[blau3er]

I thought I would share the details of my brake set up again....

The front brake conversion was done 4 years ago, I worked with Vagbremtechnic (in the UK) back in 2019, and the kit was the first of its kind for the F3x platform. I supplied a spare hub, caliper and disc and they made the brackets in aluminium. Since then, they have changed their bracket material from aluminium to steel - which gave a great excuse the get the front kit off and refreshed with new paint, new pads and discs and of course the new brackets - also added some HEL lines this time.

I am also finally about to upgrade the rears after some developmental delays. The brackets pictured are aluminium prototypes, and a new set will be made in steel shortly before I get them fitted.

For those who are interested, the details for this set up are below:

The front end consists of:

F10 M5 brake calipers - 6 piston Brembo
F87 M2 Competition 400x36 (2NH) brake discs
F10 M5 brake pads
Vagbremtechnic carriers
HEL braided brake lines
Weight (per axle) Caliper, carrier, bolts & pads - 8.75kg. Brake disc - 13.9kg

The rear end consists of:

F87 M2 Competition brake calipers - 4 piston Brembo
F87 M2 Competition 380x28 (2NH) brake discs
F87 M2 Competition brake pads
Vagbremtechnic carriers
HEL braided brake lines
Weight (per axle) TBC

The fronts went back on the car this weekend, and the rears will be going on as soon as the brackets have been completed (there is a bit of a lead time currently).

Some of you will have seen this kit many times before from my previous posts, but for those who are happy to spend the money, it’s a great set up comprising of pretty much all OEM parts. The brake pedal is as OEM, providing your car has the larger master cylinder (most cars optioned with the blue Brembo’s from factory have this - but not all).

The rear set up will only work with cars that have the 185mm sized handbrake shoes - and most of the backing plate needs to be removed to allow the disc to fit.

The front kit is plug and play once you have all the components, the only modification needed is to either remove the backing plate (which I have done) or to trim it down.

The front brakes must be the blue F10 M5 calipers ONLY and NOT the gold, red or silver CCB / M2 2NH calipers, as they have different mounting radius’s. The rear brakes can be either the gold, red or silver CCB or M2 2NH - as they are all the same.

As I have mentioned, I’ve had the front set up on the car for 4 years and they work perfectly. Brake bias is not an issue as the piston areas of the 6 pot / 4 pot set up vs the M Sport 4 pot / 2 pot set up works out as follows:

Front 6 pistons:
30/34/36mm = 52.7cm^2 (68%)
Rear 4 pistons:
28/28mm = 24.6cm^2 (32%)
Total: 77.4 cm^2

Front 4 pistons:
40/40mm = 50.3cm^2 (67%)
Rear 2 pisons:
40mm cm = 25.1cm^2 (33%)
Total: 75.4 cm^2

I had the calipers repainted in Porsche ‘speed yellow’ by Brake Caliper Refurbs. I’ve gone with the lowercase Brembo motorsport logo (my preference) and they’ve had all brand new seals (made by Hutchinson) along with titanium bleed nipples to avoid the horrendous BMW trait of seized bleed screws.

Pictures:

[mmm-five]

Look very nice...but should I be scared to ask "how much"?

Especially considering it looks like they'd need spaces or new wheels to fit those massive calipers under.

[blau3er]

Originally Posted by mmm-five

Look very nice...but should I be scared to ask "how much"?

Especially considering it looks like they'd need spaces or new wheels to fit those massive calipers under.

No spacers needed with these wheels and they also go under genuine 437m wheels (which was my previous wheel set up).

If fitting these under OE F3x wheels, then there would likely be a clearance issue with their the barrel or the wheel face - not sure, as I have never tried it.

Cost wise - once you have bought the calipers and mounting hardware, the discs and pads are standard BMW parts, so its just the going rate that an M2 Comp owner would have to pay for a brake change.

Calipers and brackets for the front would probably work out around £1k and about the same again for the rear 4 pots. Discs and pads for the front end are around £950. Rear discs and pads around £650.

[mmm-five]

Originally Posted by blau3er

No spacers needed with these wheels and they also go under genuine 437m wheels (which was my previous wheel set up).

If fitting these under OE F3x wheels, then there would likely be a clearance issue with their the barrel or the wheel face - not sure, as I have never tried it.

Cost wise - once you have bought the calipers and mounting hardware, the discs and pads are standard BMW parts, so its just the going rate that an M2 Comp owner would have to pay for a brake change.

Calipers and brackets for the front would probably work out around £1k and about the same again for the rear 4 pots. Discs and pads for the front end are around £950. Rear discs and pads around £650.

Very tempting.

runs away to see what model 19" wheels he has fitted ...403M

[blau3er]

[cfm56d7b]

This is pure photographic evidence there is no such thing as over engineered brakes.

Love the project and the outcome!

[blau3er]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

This is pure photographic evidence there is no such thing as over engineered brakes.

Love the project and the outcome!

