[sx33]

Originally Posted by feuer

I'm the first who did this mode and this is what I did.

So, I should mill the tabs from the inside of the caliper right?
is it 1 or 2 mm? You wrote that the tab should be 12mm, but assuming it's casted and painted it might be different from model to model, it's quite critical weither it is 1 or 2 mm do you recall if you milled 1 or 2mm?

I read the thread and if I understood correctly, I would be able to reuse my 335i rear rotors? Since they are the same size?

Also for the rears, you say to widen the hole, is this really necessary? will the caliper touch the rotor otherwise? Do you recall how much you had to widen the hole?

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sx33

So, I should mill the tabs from the inside of the caliper right?

No, on the out side.

Originally Posted by sx33

is it 1 or 2 mm? You wrote that the tab should be 12mm, but assuming it's casted and painted it might be different from model to model, it's quite critical weither it is 1 or 2 mm do you recall if you milled 1 or 2mm?

No, neither, you need to mill the tubs down to about 12mm (to match the tubs on your existing calipers) you you need to mill down about 8 to 10mm. No, 1 or 2 mm won't make that much of difference really.

Originally Posted by sx33

I read the thread and if I understood correctly, I would be able to reuse my 335i rear rotors? Since they are the same size?

No, the rotors are not the same size but you can use them since is very unlikely that you can drill out the mounting points to match the new rotor 100% without removing the assembly of the car.

Originally Posted by sx33

Also for the rears, you say to widen the hole, is this really necessary? will the caliper touch the rotor otherwise? Do you recall how much you had to widen the hole?

Yes, needs to be widen because the new calipers use larger diameter bolt. The hole need to clear the bolt. I advice to elongate the hole in order to center the new rotor better. If re-using the old rotor elongating is not necessary.



If you use f30 rotor you need to remove the dust shield or modify it ( you have to modify it regardless to clear the f30 caliper) I ditched mine.

I did this on the fly, at night and didn't took any measurements. I rarely do. The job is simple. You just need to have both calipers in your possession and little engineering knowledge

Let me know if you have more questions.

[techwhiz]

My brakes are sitting at FedEx. Pick up on the way home.
Take rear calipers to machine shop in the morning.

Maybe install his week..
I'll take lots of pics.

[techwhiz]

Box dropped at the house by FedEx.
It's a biiiiiggggg box.
The one thing, those rotors are huge! You don't realize how big unless they are off the car!
The yellow is more gold.
Pics to follow.

[LMB335IS]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Box dropped at the house by FedEx.
It's a biiiiiggggg box.
The one thing, those rotors are huge! You don't realize how big unless they are off the car!
The yellow is more gold.
Pics to follow.

Do a step by step if at all possible. I really want to do this as well.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by LMB335IS

Do a step by step if at all possible. I really want to do this as well.

It will be quite a few.

[dragazn]

Originally Posted by LMB335IS

Do a step by step if at all possible. I really want to do this as well.

+1

[techwhiz]

Calipers are at the machinist.
Had to find someone that understands cars.

I knew of a couple but none were close.
I found one through a race car fabricator Driftcave.com here in San Jose.
I'm using the guy they used. Going to cost about $150-200 to have the calipers tabs machined down to 12mm.

The tabs are about 16.9mm +/- .1 (Variance due to stack up).
He said he could get the tabs to 12 mm +/- some reasonable tolerance.
He needs to set up something custom to hold the caliper.

Brake lines and all the other stuff arrives tomorrow.
Probably will start late next week. Looks like a 2-3 day project, mostly for the rear brake disassembly/reassembly, master cyl install and bleeding.

My rear brakes are toast so I need to do something anyway.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Calipers are at the machinist.
Had to find someone that understands cars.

I knew of a couple but none were close.
I found one through a race car fabricator Driftcave.com here in San Jose.
I'm using the guy they used. Going to cost about $150-200 to have the calipers tabs machined down to 12mm.

The tabs are about 16.9mm +/- .1 (Variance due to stack up).
He said he could get the tabs to 12 mm +/- some reasonable tolerance.
He needs to set up something custom to hold the caliper.

Brake lines and all the other stuff arrives tomorrow.
Probably will start late next week. Looks like a 2-3 day project, mostly for the rear brake disassembly/reassembly, master cyl install and bleeding.

My rear brakes are toast so I need to do something anyway.

