[turo]

I ordered some HPS 5.0 pads for my wife's 328i. I did the rears no problem. I got to the front, and the outer pads have a metal bracket like the 335, but the 328 OEM pads don't have this bracket. It doesn't look like the pads will fit with the bracket. Can I just cut this bracket off? Is it going to cause noise when braking? And yes, I checked that I was sent the correct part numbers.

UPDATE: I'm updating this post in case anyone has this trouble in the future. Long story short, I cut off the bracket from the outer pads and the rest fit in fine. The inner pads were a pain in the a$$ to install due to the fact that the springs behind the pads were bigger than the OEM ones, making it a challenge to slip them into the caliper. With a bit of patience, I got the inner ones installed. And for the outer ones, I just took a dremel tool to the bracket and cut them off. The pads fit fine afterwards.

And note, this only applies to 328i's. I have these same pads on my 335i and the install was a breeze.

[avocet]

The wide clip goes outboard. There should be a smaller clip on the other pad that goes into the piston.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ont+brake+pads

[avocet]

My reading skills suck lately...

Will that clip fit into the caliper on the outboard side? If it will absolutely not fit i would just cut it off...

[turo]

It does not fit, but I can cut it off so it's not really an issue. The bigger issue is that I now can't get the inner pad's spring into the piston, and I might have already bent it beyond repair. Ugh!

[Cloud9blue]

Take it to a shop please...

You probably don't like hearing this. But if you cannot figure out how to put on a simple brake pad, you really shouldn't mess with the brakes in the first place.

What part number are they? Whatever they sent you might not even be compatible with your car.

[turo]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Take it to a shop please...

You probably don't like hearing this. But if you cannot figure out how to put on a simple brake pad, you really shouldn't mess with the brakes in the first place.

Thanks for the advice, I managed to figure it out. It wasn't that I don't know how to put on a brake pad, I had already installed these pads on my 335, I was just trying to install them on my wife's 328 as well. I was just confused because I expected the pads to fit out of the box (like every other pad I've ever installed), but Hawk uses the same part # for 328s and 335s, and these don't seem to fit 328 calipers straight out of the box. Nothing a cutting wheel can't fix, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something before i went that route.

Originally Posted by FCobra94

What part number are they? Whatever they sent you might not even be compatible with your car.

I don't remember the exact part number, but I verified that they were the correct ones for the car.

I updated the original post in case any 328 owners have a similar problem in the future.

[Tom Droze]

I just ordered these exact same pads for my 328i so I appreciate the heads up on this. I also ordered Stoptech slotted brake rotors.

[Meateatr]

Originally Posted by turo

I ordered some HPS 5.0 pads for my wife's 328i. I did the rears no problem. I got to the front, and the outer pads have a metal bracket like the 335, but the 328 OEM pads don't have this bracket. It doesn't look like the pads will fit with the bracket. Can I just cut this bracket off? Is it going to cause noise when braking? And yes, I checked that I was sent the correct part numbers.

UPDATE: I'm updating this post in case anyone has this trouble in the future. Long story short, I cut off the bracket from the outer pads and the rest fit in fine. The inner pads were a pain in the a$$ to install due to the fact that the springs behind the pads were bigger than the OEM ones, making it a challenge to slip them into the caliper. With a bit of patience, I got the inner ones installed. And for the outer ones, I just took a dremel tool to the bracket and cut them off. The pads fit fine afterwards.

And note, this only applies to 328i's. I have these same pads on my 335i and the install was a breeze.

I had the exact same issue, it really confused me for a while. Eventually I just dremeled the clips off and they have been working flawlessly. Very frustrating oversight on Hawk's part though.

[TheBigYahi]

Are you saying they sent you 4 inners? That is, 4 with the spring clip that goes into the caliper piston instead of 2 with and 2 without? Sounds like a packing error.

[335D Alpha Pappa]

Originally Posted by TheBigYahi

Are you saying they sent you 4 inners? That is, 4 with the spring clip that goes into the caliper piston instead of 2 with and 2 without? Sounds like a packing error.

No, the picture the OP posted shows the outer pad. The top is the Hawk pad and the bottom is the OEM. The inner pads on both the Hawk and OEM have 3 clips with a large push clip on the top. These 3 fit within the piston.

I just replaced my OEM's with Hawks and ECS's Geomet Rotors on my 335d.

You cannot use the outer pads with the clips. I broke them off and flatten the remaining edges. You cannot slip the caliper over the clips. There is barely enough room to wiggle the caliper over the pad. you must put this pad in the caliper bracket and then slide on the caliper.

[TheBigYahi]

I get it, I'm trying to figure out what he's talking about. I have Hawk HPS and they were identical to OEM's with no clips on the outboard side. So the 5.0's have 3 clips on the inboard and 2 clips on the outboard? Weird.

Edit: I just looked at how the caliper design is different and I see that some/most 335i pads have springs on the outboard side. Weird that they cross list them without instructions to take off the spring!

[turo]

Originally Posted by TheBigYahi

Weird that they cross list them without instructions to take off the spring!

That was my confusion originally. But as others found out, they're really not hard to pop off.

[Nafy]

Hawk should address this issue for all 328i owner. Things should work straight out of the box.