Thanks - the performance is faultless!

[jamborees]

Stunning conversion! Do you know what the actual difference is between the M5 front disc and M2 Competition 2NH? Is it the centre bore or is the disc offset different too? Just trying to work out if you can use a machined version of the M5 disc.

[blau3er]

Originally Posted by jamborees

Stunning conversion! Do you know what the actual difference is between the M5 front disc and M2 Competition 2NH? Is it the centre bore or is the disc offset different too? Just trying to work out if you can use a machined version of the M5 disc.

I’m not sure on the offset, however the centre bore size on the F10 M5 rotors would not be suitable for F3x and would have to be bored out to suit.

The easiest option is M2 2NH discs!

[Lada-1]

Can you compare it (if you can) against the 370/345mm M performance brakes performance wise ?

[blau3er]

Night and day difference between the two!

[sdbwisc]

I need to do this! Stock ones suck lol

[61eness_]

Hey Bro, I've been following your posts for a while now. Finally managed to buy a F30 340i and would like to ask you if you might be able to give me a little help with the upgrade to M5 F10 brakes.

I had the 'colorless' white calipers (with bmw stamp) Rear side I converted to M sport myself now I want the 6 pots M5 calipers but do I have to change the master cylinder as well?
Do I need to code anything else? Because I had read that if I switched to M Sport brakes I had to have it coded and otherwise my brake pedal would be very soft. I suppose if I did the master cylinder and the necessary coding (M sport brakes coding) it should work 100%.

Did you also change your hub? Do the 400mm M2 Comp discs fit the F31 Hubs without modification?

The parts listed below are the only this i have to buy?


M5 F10 Calipers (front)
M2 Comp Brake Discs (front)
M2 Comp Brake pads (front)
Adapter kit from VAG
HEL Brake lines (is this necessary? In Belgium the car does not pass the annual inspection with steel brake lines)

What do you mean with Weight (per axle) TBC?

Btw i use translate for almost everything to be sure i understand everything perfectly.

If u want maybe its easier to communicate if you drop your instagram name.

[rlesko]

What are these wheel stud support pins?



I need them...

[blau3er]

Originally Posted by 61eness_

Hey Bro, I've been following your posts for a while now. Finally managed to buy a F30 340i and would like to ask you if you might be able to give me a little help with the upgrade to M5 F10 brakes.

I had the 'colorless' white calipers (with bmw stamp) Rear side I converted to M sport myself now I want the 6 pots M5 calipers but do I have to change the master cylinder as well?
Do I need to code anything else? Because I had read that if I switched to M Sport brakes I had to have it coded and otherwise my brake pedal would be very soft. I suppose if I did the master cylinder and the necessary coding (M sport brakes coding) it should work 100%.

Did you also change your hub? Do the 400mm M2 Comp discs fit the F31 Hubs without modification?

The parts listed below are the only this i have to buy?


M5 F10 Calipers (front)
M2 Comp Brake Discs (front)
M2 Comp Brake pads (front)
Adapter kit from VAG
HEL Brake lines (is this necessary? In Belgium the car does not pass the annual inspection with steel brake lines)

What do you mean with Weight (per axle) TBC?

Btw i use translate for almost everything to be sure i understand everything perfectly.

If u want maybe its easier to communicate if you drop your instagram name.

I'll PM you my number and you can WhatsApp me - much easier to communicate that way - the PM system on this forum is a shambles!

[blau3er]

Originally Posted by rlesko

What are these wheel stud support pins?

I need them...

Just cheap eBay pins, BMW actually make an official tool that is the same - but they are stupidly expensive!

Just make sure you order studs with the correct wheel bolt thread pitch!

[avery_b58]

Super clean! I'm trying to decide between doing something like this to mine or swap to the M performance brakes.

[blau3er]

These are significantly better than M Sport calipers, however the cost is also significantly higher!

[_ObiJon]

Originally Posted by blau3er

These are significantly better than M Sport calipers, however the cost is also significantly higher!

In for pictures of the rear!

[blau3er]

Rears are being fitted on the 8th Aug!

[blau3er]

OK, final update - REAR KIT.

I’ve been working on this in the background with Vagbremtechnic (VBT) for some time now. There have been various unexpected delays due to their workload and this been something of a passion project that they had agreed to work on as and when they had spare time.

However, the wait was well worth it and it now completes the look and feel of the car. The set up is as follows:

F87 M2 Comp 2NH / F8x CCB 4 pot brake calipers
VBT custom machined steel mounting brackets
F87 M2 Comp 2NH 380mm rear discs
F87 M2 Comp 2NH brake pads
HEL performance braided lines

Notes: this rear set up will only work on F3x cars with the larger 185mm diameter hand brake. If your car has the smaller 165mm version - this would not be suitable as you would loose your handbrake option!

I am super happy with how it all turned out!

Pics:

[cfm56d7b]

Rejoining the thread. Terrific project!