The tabs need to match your existing caliper carriers.
Would not hurt if you re-measure again.
I did it on the fly but I'm confident they need to be 12mm +/-
You can use stationary (bench) drill and C lamp to hold the caliper in place.
It will sit on the are where the piston is which is almost 100% flat.
Spay paint the machine part because the aluminum will oxidized.
To remove the rear dust shield you will have to cut it off.
If you want to keep the dust shiled you still need to cut wider opening to clear the calipers.
To much work on that so I just disposed mine.
The parking brake shoes are on a separate plate.
Be careful elongating the holes on the hub mounting tubs.
Drill and widen outward > away from the hub center.
Take your time for the master cylinder. The are is tight.
Be careful re-attaching the lines onto the cylinder.
The material is soft and is easy to cross tread the nuts.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by feuer

The tabs need to match your existing caliper carriers.
Would not hurt if you re-measure again.
I did it on the fly but I'm confident they need to be 12mm +/-
You can use stationary (bench) drill and C lamp to hold the caliper in place.
It will sit on the are where the piston is which is almost 100% flat.
Spay paint the machine part because the aluminum will oxidized.
To remove the rear dust shield you will have to cut it off.
If you want to keep the dust shiled you still need to cut wider opening to clear the calipers.
To much work on that so I just disposed mine.
The parking brake shoes are on a separate plate.
Be careful elongating the holes on the hub mounting tubs.
Drill and widen outward > away from the hub center.
Take your time for the master cylinder. The are is tight.
Be careful re-attaching the lines onto the cylinder.
The material is soft and is easy to cross tread the nuts.

I didn't pull the car apart before taking the calipers to be done.
So if they take a little much, I can use a small spacer on them. If not enough, then I'll be on a drill press or back at the machine shop. I figured I could do it myself on a drill press with a blind drill but decided a machine shop would be better and look cleaner.

I have a cutting wheel so I'll cut the space larger for the dust shields.

I have a Dremmel and plan to bevel the edge of the hole so the drill bit will
center outward.

Thanks for the reminder, the master is aluminum and I know slow and easy with my fingers only to get things started correctly. If you can't start them and get them moving with fingers alone then stop.

Thanks for the tips.

[sx33]

The shields that are included in the kit, won't they fit the E9x at all?

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sx33

The shields that are included in the kit, won't they fit the E9x at all?

No, they will not.

[sx33]

Originally Posted by feuer

No, they will not.

Not even front?
I assume the E9x shields will be to small?
Would be great to have some sort of shield behind the rotor.

You are running completly shieldless front + rear?

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sx33

Not even front?
I assume the E9x shields will be to small?
Would be great to have some sort of shield behind the rotor.
You are running completly shieldless front + rear?

The front requires small mod, only one hole need to be drilled, which I have done since i wanted to add cooling ducts.
On my VW I'm running without dust shields.
Shields are better only if you have ducts.

[techwhiz]

Pulled it all apart to swap pads in the rear since they were low and probably won't last for a couple of weeks.

The tabs on the original bracket are nominally 12.5mm.
So machining the Brembo tabs to 12mm will be fine.

I'm good.

[sx33]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Pulled it all apart to swap pads in the rear since they were low and probably won't last for a couple of weeks.

The tabs on the original bracket are nominally 12.5mm.
So machining the Brembo tabs to 12mm will be fine.

I'm good.

Any updates?

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by sx33

Any updates?

Yes, picked up the calipers this morning.
I'll have pics. The machinist that did the work is good.
Had to make a fixture that bolted from the inside to hold the caliper.
Machined exactly like I asked no scratches to any part of the finish.

He did say those threaded inserts are really, really hard steel.

Going to go home tonight to put the car up on stands and start pulling it apart.

Update:
Car on stands, brake fluid drained. Getting ready to do the front's since they are plug and play.

[techwhiz]

Update:
Front's went on without a hitch. There is no need to modify and use the backing plates from the kit if you have a 335.
The dust shield/backing plate on the car works fine. It's about the same size as the rotor.
The sensor in the kit has the wrong plug. You have to cut the wires and use the connector from the old sensor.
The brake lines are a breeze. The factory lines use a funky 11mm size. None of the flare wrench sets have that size. I finally found a single 10/11mm flare wrench at of all places, O'Reilly.

The rears are a pain.
I didn't have the machinist cut out the tab far enough. The thickness is fine but I didn't have him remove all the material to the edge. Back at the machine shop.

The first rear rotor did not want to come off. It was on it's forth set of pads and close to the limits. Even with PB Blaster it required some aggressive treatment with a dead blow hammer to get it to budge.

