finally! 323i front brakes on the way!!

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:06 pm

kam09 wrote:I wana know how you get on! just done the same to mine and ive got spongy brakes although there may be another problem.

They are a simple straight swap aren't they?

my brakes are already quite spongy. will just get some fluid from the local halfords for now, and when i get braided hoses i'll stick in some uprated fluid then which should improve things vastly. make sure your calipers are in good condition, would sticky pistons cause similar problems? no reason they should be more spongy than normal with a properly bled system.

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:02 pm

just got my Ferodo DS2500 pads through, it says for race use only?

i thought they were ok for the road, and were fine in terms of friction from cold?

cheers?

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:05 pm

found this:

Reg90 is a bullshit reg from EU, meant to stop poor performing pads from being sold as equivalents to OE spec... which makes sense. What they did was apply a 15% of OE fircition coefficient, but then cocked it up by not just making it within 15% of OE on the negative side, but made it +/-15% of OE. this then makes "BETTER" performing pads outside of reg 90 because they perform better.

functionally they work far better than stock, and this is why so many people want to run them.
If you were concerned about the pad in the event of a serious (fatal) road crash, then I can imagine the scenario of the car being taken to bits to determin the cause. Too good a brake pad would'nt likely be one of them, nor identifying every component on the car against every standard around. the only identifyer on the pads is the printing on the back of the pads, which is only printed on.... and can wear off. with nothing printed or legible on the pad, determining the make, let alone the model & spec would seem impossible. Crash test investigation would confirm they were "working" and had sufficient pad material.

you can hypothosise as much as you like as to "what if", and would'nt likely ever leave the house as a consequence.

Reality is the pads perform superbly, stop far better than OE, which when Oe fade in hard use, and DS2500's dont, then the DS2500's would be the safer pads to run.

MOT brake testing takes no account of brake materials fitted to the cars, only that they work sufficiently well, which is the important aspect obviously.

an interesting read. the fact they perform more than 15% better than standard pads means i'll keep them. they are safer than OE pads, what a ridiculous law.

edit again - i've also just read that reg90 only applies to cars 2001 or later. so ds2500's are fine, i believe

drjim · Post by **drjim** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:24 pm

DS2500's are brilliant pads, when I first fitted a set to my blue car (316 with 323i brakes all round) I locked up the fronts all the time until I got used to how good the brakes were compared to the no brand pads that were in before. They also survive trackdays very well so if you have had problems overheating your brakes before DS2500's are ideal.

I use standard discs on the slug (and the blue car before) for trackdays, destroyed a set of Wilwood fast road padsin 1 day at Oulton , but the discs look fine with hardly any wear. I haven't experienced brake fade as yet, so for the road I would 100% say use standard discs.

Jim

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:35 pm

drjim wrote:DS2500's are brilliant pads, when I first fitted a set to my blue car (316 with 323i brakes all round) I locked up the fronts all the time until I got used to how good the brakes were compared to the no brand pads that were in before. They also survive trackdays very well so if you have had problems overheating your brakes before DS2500's are ideal.

I use standard discs on the slug (and the blue car before) for trackdays, destroyed a set of Wilwood fast road padsin 1 day at Oulton , but the discs look fine with hardly any wear. I haven't experienced brake fade as yet, so for the road I would 100% say use standard discs.

Jim

thanks for the input jim, it's really appreciated. what is your take on brake fluid? would do you think standard dot4 would be sufficient? assume the welsh mountain roads are as hard as track, as i suspect they aren't toooo far off, some gradients are really steep. one road in particular i enjoy has 5 hairpins in 1 mile, all coming from about 80-20mph, so the brakes take some heavy stuff. i have standard fluid now, but easily overheat the brakes but with solid grooved rotors. would normal fluid be ok with the ds2500 pads and standard vented discs?

what are they like from cold (the car is my daily driver...so would like brakes in the winter

)

thanks again jim, really appreciate the words of someone who has had the pads

murran · Post by **murran** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:02 am

id definatly change the fluid.
its the natural absorbtion of water thats lowers the boiling point of brake fluid. this water is what causes internal corrosion of the brake components which in turn discolours the fluid. so in an ideal world the fluid needs to be changed every 2 years, even if it looks clean.

e21-Mark · Post by **e21-Mark** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:23 am

drjim · Post by **drjim** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:18 am

I used standard stuff from Halfords in the blue car, same in the slug. No problems with fluid getting too hot.

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:26 am

great stuff, will change the fluid with standard stuff next weekend when the calipers go on then.

thanks guys!

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:55 am

finally, thanks to thetomc they are fitted. we weren't without problems however as the old 5mm spacers i had had an outside diameter which were too large and so were now hitting the caliper, so we couldn't use them. managed to find some spacers which fitted (miracle!) but i'm having to run 3 longer (ideal length) wheels bolts each side, and one slightly too short which is causing a wheel wobble (again!) i think to finally rid the problem i'm going to put the old spacers on the rears, all with correct bolt size) and get some new 5 or 10mm proper hubcentric ones and 8 new bolts. so i mnight have some 15mm spacers for sale for approx £50 if anyone is interested.

anyway...the brakes. no idea of the bigger caliper offers any extra power itself so i'll assume the stopping power is the new ferodo pad.

OMG they are good. when cold they offer about the same as the greenstuff pads did, nothing special. when heated the greenstuffs did get better, but these DS2500 pads, after just 2-3 stops they become incredible, i kept locking the front wheels without really forcing the pedal down! they are amazing pads!! now....wales awaits to see if i can overheat them

but i think the vented discs will cool the fluid enough to mean i won't be able to

either way, i'm pleased.

can't thank Tom enough, top bloke, and was nice to see his simply awesome collection of retro cars, a mental E21 which was amazing! a lovely 318is and who could forget his early '70s volvo limo! more retro than anything else i've ever seen! one cool car

cheers

thetomc · Post by **thetomc** » Sun Jul 04, 2010 2:17 pm

No problem mate. always nice to have another 21 on the driveway!!
Was quite a treat for me to get to drive a car thats so original, really took me back to when my car was like that

pistonheader · Post by **pistonheader** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:51 pm

took 1.8mm off the spacers which still wasn't enough. so got them back on the manual lathe and made a massive (i mean massive!) chamfer on the back face and behold...they did not clip the caliper. just drove home and wheel wobble was all but gone, but a tiny tiny amount at 40mph, so insignificant though i'm not worried about it.

so...wheel wobble gone, 323i brakes fitted and working lovely, and cooling problems solved. been a good last few days

thetomc · Post by **thetomc** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 7:51 pm

nice one mate