M roadster pads and discs

[ghahat]

Hi All,

finally got my bimmer!

seems i need front brakes though, the dealers price had me rethinking my purchase!

hes asking 950 for a set of front pads, and 1600 for each disc.
anyone know of a recommended better priced option?

although before i bought the car, i had a look at the pads, they are still THICK. the dealer told me that the disc needs to be replaced not from abused but from hard braking. i thought an M car should be able to handle hard braking (the car has only 13000km on it, and the original tires, now almost 2 years old, are in great condition, LOTS of tread, so no abusive driving, and had there been any hard braking, it was not enough to show on the tires at all).

should this be covered under warranty? what do you guys think.

seems to me the disc should not have damage, even pad replacement at this mileage seems not right to me.

[Bruno]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/5.0.0.509 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/179)

All 4 pads are for around 1k and disks are for 1.2k each these are approximate prices and these days the prices are going up. Plus u have csl front disks which might be slightly expensive than normal

[ghahat]

thanks bruno,

since i have to shell out some cash anyway. should i stick with the oem? seems they are not that great to me (plus they put out a lot of dust).

what do most of the M owners here do? stay oem or recommend something from aftermarket and which brand?

[ghahat]

at this point i am scared to buy new discs and pads, do some "hard braking", and then have the same situation again. this car has not been tracked, but i would like to do it, and the brakes will surely get more abuse in one day on the track that they had till now!....

do you guys face disc replacement even while the pad is quite thick? if not, any possible reason why this might happen?

sorry for the long posts, but appreciate your replies.

[Bruno]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/5.0.0.509 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/179)

Stay oem.. They are more than enough trust me. What's your mileage and when was the last time changed ur rotors?

Btw oems are not dusty.

[eoudeh]

+1 i think the price you mentioned its normal not expensive! compared to M5's discs & pads...im planning to change them and ll cost me around 6,700 with sensors :D
and stay oem, but if u track ur M from time to time....replace them with sport rotors or sport pads. my case im not tracking my M5 and the agency informed me that if i change them and based on my driving behavior ...next change ll be after long long time :)

[ghahat]

i would like to stay oem, but this experience has given me doubts. at this point im trying to find out if there is something defective with the discs.

mileage is 13700km. car first reg in Mar 2008. same everything (pads, tires, discs) till now. one service was done in in Apr 2010 at 10,000km. this included oil change, filter change, etc. im sure no change of pads and discs was required at 10000km though.

looking at the pads, they are still very thick.
looking at the tires which have always been on the car, they really look almost new from outside.

with this mileage and these conditions, im puzzled why the discs have become damaged, and less than the min thickness (so no skimming).

the service technician told me this happened not from abuse, but from hard braking. if the braking was not hard enough to damage the tires (or the pads at least), why should it damage the discs.

so they are speaking as if it is normal, but i cant see how this would happen...

[Bruno]

they cant be deffective... it's either your driving style or whoever told you that they require to be replaced needs to think straight... Jeanloupe used to track his car and i only recall he replaced them once. his car had over 80k

contact ebrahim in bahrain let him give you his opinion im sure you can get them skimmed atleast.

[ghahat]

thanks again bruno

my driving style is to go very easy on the brakes, usually brake lightly well in advance, never had a brake disc issue in all my driving in various cars.

i was questioning the below min thickness comment from the technician, although i cant be sure until i get them measured. at this point i have nothing to lose, so i will take the car to a shop i know and have them measured and skimmed. see if that fixes the problem (vibration in steering wheel under braking).

i tried to search for ebrahim under the member list, but couldnt find him. could you tell me how to contact him?

[SSense]

i tried to search for ebrahim under the member list, but couldnt find him. could you tell me how to contact him?

He goes by the nick MR.E36I

Send him a pm and he will respond back.. BTW, you might want to check with Central spare parts in Sharjah or some other BMW spare parts shops, the price difference will shock you, they're way cheaper than the dealer..

[ghahat]

thanks guys i will contact ebrahim today and post the result

do you have a phone number for the Central spares in Sharjah, or one of the other shops? it might be cheaper for me to go flydubai and pick them up myself...return ticket is only 500QR or so.

[SSense]

Central spare parts Sharjah 009716 5333539

or check Model spare parts in Abu Dhabi 009712 5553671

or also you can order online, pay for shipping cheaper than paying for flydubai,

www.pelicanparts.com

[ghahat]

hi guys,

thanks for all the help

i spoke to ebrahim, he told me that i should just be able to skim the discs at another shop and they should be fine, he predicts i wont need new pads even (although this discussion happened before i got the thicknesses below)

i called central parts, they gave me the following prices for the same bmw part numbers

595 for full set of front pads instead of 950 from dealer
990 per disc instead of 1600 from dealer

i called bmw and i got the disc thicknesses

front: min is 28.4 and mine is 27.2
rear: min is 18.4 and mine is 19.1

they were not able to tell me what is the thickness of a new disc

ive been trying to verify the minimum thickness they told me from another source. i cant find something official online, but i found this (almost same issue at low mileage):

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18277

where bmw in UK told him the min front thickness is 26.4, and that new discs are 27.9

i asked to speak to the service manager for now.
first, how can i buy new discs and pads if they will wear out after 13000km and i am stuck with the bill, shouldnt they guarantee some kind of reasonable durability on any part (even if it is a wear and tear item)? especially since all signs show no abuse of the brakes (pads and tires).

second, why are they charging me these ridiculous prices! (if it turns out that i really cant skim the discs)

[ghahat]

just found this:

http://buyersguide.roadandtrack.com/...roadster/specs
http://buyersguide.roadandtrack.com/...specs#features
http://www.wheels.ca/newVehicles/profile/2118

says the thickness of the front disc is 1.1in = 27.94mm

and the rear is 0.79in = 20.06mm

the rear makes sense then, 20.06 new, mine is 19.1, and min is 18.4
so ive used 0.96mm, and have 0.7mm left

but the front means 27.94 new, mine is 27.1, and the min is 28.4?!

if bmw qatar are right that means i will be below min even if i buy new discs!
also that means i crossed the min a long time ago (1.3mm ago), and yet the mileage is only 13000km. so that means my discs actually needed to be changed at something like 5000km on the car! if they are right, i think warranty should cover it...

or bmw UK could be right, in that case min is 26.4
and the new is 27.9 just like road&track says also

this would mean ive used 0.84mm, and have 0.7mm left
which is the same as i what i have left on the rears it seems

[ghahat]

got off the phone with BMW now after much complaining

now they have doubled back and say the new disc is 27.9, the min is 26.4 just like all other sources say.

but now they told me my disc is 25.2 and not 27.1 as they told me yesterday. but again that means i passed the min 1.2mm ago, when the car was at like 5000km!

they refuse to accept this is not normal and keep saying it can happen in normal city driving. so i told them how can buy a 1600qr disc from bmw which is gone after 5000km of city driving? no civic, kia, or any other can does this...

will take my car to a shop now and see what they say about the skimming. although the jackass from bmw said this would void my warranty when i told him this, and the rest of the conversation did not go too well...