E36 M3 Evo Brakes Need Doing - Options?
Discussion
Hello.
The car is at the dealers haveing an SMG fault reset and they reckon the fault was caused by a sticking front caliper !!!
Anyway they have quoted £800 to replace the caliper and the discs and pads.
Quite obviously I am less than inclined to take them up on their kind offer.
The brakes were all done not long ago at all at a dealer, I have the eye-watering bill as evidence.
The caliper does need sorting I accept that but, with the high cost (£170 for part only from BMW)
should I be lloking to upgrade the fornt brakes! C3BMW offer an ATE front caliper for the Evo (and th 3.0 as is happens) for £117, though not touted as an uprated part.
What should I do? I dont mind spending more to get an improved system but not silly money...
Thanks - Nick.
The car is at the dealers haveing an SMG fault reset and they reckon the fault was caused by a sticking front caliper !!!
Anyway they have quoted £800 to replace the caliper and the discs and pads.
Quite obviously I am less than inclined to take them up on their kind offer.
The brakes were all done not long ago at all at a dealer, I have the eye-watering bill as evidence.
The caliper does need sorting I accept that but, with the high cost (£170 for part only from BMW)
should I be lloking to upgrade the fornt brakes! C3BMW offer an ATE front caliper for the Evo (and th 3.0 as is happens) for £117, though not touted as an uprated part.
What should I do? I dont mind spending more to get an improved system but not silly money...
Thanks - Nick.
£800 is far too much - dealers dont need the monopoly on such simple work.
Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Edited by Neil.D on Friday 22 January 11:33
Neil.D said:
£800 is far too much - dealers dont need the monopoly on such simple work.
Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Thanks Neil.Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Edited by Neil.D on Friday 22 January 11:33
I cannot justify £2K so I would be thinking along the lines of the second option.
Checked-out EBC, they would appear to offer 3 discs for the Evo. Thestandard disc are floating what does this mean as regards replacing them? I dont know much about brakes I am afraid!
The discs on C3 for the Evo are more than double the cost of the 3.0 units why is this?
I wouldn't recommend EBC pads. Never tried their discs. I used them in my E36 track car and was thoroughly dissappointed. I got better performance from BMW pads.
If you can stretch to it, have a look at the Performance Friction offerings for pads and discs. I've not tried them, but everyone I know who has raves about them.
Another good option would be BMW discs. 2 x refurbed calipers from GSF / Eurocarparts (as it is normally best to do these things in pairs) and Pagid RS29 pads.
Good luck.
If you can stretch to it, have a look at the Performance Friction offerings for pads and discs. I've not tried them, but everyone I know who has raves about them.
Another good option would be BMW discs. 2 x refurbed calipers from GSF / Eurocarparts (as it is normally best to do these things in pairs) and Pagid RS29 pads.
Good luck.
Reconditioned calipers from EuroCar Parts or GSF are £85 each (after you return your old calipers)
Performance friction pads are about £70 for the fronts
Genuine floating discs are £11-£120 each.
So all in you'd be looking at £480 for a fuel refurb and very easy to do. If you want you can put braided hoses on and sme decent fluid. That will give you a very good setup for fast road and occasional trackdays. It's pretty much what I have, except I have performance friction discs too, but the genuine discs are still very good.
Performance friction pads are about £70 for the fronts
Genuine floating discs are £11-£120 each.
So all in you'd be looking at £480 for a fuel refurb and very easy to do. If you want you can put braided hoses on and sme decent fluid. That will give you a very good setup for fast road and occasional trackdays. It's pretty much what I have, except I have performance friction discs too, but the genuine discs are still very good.
NicoG said:
Neil.D said:
£800 is far too much - dealers dont need the monopoly on such simple work.
Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Thanks Neil.Your options are - in acending order.
1) buy a reconditioned caliper from GSF/Eurocar parts/ebay and fit yourself or get an indy to fit + remain with standard set up
2) Buy EBC discs with standard/yellow suff pads after the caliper is fixed (possibly some braided hoses + uprate fluid)
3) Brembo/Stoptek big brake kit (circa 2k).
On my EVO I had EBC front discs - left the rears as they were and had standard pads. On the n'ring they performed much better and were therefore more than adequate for road use.
Edited by Neil.D on Friday 22 January 11:33
I cannot justify £2K so I would be thinking along the lines of the second option.
Checked-out EBC, they would appear to offer 3 discs for the Evo. Thestandard disc are floating what does this mean as regards replacing them? I dont know much about brakes I am afraid!
The discs on C3 for the Evo are more than double the cost of the 3.0 units why is this?
I had the EBC discs with Ferodo pads - never tried the EBC pads.
Floating just means they are suppose to deal with heat better, if you find a specified disc for the car then there will be no issues with fitting. With the caliper off Undoing one hex screw and a bit of hammering the disc will fall off.
Go original for discs and pads. I did it in November 08 and it was worth it. I don't know if this will help but BMW have a FourPlus scheme as some dealers, which means you get 60% off labour if your car is over 10 years old. ( I took mine to Brighton and saw an old mate for the day while they were doing it ).
In my case as I was getting BMW parts anyway meant that I got them fitted for £40 odd which means it just wasn't worth a weekend under the car for. Esp in this weather.
If you get aftermarket discs they will either warp ( the prev owner did this on mine and they did v badly) or they will cost as much. I like to think ///M got it right with the discs and you will get 2 years against them going wrong too.
I got them done for about £400 but con't comment on the caliper side of things.
In my case as I was getting BMW parts anyway meant that I got them fitted for £40 odd which means it just wasn't worth a weekend under the car for. Esp in this weather.
If you get aftermarket discs they will either warp ( the prev owner did this on mine and they did v badly) or they will cost as much. I like to think ///M got it right with the discs and you will get 2 years against them going wrong too.
I got them done for about £400 but con't comment on the caliper side of things.
Edited by BluePurpleRed on Friday 22 January 13:44
Get your car in the garage. Calipers off and send them to www.biggred.co.uk and for about £50 a corner they will come back like new completely refurbished, powdercoated and as new. I used them recently. Sent a horrible set of calipers off and couldn't believe the result when I got them back!
For OEM disks contact Cotswold BMW for the best price (tell them you are a forum member) then get a set of braided hoses and some good pads and you'll just need somewhere to fit it all.
For OEM disks contact Cotswold BMW for the best price (tell them you are a forum member) then get a set of braided hoses and some good pads and you'll just need somewhere to fit it all.
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