E36 Brake Pads

[bababa]

Hi there,

First post, so please be gentle

I have a 1998 E36 328i Sport, and I'm interested to hear suggestions on the type of brake pads people might recommend. Whilst I "enjoy" the car's power, I'm not all *that* much of an enthusiastic driver, so I'd like pads which don't need to be warm before they start performing!

The quote for genuine OEM pads (from Sytner) is just shy of 60 quid (for the rear set, which is the axle-set I'm most in need of at the moment).

I've looked at the usual suspects (EuroCarParts and GSF) and they seem to carry the likes of Pagid, Mintex and other well-known makes, along with other "less-well-known" makes at a considerable discount.

Now I'm not shy to spend money for the "right" parts, but would 60 quid with Sytner be well spent? And are the OEM pads just another make rebadged?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[croyde]

Is that £60 incl fitting. My local specialist charges £100 for front pads and about £120 for the rears incl fitting.

He was fully booked up tho' so I got Mr Clutch to fit fronts and new discs for £170 approx. He claimed that they were the OEM that are fitted to Mercs.

Anyway a few hundred miles later and it stops pretty well.

If you are doing it yourself you can get good pads online for around £30 a pair and I would have gone that route but the cost of axle stands and other tools just did not make it worthwhile.

Mine's a E36 323i btw. Good luck.

[Nick M]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

+1

I needed some extra stopping power for my E32, because I like to drive it 'enthusiastically', so went with standard BMW discs but with Ferodo DS Performance pads. These did need to be bedded in properly, but my goodness, once that was done the brakes were *sooo* much better.

Downsides, however, are lots of brake dust and they squeel like a bd when they've been warm and you're then tootling along in traffic.

I think the pads for both axles set me back about £150, but I'm happy with the improvement.

[bababa]

Thanks for all the helpful responses, guys

In the end, I decided to stay with OEM pads because I've got no gripes with the braking performance as it is (it's certainly better than my old Saab 9-5 was!) and didn't want to risk introducing any side effects such as squealing or disc shredding.

So, although I'm not a big fan of main dealers, I swung by Sytner this morning and wandered into the parts department. The bloke was really helpful, offered me sale/return on the brake-wear-sensor in case it gets activated between now and when I fit the pads, and somehow factored in some discount so that the final price on the pads was around £40 for the axle-set. Even got a sachet of lubricating paste for the backs of the pads thrown in!

Ultimately I've still probably paid over the odds for a set of pads, but at least I have a "BMW Group" cardboard box and a cup of dealership coffee to show for it

Wonder what I did to deserve a discount?