Anyway, I'm still not sure if I need to pull the parking brake stuff apart. It looks like enough room to come in from the back to open the holes up for the new bolts. We'll see.


Here is a pic of the left front. I need to wipe the rotor before I bleed the brakes.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

The thickness is fine but I didn't have him remove all the material to the edge.

I'm so glad that I didn't mislead you with the 12mm thickness!

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by feuer

I'm so glad that I didn't mislead you with the 12mm thickness!

Nope, you did not mislead.

The dust shield on the front from the factory brakes works fine by the way.

The rears are interesting.
I guess people that don't get the performance rotors have better fitments.
It's not the height, it's the thickness.
It's close. I checked the clearance and found that my caliper had a high spot on the rail that the pad fits in between.
I could see slight scraping on the rotor.
I had to remove the high spot with a dremel and a carbide grinding bit.
Checked clearance with a feeler gauge, it's close but works.
Also I didn't need to pull the emergency brakes apart.
There is enough room to get a dremel and a drill on the backside if you
are patient.

I also left the backing plates in place. I just cut the opening wider so the caliper would fit.

I also put two stainless washers on the rear caliper bolts so they matched the length of the original.

No pictures though. No enough room for a camera.

Also like a bonehead I dropped one of the calipers and scratched it.
Not bad. If I don't say anything, nobody will know.

Still a lot of work left. Need to do the other rear side.
Also need to get the bake lines installed then the master cylinder.

[feuer]

I still a lot less work and less $$$ than exchanging the hub bearing.
Good job techwhiz !
Just take few photos when you are done.
I did mine at night. Had to work super fast and didn't even think of taking photos.
I have access to full repair shop but after they close with regular hours
Sunrise red spray can from Walmart matches pretty close (but mine are red)
Before I installed them I painted the machined tubs.
That's why I bought the spray originally.
Also, I re-coated them with high temp ceramic clear.
That helps a lot.
Mine looks like new after 2 Chicago winter and 2 track seasons.
I think e46 m3 came in a color damn close to the paint of your calipers.
Try to find a touch up.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by feuer

I still a lot less work and less $$$ than exchanging the hub bearing.
Good job techwhiz !
Just take few photos when you are done.
I did mine at night. Had to work super fast and didn't even think of taking photos.
I have access to full repair shop but after they close with regular hours
Sunrise red spray can from Walmart matches pretty close (but mine are red)
Before I installed them I painted the machined tubs.
That's why I bought the spray originally.
Also, I re-coated them with high temp ceramic clear.
That helps a lot.
Mine looks like new after 2 Chicago winter and 2 track seasons.
I think e46 m3 came in a color damn close to the paint of your calipers.
Try to find a touch up.

Finally done!!!!!!!!!!
Lessons for others.

1. Don't get the performance 345mm rotors. It's a BIIIIGGGGGG PAIN!!!!
Making them fit is tough if you don't go the hub mod route. Just a word of warning.

2. Don't get those two extra braided steel lines near the rear subframe unless you have lots of patience and small hands. There is no room and if you re luck you get about ⅛ of a turn. This means I spent two hours just swapping two breake lines. Just don't do it.

3. I don't have pictures but you do not need to remove the emergency brakes shoes. There is enough room to open the holes on the bottom with a drill or dremel. The top hole you will need a die grinder or dremel. There is room. Go slow.

4. INPA is great if you have it. I don't so here are my tips. Gently tap the ABS block once you have the pressure bleeder up to pressure. This will dislodge any bubbles and put them at the top of the metal tubes.

5. Also get a rubber mallet. You will need this to tap the calipers to dislodge any bubbles in the caliper. I got this tip from someone else.

6. Bleed at least twice, I did three but didn't see anything on the third time. I used two liters to fill and bleed the system.

7. You don't need to use the backing plates in the kit. Your standard plates on the back can be cut with a grinder so the caliper can fit. I cut a bit too much but you can't see it anyway. Some people run without the backing plates. The fronts end up being a little smaller than the rotor but only about 5mm. You can modify the ones that come in the kit or just punt like I did.

8. Last the M3 master cylinder is probably one of the easiest parts of the job. Follow the Bently instructions and it's a 30 minute swap. It just works.


I don't know how the performance is because I'm still bedding them.
I think the pedal feels any different than stock but it's just a feeling.

Finally it's a BIG job. And I'm done.