Stoptech ST40 Consensus?

[pbonsalb]

Stop Tech must be clearing out the old ST40 for a new improved version.

[rmeitz167]

shit. missed this lol

[OldenburgerM3]

I had my eyes on the Trophy kit, which was still at $3555 -10% for front 4-piston (83.160.4C00.R3) until I just checked today: $2310! with 10% off brings it to pretty much $2080. Get 'em while they're hot! (buybrakes.com)

(edit 2: just told it's 3-4 weeks lead-time)

[hungryhippo]

I ordered too (again). I'm starting to wonder if this is just a sales tactic to offer 1 deeply discounted then offer something else

[hungryhippo]

Missed out again, I'm done dealing with buybrakes.

[chocstraw]

Well, 2-4 week lead time my ass. They came yesterday.

Always a good day when 2 boxes and 75 lbs worth of braking comes.

Unfortunately I didn't take a ton of pictures during the install, I always forget.

I've never done brakes before, but this install went easy enough, second side took me about 7 minutes tops. Undo 2 18s holding the caliper in place, knock off the old caliper with a mallet or something, then the rotor is accessible with just two 5mm hex keys. New one goes on, bracket goes in with the two 18s from earlier, and then the caliper mounts up to that. Honestly, the worst part of the install was tightening the brake line, PITA. Bleeding brakes also isn't fun without a lift.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review? :
-Very pleased, especially at this price.
-Rotors are beefy, and look like they'd be very stout. Pads are much bigger than stock, see pics
-Pad access is incredible, just two 5 hex keys and you can slip the pads out, but you guys probably already know this.
- I've never bled brakes before but they feel more linear. My last setup, with very fresh looking fluid and unknown pads had a ton of initial bite, the kind that strikes me as a street-only pad. Smearing during hard driving confirms this.
-Easily outbrakes the beat up MPSS 245s I have up front.
-SO MUCH LIGHTER

Last thing, shout out to Buy Brakes, the kit said it would come with "StopTech Street" pads -no substitutions- and I mentioned on the phone how I'd prefer the Sport Pads (same price, about), which can handle light tracking, and to my surprise, Sport pads came!

Had a few people say that these AREN'T a huge upgrade, and I feel like this couldn't be further from the truth. Just LOOK at that swept area difference.

[///Mobbin]

Congrats on the new kit!

[ghostofsenna]

Is this deal still available?

[BayE30]

no, i called yesterday and there are no more ST40 kits at that price ($1474).


I did end up buying ST60F ST40R from BuyBrakes.com just because i was already mentally committed to BBK....

[chocstraw]

Everyone is right when they say that the stock kit with upgraded pad compound / fluid is more than enough for light track duty. The stock lines feel sufficient as well. I won't pretend, this brake upgrade has contributed to the ever-important factor of personal confidence, and I feel like these can definitely take a punishing, encouraging me to dive deeper into the pedal.
These calipers are easily half the weight of the stock calipers, and despite being less 5mm in diameter, the cooling vanes are so much chunkier, almost all of the additional 5mm in width is just in the cooling vanes. I do not feel an upgrade in any realistic "street" capacity, I will not lie. Stock brakes can easily go for 10 full 70-0mph stops before getting less reliable, I did not notice this with the ST40s and that's all I can say at this point. The tires will skip around before the brakes will suffer.

Originally Posted by Richbot

I've had the STR40 front kit on my car for more than 60,000 miles. The front rotors are massive overkill and still haven't worn out; I expect them to get to around 100,000 miles before they're at minimum thickness. I can't say about knockback, I didn't notice it the couple times I've had it on track but I'm not crashing curbs either

Checked the production dates on the rotors and they're from 3/2010. 83k on factory rotors, and likely could have gone another 83k with an undiscerning owner.

Originally Posted by SFCM3

I did end up buying ST60F ST40R from BuyBrakes.com just because i was already mentally committed to BBK....

Congrats, you really have no idea what it'll feel like when you get those boxes at your door and the feeling of the first dive of your 2am bedding session.

Originally Posted by hungryhippo

I ordered too (again). I'm starting to wonder if this is just a sales tactic to offer 1 deeply discounted then offer something else

Doubt this, the rep I spoke with on the phone said that 2-3 other retailers had access to this deal, Stoptech reached out to them, and he sees these prices every 3-4 years. I'm not a shill but buybrakes is up there with FCPeuro for me after this experience.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by chocstraw

Well, 2-4 week lead time my ass. They came yesterday.

Always a good day when 2 boxes and 75 lbs worth of braking comes.

Unfortunately I didn't take a ton of pictures during the install, I always forget.

I've never done brakes before, but this install went easy enough, second side took me about 7 minutes tops. Undo 2 18s holding the caliper in place, knock off the old caliper with a mallet or something, then the rotor is accessible with just two 5mm hex keys. New one goes on, bracket goes in with the two 18s from earlier, and then the caliper mounts up to that. Honestly, the worst part of the install was tightening the brake line, PITA. Bleeding brakes also isn't fun without a lift.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review? :
-Very pleased, especially at this price.
-Rotors are beefy, and look like they'd be very stout. Pads are much bigger than stock, see pics
-Pad access is incredible, just two 5 hex keys and you can slip the pads out, but you guys probably already know this.
- I've never bled brakes before but they feel more linear. My last setup, with very fresh looking fluid and unknown pads had a ton of initial bite, the kind that strikes me as a street-only pad. Smearing during hard driving confirms this.
-Easily outbrakes the beat up MPSS 245s I have up front.
-SO MUCH LIGHTER

Last thing, shout out to Buy Brakes, the kit said it would come with "StopTech Street" pads -no substitutions- and I mentioned on the phone how I'd prefer the Sport Pads (same price, about), which can handle light tracking, and to my surprise, Sport pads came!

