and they have great bite and progression.

Stuart - do you reckon the Hawks are much better?

[suff]

Originally Posted by johnnydad

I've tried Greenstuffs on Libertys, Lotus and on my Renault. I chucked them in the bin only 20% worn with the Clio and replaced them with DS2500. Found Greenstuffs recalcitrant when cold, soggy pedal feel with poor modulation and scary levels of fade compared to OEM and Ferodo.

OEM BMW pads are fantastic IMHO. Never had noticeable fade in the hardest driving and they have great bite and progression.

Stuart - do you reckon the Hawks are much better?

Out of interest, when was the last time you tried the EBC's? I know they changed the compound for the Greens about 2-3 years ago, and it was a huge improvement (as evidenced on one of my old liberties)

[VGR00]

Originally Posted by NBTBRV8

What's wrong with OEM? OEM are Textar too.

Interesting .... I'm about to need front pads and rotors and if this is correct, I've seen some kits advertised on Ebay which would save me $$ instead of taking it to the dealer. Any time I've used aftermarket pads on other cars, I've never been happy (especially on BMW's) hence why I'm interested for further confirmation on this statement. I can live with the brake dust of the OEM and will never sacrafice brake performance again.

[WOPALX]

Originally Posted by johnnydad

I've tried Greenstuffs on Libertys, Lotus and on my Renault. I chucked them in the bin only 20% worn with the Clio and replaced them with DS2500. Found Greenstuffs recalcitrant when cold, soggy pedal feel with poor modulation and scary levels of fade compared to OEM and Ferodo.

OEM BMW pads are fantastic IMHO. Never had noticeable fade in the hardest driving and they have great bite and progression.

Stuart - do you reckon the Hawks are much better?

I've not really had a chance to push the new pads & rotors yet. I'd say they are not fully bedded in as they keep getting noticeably better after each drive.

I've always thought that the stock pads and rotors on the 335 were excellent compared to other cars I've owned and driven. Mainly went with these rotors for a little less fade on back runs / track days.

[johnnydad]

Originally Posted by suff

Out of interest, when was the last time you tried the EBC's? I know they changed the compound for the Greens about 2-3 years ago, and it was a huge improvement (as evidenced on one of my old liberties)

Lib was over 3 years ago. The Lotus and Renault are both current, the Renault's certainly only a few months old.

[johnnydad]

Originally Posted by WOPALX

I've not really had a chance to push the new pads & rotors yet. I'd say they are not fully bedded in as they keep getting noticeably better after each drive.

I've always thought that the stock pads and rotors on the 335 were excellent compared to other cars I've owned and driven. Mainly went with these rotors for a little less fade on back runs / track days.

Thanks - likewise pretty happy with OEM, but then the 325i doesn't speed up as quickly as M THIS either I would guess...

[NBTBRV8]

Originally Posted by vgr02

Interesting .... I'm about to need front pads and rotors and if this is correct, I've seen some kits advertised on Ebay which would save me $$ instead of taking it to the dealer. Any time I've used aftermarket pads on other cars, I've never been happy (especially on BMW's) hence why I'm interested for further confirmation on this statement. I can live with the brake dust of the OEM and will never sacrafice brake performance again.

Have you priced them from www.bmminiparts.com?

[xxx7]

Thanks guys appreciate the info. The change of brake pads is for the wife's car and even though she's no speedster I wont sacrifice braking performance for less brake dust..

Its just that I love a clean car.. It bugs me when the wheels start turning black pretty much after the first drive after a wash, but the rest of the car is still clean lol.. If the feedback is aftermarket brake pads either emit more brake dust or provide less performance then ill stick to OEM.

Noob questions - are the sensors which indicate brake pads have reached the safe limit for wear required to be changed when changing pads?

Will replacing the sensors automatically get rid of the dash warning light?

Originally Posted by SharifE

EBC redstuff.
Excellent Performance and noticeably less brake dust.

Sharif - I've done a little reading about EBC brake pads and the redstuff sounds ok. When you say noticeably less brake dust are you comparing it to the Greenstuff or OEM?

Thanks again

[NBTBRV8]

Originally Posted by xxx7

Thanks guys appreciate the info. The change of brake pads is for the wife's car and even though she's no speedster I wont sacrifice braking performance for less brake dust..

Its just that I love a clean car.. It bugs me when the wheels start turning black pretty much after the first drive after a wash, but the rest of the car is still clean lol.. If the feedback is aftermarket brake pads either emit more brake dust or provide less performance then ill stick to OEM.

Noob questions - are the sensors which indicate brake pads have reached the safe limit for wear required to be changed when changing pads?

Will replacing the sensors automatically get rid of the dash warning light?




Sharif - I've done a little reading about EBC brake pads and the redstuff sounds ok. When you say noticeably less brake dust are you comparing it to the Greenstuff or OEM?

Thanks again

Yes you must change the sensors, even if the light is not on.

[WOPALX]

Originally Posted by NBTBRV8

Yes you must change the sensors, even if the light is not on.

No you dont.....

Firstly they are fragile so when I've removed them I have lost the copper strip & once I snapped one of the bastards ... so if you were gentle and removed them in one piece then you can re-use them when simply doing a pad change. The cavat here is you can only do this if they have not illuminated the 'brakes worn' light.

The earlier style that just has a brake warning light (no countdown) - then assuming the light is not illuminated (i.e. the sensor is not worn through) you can reuse the sensor if you don't break it on removal. If you do replace the sensor then the warning light will automatically go away when a new sensor is plugged in assuming the original sensor was warn though enough to cause the light on your dash.

