Brake advice E39 540 touring

[stone-islandV8]

I need new discs and pads on the front of my 540 touring due to current discs warping. The car doesnt get tracked but isnt driven too slowly so I'm debating whether to uprate discs and pads and wondered if anyone had tried similar or got any opinions.

I had thought of trying ATE discs with green stuff or red stuff pads.....or EBC grooved discs with green or red stuff pads.

Any thoughts or other options?

[dan101smith]

Don't use Greenstuff - they won't cope.

ATE discs are generally OK, and Redstuff would be fine I think.

[dcb]

stone-islandV8 said:

Any thoughts or other options?

It's a 155 mph car, designed and built to cruise flat
out all day every day down the unlimited autobahns
of Germany.

You live in a 70 mph country.

Even if you bend the rules a bit and claim to go everywhere
at 90 mph, I'd have thought that the original spec pads & discs
would cope easily.

Unless you particularly want to spend more money to get
bragging rights down the pub ?

[tobybmw535i]

Hi I upgraded my brakes on my 535i. To redstuff pads and put the grooved and dimpled discs on from them. In my opinion they are better than the standards brakes but not a lot better. But at over £200 pounds less than the BMW ones they are certainly better. But next time I will by the yellow stuff which aren’t much more and offer better performance.

[stone-islandV8]

dcb said:

stone-islandV8 said:

Any thoughts or other options?

You live in a 70 mph country.

Even if you bend the rules a bit and claim to go everywhere
at 90 mph, I'd have thought that the original spec pads & discs
would cope easily.

Unless you particularly want to spend more money to get
bragging rights down the pub ?

I appreciate the speed limits, make no claims as to what speeds I do or don't do ,and I don't do pubs or bragging.

What I wanted to know is if there is a better and more efficient braking system for the car for similar money as the BM system. Since I often have the kids and/or dogs in the car with me being able to stop well and sharply at any speed if needs be is of paramount importance.

[SJobson]

I did a few laps of Rockingham in my 540i Touring with standard disks and pads. Didn't have any problems with warping. If you go for something different, I'd be intrigued to know if they're as good, let alone better.

[derin100]

It's highly unlikely that your discs are actually 'warped'...it's a myth. This is the problem (please read below):

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_braked...

When I bought my E39 540i Touring I immediately replaced all the dics and pads with OEM Jurid. They have been more than adequate. After a year and a half there's a slight degree of the above but I live with it as pretty much an inevitabilty of daily use.

[Nick M]

Had this conundrum with my E32 735 - brakes were in need of replacement so was looking for really good, but cost effective solution.

In the end I opted for standard vented discs from BMW and Ferodo pads - sort of 'fast road' type pads similar to things like Mintex 1144s.

While I was at it, I replaced all the brake fluid and rubber hoses to the calipers.

Absolutely bloody brilliant !! Car just stops so much better now, especially with repeated hard stops - no fade or grumbling.

Only downside is an occasional vibration where the pads / discs just need a bit of cleaning up - one hard stop usually does the trick - and some squeeking when creeping along in slow traffic.