|
In Reply to: Re: Drew Zacharda, how are the brakes? posted by David Zeckhausen on May 27, 2001 at 22:54:10:
To keep initial costs down, I installed used rotors and pads (Hi Bruno!). I'll probably be switching to an aftermarket nondusting pad soon. Mintex and Hawk make pads for the E31 brakes. Mintex are about $57 from Bekkers. Hawk makes a street and a street/autocross/track pad that cost about $112 from BimmerWorld. I haven't made up my mind about which I'll switch to.
I also replaced the front brake lines with Stainless Steel lines from BMP (Earl's brand). The rears came with the set, and will be done when I figure out what I'm going to do with the rear brakes. One thing to be aware of with the Earl's lines is that they require SAE-sized tools to install.
I used rebuilt calipers that I bought from someone on the UUC digest. The hard part came from locating the carriers. Actual dealer cost on the carrier is about $86/each (retail is about $120/each), so I tried to find a used set. NOT easy. I ended up getting a whole used caliper assembly from Autosports Unlimited. This turned out to be a good idea because I could cannibalize the rubber guide bolt protectors and bleeder valve cap prior to starting the swap. If anyone wants a set of 8-series front calipers without carriers, let me know.
The only thing that went wrong with the pre-install was that my caliper paint didn't arrive before the install. I didn't order from OMP as recommended on Bruno's site. I ordered Folia Tec on the recommendation of Steve D'Gerolamo. He doesn't carry it, so I wait. . .
Anyway, the upgrade feels good. Pedal is a bit firmer, and will probably get even firmer when I change brake pads. The downside is that the rear brakes look absolutely tiny now.
I'll post more after a couple of days of driving. The hardest part of the whole conversion process was locating the 8-series parts.
Drew Zacharda
'94 530iT
'87 528e
I swapped emails with Drew after the installation and he did mention that his pedal was more firm than with the stock brakes. But he hadn't really had a chance to test them yet. I can tell from the mass of the 850i rotors that these will do much better on the track than the stock rotors.
I was impressed by how easy the swap was. We finished up in less than two hours and could have gone much faster if we hadn't spent time test fitting various wheels and getting side tracked by the other folks showing up for my E39 clutch delay valve clinic.
For those who are interested in the details, here's a "reprint" of the report I posted to the E39 message board:
-----------------------------------
Drew Zacharda arrived at 9:30 and we got right to work on his brake swap. It took just two hours to swap out the brakes in his E34 530iT for a set of used 850i brakes and some stainless lines. No snags, no tool runs, and I don't think there was even a curse word uttered. Everything just bolted right in. Randy (who brought lobster to my last CDV clinic) showed up while we were working on the 2nd brake and dropped off Mike Mario's Style 32 wheels that his wife had rejected due to the stiffer ride than the 16" wheels his 525iT came with. Poor Randy! You can see how beautiful the wheels looked in the post from my last clinic.
After the brakes were on and power bled, we installed the Style 32 wheels and took a couple photos for Drew's wife to approve. Hopefully, she'll be more into the great looks and improved ride than Randy's wife! He'll get back to me on Monday, at which point I'll let all the other folks here who have pending offers for the wheels know if they are still in the game or not.
Drew's E34 with Mike's wheels. Wheel well gap is from being jacked up, not from 4X4 conversion! :-)
© 1997 -
2009
Jump Internet Inc. All rights reserved.
