Best retrofit for M3 brakes?

Chalkbr wrote

Anyone running a ZL1 kit?

are you talking about the alibaba china express zl1 kit from signaturewerks aka jqwerks aka aka mashimarho aka essj0n aka precisiondynamics aka spencerberke?

Lmao while I have seen those kits, negative I'm talking is anyone running their own custom kit that isn't chinesium…

Chalkbr wrote

Lmao while I have seen those kits, negative I'm talking is anyone running their own custom kit that isn't chinesium…

okay good just wanted to make sure nobody fell for this death trap

nah dude wrote

Chalkbr wrote

Lmao while I have seen those kits, negative I'm talking is anyone running their own custom kit that isn't chinesium…

okay good just wanted to make sure nobody fell for this death trap

Yeah absolutely not, especially after the thread on Facebook today..

Chalkbr wrote

Yeah absolutely not, especially after the thread on Facebook today..

What happened?

nah dude wrote

Chalkbr wrote

Yeah absolutely not, especially after the thread on Facebook today..

What happened?

They basically got exposed for selling Alibaba rotors with their "kits" on the e9x owners group

Chalkbr wrote

They basically got exposed for selling Alibaba rotors with their "kits" on the e9x owners group

ha, wow. it's interesting how that FB group has a strong list of sellers pushing chinese products for this platform, but pretty much all the vendors on this forum seem to sell legit stuff. I think you have to pay to be a vendor here? maybe that's the difference.

Anyone know what brake pads I will need for the alfa/Maserati rear 4 piston calipers ?

nah dude wrote

ha, wow. it's interesting how that FB group has a strong list of sellers pushing chinese products for this platform, but pretty much all the vendors on this forum seem to sell legit stuff. I think you have to pay to be a vendor here? maybe that's the difference.

Ding ding ding ding...we have a winner!

jritt@essex wrote

Ding ding ding ding...we have a winner!

I bet you’re not selling rotors from alibaba either.

Chalkbr wrote

They basically got exposed for selling Alibaba rotors with their "kits" on the e9x owners group

Thats quite scary. Imagine going cheap on the thing that can determine if you basically get hurt driving (aka stopping)

Throatpunch wrote

Thats quite scary. Imagine going cheap on the thing that can determine if you basically get hurt driving (aka stopping)

Scary indeed. Never understood how people can cheap out on one of the most important things of a car in the first place

DjMarkOne wrote

Scary indeed. Never understood how people can cheap out on one of the most important things of a car in the first place

it's for people that wanna flex on the gram in cali or get paid by the vendor to advertise their brand. the owner is some rich chinese kid.

Hey so I had some folks reach out and did some research about these jqwerks/signaturewerks 17z/18z big brake kits. I knew the rotors were from alibaba, but just learned the calipers are also knock offs too. The OEM porsche/VW calipers all have mounting brackets integrated, and these BBK retrofits do not. Apparently it's very common to counterfeit these calipers in this way to adapt them to other platforms with the idea that you're running a porsche product.

If you go on ebay and look at the OEM 17/18z calipers you can see they all have the mounting bracket integrated. Then check out install videos of the sig/jqwerks BBKs, they don't have a mounting bracket integrated but have mounting holes through the ends of the calipers. The OEMs do not mount up this way.

Here is the Signaturewerks "Brembo" BM5 Volkswagen Touareg 4 piston caliper kit. Check out the mounting holes.



Below are photos of OEM VW BM5 4 piston calipers, which you can see has the integrated mounting brakets that the sigwerks kit does not have. Do we really believe they machined off those brackets and drilled holes through the calipers? LOL.



Here's a thread about this that explains more in depth.

https://www.bmw-sg.com/forums/threads/a-guide-on-how-to-identify-fake-brembo.83438/

Don't buy fake brakes.

nah dude wrote

Hey so I had some folks reach out and did some research about these jqwerks/signaturewerks 17z/18z big brake kits. I knew the rotors were from alibaba, but just learned the calipers are also knock offs too. The OEM porsche/VW calipers all have mounting brackets integrated, and these BBK retrofits do not. Apparently it's very common to counterfeit these calipers in this way to adapt them to other platforms with the idea that you're running a porsche product.

If you go on ebay and look at the OEM 17/18z calipers you can see they all have the mounting bracket integrated. Then check out install videos of the sig/jqwerks BBKs, they don't have a mounting bracket integrated but have mounting holes through the ends of the calipers. The OEMs do not mount up this way.

Here is the Signaturewerks "Brembo" BM5 Volkswagen Touareg 4 piston caliper kit. Check out the mounting holes.



Below are photos of OEM VW BM5 4 piston calipers, which you can see has the integrated mounting brakets that the sigwerks kit does not have. Do we really believe they machined off those brackets and drilled holes through the calipers? LOL.



Here's a thread about this that explains more in depth.

https://www.bmw-sg.com/forums/threads/a-guide-on-how-to-identify-fake-brembo.83438/

Don't buy fake brakes.

Not defending the seller by any means cause I know it’s not a quality kit. However the calipers are in fact genuine. They mentioned multiple times on number of occasions that the mounting points are cut off and the caliper is machines to accept the new brackets.

Yeah, check out that bmw sg thread in my post. Also, if you know the kit is not good quality but you’re saying the calipers are genuine, why are you defending the kit? There’s nothing else to it, it’s just calipers lines and mounts.