Had a few people say that these AREN'T a huge upgrade, and I feel like this couldn't be further from the truth. Just LOOK at that swept area difference.

I would recommend keeping a few spare bridge bolts on-hand. They're soft and strip easily, and do tend to wear out.

The pedal feel should be much more linear now. I noticed that immediately on the first drive.

[BayE30]

Originally Posted by dparm

I would recommend keeping a few spare bridge bolts on-hand. They're soft and strip easily, and do tend to wear out.

The pedal feel should be much more linear now. I noticed that immediately on the first drive.

Yes, the bridge bolts are very soft. I had issues with another kit and the bridge bolt snapping in half. I think i will take a broken bolt over a ruined caliper.

[bigjae1976]

The ST40 kit is the way to go. The ST60 is unnecessarily big and expensive. IMO, the big sell on the Stoptech is its a good upgrade AND pads are easy to find, relatively cheap and easy to swap. An ST60 race pad is going to cost 50% to 66% more than the comparable ST40 pad.

Also, pad changes are x10 the PIA on the ST60.

I have an ST60 kit on my E90 M3. The rotors haven't even worn a .5mm. I bought them used and have put 50k miles on them with some track time.

If you liked PF01s...I recommend the Stoptech SR34 pads. I think its the same pad.

Originally Posted by dparm

I would recommend keeping a few spare bridge bolts on-hand. They're soft and strip easily, and do tend to wear out.

The pedal feel should be much more linear now. I noticed that immediately on the first drive.

I recommend applying some anti-seize on the ends of the bolts when reinstalling, this reduces the chances of cross threading the bolts.

BUT...the bolts should easily slide in and you can start them by hand. You need to push down on the bridge a little bit.

[Ximian]

https://thmotorsports.com/3484542-st...SABEgKvdvD_BwE

ST60 for 2500 or so seems like a good deal.

[BayE30]

Originally Posted by Ximian

https://thmotorsports.com/3484542-st...SABEgKvdvD_BwE

ST60 for 2500 or so seems like a good deal.

Thats the lowest i have seen online.

[chocstraw]

I've bled twice now and and I still have a bit of softness up top. Maybe 1-2cm of travel before it really bites. I don't mind, because sometimes it'd be difficult to not overbrake before. But is it possible that this is air in the lines? I was pretty careful not to let the reservoir run dry.

Is this possibly the difference between a floating single piston setup with unknown fluid, soft pads vs. fixed 4 piston with Motul 600 & higher temp pads? It does seem to get better with a bit of heat.

[BayE30]

Originally Posted by chocstraw

I've bled twice now and and I still have a bit of softness up top. Maybe 1-2cm of travel before it really bites. I don't mind, because sometimes it'd be difficult to not overbrake before. But is it possible that this is air in the lines? I was pretty careful not to let the reservoir run dry.

Is this possibly the difference between a floating single piston setup with unknown fluid, soft pads vs. fixed 4 piston with Motul 600 & higher temp pads? It does seem to get better with a bit of heat.

This seems to be normal on e9x cars with BBK. Will report back once my kits arrive and i get them installed.

[MaximusB]

Originally Posted by chocstraw

I've bled twice now and and I still have a bit of softness up top. Maybe 1-2cm of travel before it really bites. I don't mind, because sometimes it'd be difficult to not overbrake before. But is it possible that this is air in the lines? I was pretty careful not to let the reservoir run dry.

Is this possibly the difference between a floating single piston setup with unknown fluid, soft pads vs. fixed 4 piston with Motul 600 & higher temp pads? It does seem to get better with a bit of heat.

Normal. Your brakes will come alive after a bit of driving, assuming you're using the ST pads that came with the kit. I experienced the same thing when I first had ST60/40 installed on my car. Bled the lines as much as I could, bedded in the pads, re-bled the lines (barely had bubbles, if any) and the peddle still had a bit of travel as you described. It went away after another week or so and the brakes gradually came alive. Now it starts to grab as soon as I rest my foot on the peddle.

[tdott]

Originally Posted by chocstraw

I've bled twice now and and I still have a bit of softness up top. Maybe 1-2cm of travel before it really bites. I don't mind, because sometimes it'd be difficult to not overbrake before. But is it possible that this is air in the lines? I was pretty careful not to let the reservoir run dry.

Is this possibly the difference between a floating single piston setup with unknown fluid, soft pads vs. fixed 4 piston with Motul 600 & higher temp pads? It does seem to get better with a bit of heat.

Have you used ISTA/INPA or similar to do the abs bleeding procedure? I had that problem initially but after doing the proper bleeding procedure it's perfect now.

[chocstraw]

Originally Posted by tdott

Have you used ISTA/INPA or similar to do the abs bleeding procedure? I had that problem initially but after doing the proper bleeding procedure it's perfect now.

Will report back after doing this. Any advice on where to buy another 500 of motul locally?

[bigjae1976]

Part of advantage of a BBK is more linear braking. My BBK is far less touchy than the OEM sliders and I like it.

[chocstraw]

So my red brake light is on. I'm seeing mixed stuff, is the red brake light for sensors? Some posts say the sensor light is amber, and red can be brake fluid. I haven't done the INPA ABS flush yet, but is it possible that this is what's triggering the red light? iDrive says pads worn to minimum, nothing about fluid or ABS. When I removed the rear pads, they were worn past the gas slot. Dash button reset does nothing and I don't want to jack up the car to splice the wires together yet. Getting tired of jacking this thing