Best brake pads for floating-disk 3.8 M5?
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Forum Name: BMW ///M Power
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URL: http://www.bavarian-board.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=2035
Printed Date: 03-May-2024 at 16:12
Topic: Best brake pads for floating-disk 3.8 M5?
Posted By: ///M5
Subject: Best brake pads for floating-disk 3.8 M5?
Date Posted: 27-May-2003 at 23:45
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My brake pads are getting low, and as I'm off on a 20 day holiday to Le Mans (and possibly the Nurburgring) in a couple of weeks, I want to change them before I go. 1) What are the "best" pads for fast street use? Important to me: + Stopping quality + Works well when cold Less important to me: - Wear on disk Not important to me: - Price - Noise - Brake dust
I rang around a few places today, and was offered (prices in UK pounds, excluding VAT): Euro Car Parts: Textar (£35 front) Mintex C-Tech (£52.92 front; £43.60 rear) (Don't know if these are 1144, 1155 or 1166 and when I rang them they didn't know either!) German & Swedish: Textar (£33 front; £29.50 rear) Scotthall BMW (main dealers): Not specified (Textar???) (£56 front; £47 rear) MotorMec: Nor specified, but "original BMW" (£40 front; £50 rear) Also do Pagid, but only recommend with Pagid disks Motorsport Parts: Green stuff (£88.12 front) (Web site mentions Mintex M1144 at £94.24, but didn't mention them when I rang) Halfords: Ferodo (didn't note the price) 2) Are the front pads for the floating-disk brakes different to the earlier cars? Some places/web sites just advertise pads for "E34 M5". ------------- 
2001 E39 M5 Carbon Black / Silverstone 1995 E34 M5 3.8 6-speed Avus Blue 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 |
Replies:
Posted By: mmm-five
Date Posted: 28-May-2003 at 13:17
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Yes, the later 3.8's with the Nurburgring brakes have unique pads unfortunately - the difference to the earlier 3.8 pads seems to be slight, but enough to screw up any chance of finding a set easily. I ordered a set of Ferodo DS2500's for my last change only to find they didn't fit. You can get custom pads made to any pattern but it gets very expensive (about £200 a set unless you do a 5+ group buy - Have a word with either Bexley Motorworks on 020 8304 9797, Birds on 01895 810850, or Moseley Motorsport on 01952 503992 If price is of no concern then the best upgrade would be a new AP/StopTech brake kit. You could go to 360mm discs with 4 or 6 pot calipers and a ready supply of AP-compatible pads from Ferodo, Mintex, et al. - £3k is a bit steep though. It may be possible to simply buy similar spec AP calipers to fit the standard BMW discs. BTW just take a spare set of pads with you - it is only a 10 minute job once you have the wheels off. ------------- |
).Posted By: jaseb
Date Posted: 28-May-2003 at 19:26
| I have Pagid fast road pads on my Sport Evo with grooved discs and my last one had the same pads with std discs, both streets ahead of anything Euro car parts or geman and swedish could supply. Not sure of cost for your car but mine were 40 quid for an axle set which can only be a good thing, really good bit when cold and if they perform as well as the ones on my Caterham (again fast road pagid but 3 times the price for some obscure reason) they should fare pretty well on track too. Good wear rates too. |
Posted By: mmm-five
Date Posted: 30-May-2003 at 11:48
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I've also found out the late e34 (post July 1994) M5 uses the same calipers as the 850CSi, so it may be easier to look for pads for that as they only used one type of pad, rather that getting confused looking at e34 M5 pad variations. The Mintex code for the fronts (for both 850CSi and M5) is MDB1550, the rear is MDB1552 and I believe these are M1144 as these are the only ones available for 'fast road' use - the 1155, 1166 and 1177 are for competition use only. I have someone searching for Ferodo pads for me at the moment - specifically the DS2500 for road use and the DS3000 for track use as I can swap them in and out when I need to. ------------- |
Posted By: kevin
Date Posted: 30-May-2003 at 15:19
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Philip What is wrong with the standard pads? Have you had some bad experiences? Have a great time. Kevin |
Posted By: ///M5
Date Posted: 01-June-2003 at 22:47
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mmm-five : Many thanks for the part numbers. Having rung loads of people (nine calls!) trying to find out (a) what the correct pads were and (b) if they had any in stock, the most helpful by a very long way were Performance Braking Limited on (01600) 713117. They were recommended to me on the M5 mailing list and the guy there spent ages going through various books and ringing people to find out what pads I need. He came up with 2 different numbers for the Pagid Fast Road pads - FR1036 or WVA21153 for the fronts, and FR1018 or WVA20996 for the rears. Price is around £40 per axle. Kevin : No problems with the standard pads, in fact these are the best brakes I have ever had on a car, but as I am going to put new pads in, I thought I'd look around and see if there's anything better available. I'm also going to get a set of Pagid Fast Roads for my 911 - it has a set of Lucas Girling pads which I installed in 1996 and 20,000 miles ago, so I imagine that braking technology has moved on a bit since they were put in! -------------
2001 E39 M5 Carbon Black / Silverstone 1995 E34 M5 3.8 6-speed Avus Blue 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 |
Posted By: kevin
Date Posted: 01-June-2003 at 23:04
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Philip Glad to hear that you have had no problems. Like you I have never experienced brakes like these, they just seems to keep stopping no matter what. I'm interested in how your Pagid compare with standard. We are doing the Alps tour in September which I anticipate will be a good test of the brakes. I will be taking a spare set of pads and your input will be appreciated and a valuable part of the decision making process. Have a good holiday and enjoy the M5 on those restriction free roads. Kevin |