If your iDrive has a CBS countdown for your brake wear then replacing the sensor is perhaps necessary and you need to reset CBS using the stalk or BMW/Bav Tech tool plugged into the OBD port to restart the countdown/wear estimate. I've not tried but the sensor is a simple open/closed circuit, so I assume CBS is just guesstimating brake wear based on driving style / klms like it does with oil so you could probably reuse a sensor that has not worn through and reset just the countdown.

My car came with the CBS countdown for brake wear but it was causing errors, so eventually BMW reprogrammed my car to remove that feature so I have the simple on/off wear indicator.

Keep in mind the rear sensor is longer than the front sensor ... when I ordered my new pads the supplier gave me 2 fronts. So I used a front sensor for the rear pads and it's simply tucked into the wheel arch & will manually check for wear until I get a new one of the correct length.

[NBTBRV8]

Originally Posted by WOPALX

No you dont.....

Firstly they are fragile so when I've removed them I have lost the copper strip & once I snapped one of the bastards ... so if you were gentle and removed them in one piece then you can re-use them when simply doing a pad change. The cavat here is you can only do this if they have not illuminated the 'brakes worn' light.

The earlier style that just has a brake warning light (no countdown) - then assuming the light is not illuminated (i.e. the sensor is not worn through) you can reuse the sensor if you don't break it on removal. If you do replace the sensor then the warning light will automatically go away when a new sensor is plugged in assuming the original sensor was warn though enough to cause the light on your dash.

If your iDrive has a CBS countdown for your brake wear then replacing the sensor is perhaps necessary and you need to reset CBS using the stalk or BMW/Bav Tech tool plugged into the OBD port to restart the countdown/wear estimate. I've not tried but the sensor is a simple open/closed circuit, so I assume CBS is just guesstimating brake wear based on driving style / klms like it does with oil so you could probably reuse a sensor that has not worn through and reset just the countdown.

My car came with the CBS countdown for brake wear but it was causing errors, so eventually BMW reprogrammed my car to remove that feature so I have the simple on/off wear indicator.

Keep in mind the rear sensor is longer than the front sensor ... when I ordered my new pads the supplier gave me 2 fronts. So I used a front sensor for the rear pads and it's simply tucked into the wheel arch & will manually check for wear until I get a new one of the correct length.

I would have agreed with you until I had to do some brakes on an E90 recently. The warning light was not on prior to the pad and rotor change and I carefully removed the sensor from the old pads. After I fitted the new pads the sensor came on straight away and would not reset. I bought a new sensor and it reset straight away.

I asked a BMW master tech about this and he advised:

If it is the car uses the CBS service system that is component based servicing , with the brake pads the abs/dsc control unit calculates the wear rate of the brake pads using data from driver inputs and the pad sensor. If you look at the pad sensor there is a good 4-5 mm of pad material when the sensor touches the disc. On older systems the warning light would come on at 3 mm but on the this system the pad sensor would be in contact with the disc but not necessarily come come on because the driving style and type braking by the driver will be taken into account and the pads may last many thousands of miles if the driver does light braking or a few hundred miles if the driver uses the car on track days etc with very heavy braking.

What can happen if the pads are replaced but not the sensor is that the dsc unit will not be able to calculate the wear rate of the brake pads because the sensor loop is broken. This can in some cases trigger a fault code in the dsc of implausible brake wear and this fault needs to be deleted before the CBS service indicator counter can be reset. In some cases the sensor will have to be replaced before it is possible to delete the fault code.[/I]

So it is no longer as simple as seeing if the sensor wire is worn through.

[WOPALX]

The sensor is a simple closed or open circuit, it cannot calculate wear % as it's either on or off. The other systems in the car give you the CBS %/time amount as an estimate based in driving style.

Do a test, when your CBS says your pads are 50% worn have the tech reset the CBS data, it will then give you a vastly different number as you've told it the pads are new and it knows no better!

Bently manual, section 340-13, indicates the sensor should be replaced if the MIL is illuminated. It also indicates it's fragile and should only be used once.

The sensors are very fragile, I have also had to replace an otherwise okay looking one to get rid of the mil light, even though the pads and sensor were brand new.

Originally Posted by NBTBRV8

I would have agreed with you until I had to do some brakes on an E90 recently. The warning light was not on prior to the pad and rotor change and I carefully removed the sensor from the old pads. After I fitted the new pads the sensor came on straight away and would not reset. I bought a new sensor and it reset straight away.

I asked a BMW master tech about this and he advised:

If it is the car uses the CBS service system that is component based servicing , with the brake pads the abs/dsc control unit calculates the wear rate of the brake pads using data from driver inputs and the pad sensor. If you look at the pad sensor there is a good 4-5 mm of pad material when the sensor touches the disc. On older systems the warning light would come on at 3 mm but on the this system the pad sensor would be in contact with the disc but not necessarily come come on because the driving style and type braking by the driver will be taken into account and the pads may last many thousands of miles if the driver does light braking or a few hundred miles if the driver uses the car on track days etc with very heavy braking.

What can happen if the pads are replaced but not the sensor is that the dsc unit will not be able to calculate the wear rate of the brake pads because the sensor loop is broken. This can in some cases trigger a fault code in the dsc of implausible brake wear and this fault needs to be deleted before the CBS service indicator counter can be reset. In some cases the sensor will have to be replaced before it is possible to delete the fault code.[/I]

So it is no longer as simple as seeing if the sensor wire is worn through.

[xxx7]

Wow, didn't know it was so technical..

At the moment EBC redstuff pads sounds the go for me.. Looks like I may as well replace the sensors..

Thanks

[Dan320]

I recently bought my front/rear disc and pads from http://www.bmwpartsonline.com.au/bmw , they supply BMW oem parts and their price are good, cost me under $700 delivered inc wear sensors.