I just finished the f8x rear brake conversion and for me it was not quite a simple bolt on. My car is a 2013 e92 m3 and we used 2015 m4 rear calipers. Bought a set of Zimmerman factory spec rotors and Hawk HPS5.0 pads.

There is not much write up on the rears other than you need to use a 2mm m12 washer to space the caliper. Unfortunately we had to use 4.4m washers on each bolt to space the caliper correctly.

Second we were getting a grinding noise that we could not pinpoint for the longest. Come to find out there is a plate behind the emergency brake pads that had to be milled down or at best grinded down. This is the same plate that your emergency brake pad springs attach to. We ended up cutting off the back dust plate to help in this process.

The spacers were quite the pain as we kept reading 2mm then the backing plate was the other issue. Once that was figured out the F8x brakes works well with the 6 piston Mercedes conversion up front. I'm happy with the outcome. Just some long nights at the shop. Hope this helps anyone else trying to do this.

To those of you running the Alfa/Maserati BBK, What front pad are you running? I ordered D1666 and I feel like the sweep is not enough.

I'm running the JQweks brakes on track and have 0 issues. He lives not far from me and I meet with him often. He has several M3's and tracks regularly too dog fooding his own products.

The 17z calipers are from a 2004-05 Porsche Cayenne base model and need to be ran with proper pads EBC, Hawk, etc. The rotors are steel and have excellent heat dissipation when paired with a cooling kit. Another thing I think some people are missing is using the proper brake bleeding procedure using ISTA+ routine. The DCS gets air bubbles and the routine uses a process called edging to do a proper bleed. There's is also another routine that has be run to reset the bite point. By not doing this your new 4 or 6 piston brake set up will feel mushy.

Remember, brake kits on or off brand are about managing heat more than stopping power. Your tires are the biggest braking factor in stopping over brakes. If your kit has amazing clamping force, your bias is off, and your tires are not up to the task you'll skid or constantly be in the abs zone.

Bmwdoubles_ wrote

I'm running the JQweks brakes on track and have 0 issues. He lives not far from me and I meet with him often. He has several M3's and tracks regularly too dog fooding his own products.

The 17z calipers are from a 2004-05 Porsche Cayenne base model and need to be ran with proper pads EBC, Hawk, etc. The rotors are steel and have excellent heat dissipation when paired with a cooling kit. Another thing I think some people are missing is using the proper brake bleeding procedure using ISTA+ routine. The DCS gets air bubbles and the routine uses a process called edging to do a proper bleed. There's is also another routine that has be run to reset the bite point. By not doing this your new 4 or 6 piston brake set up will feel mushy.

Remember, brake kits on or off brand are about managing heat more than stopping power. Your tires are the biggest braking factor in stopping over brakes. If your kit has amazing clamping force, your bias is off, and your tires are not up to the task you'll skid or constantly be in the abs zone.

Thanks for the write up was gonna get these at some point was worried if they are any good

SamOye wrote

Bmwdoubles_ wrote

I'm running the JQweks brakes on track and have 0 issues. He lives not far from me and I meet with him often. He has several M3's and tracks regularly too dog fooding his own products.

The 17z calipers are from a 2004-05 Porsche Cayenne base model and need to be ran with proper pads EBC, Hawk, etc. The rotors are steel and have excellent heat dissipation when paired with a cooling kit. Another thing I think some people are missing is using the proper brake bleeding procedure using ISTA+ routine. The DCS gets air bubbles and the routine uses a process called edging to do a proper bleed. There's is also another routine that has be run to reset the bite point. By not doing this your new 4 or 6 piston brake set up will feel mushy.

Remember, brake kits on or off brand are about managing heat more than stopping power. Your tires are the biggest braking factor in stopping over brakes. If your kit has amazing clamping force, your bias is off, and your tires are not up to the task you'll skid or constantly be in the abs zone.

Thanks for the write up was gonna get these at some point was worried if they are any good

If you use them with the pads Jeremy provides the biggest thing you'll feel over stock is clamping force the more the car slows. It increases exponentially toward the end of the stop. Upgrade the pads and it's a huge difference. I'll list the menus to access in ISTA for full bleed and bite reset. For reference I'm running Motul 660 and EBC yellows. I'm trying DTC 30's and 60's for the track I'll let you know how that goes.

Bmwdoubles_ wrote

I'm running the JQweks brakes on track and have 0 issues. He lives not far from me and I meet with him often. He has several M3's and tracks regularly too dog fooding his own products.

The 17z calipers are from a 2004-05 Porsche Cayenne base model and need to be ran with proper pads EBC, Hawk, etc. The rotors are steel and have excellent heat dissipation when paired with a cooling kit. Another thing I think some people are missing is using the proper brake bleeding procedure using ISTA+ routine. The DCS gets air bubbles and the routine uses a process called edging to do a proper bleed. There's is also another routine that has be run to reset the bite point. By not doing this your new 4 or 6 piston brake set up will feel mushy.

Remember, brake kits on or off brand are about managing heat more than stopping power. Your tires are the biggest braking factor in stopping over brakes. If your kit has amazing clamping force, your bias is off, and your tires are not up to the task you'll skid or constantly be in the abs zone.

Does that brake duct shield work for OE/ST brakes? Been looking for something fits