Oem 135i caliper option?

[Tracyis300]

Been hearing talk about 135(i) brake calipers working on our cars (but seems to be popular with E46 owners) with out fitment issues? (Just need to use the performance package rotors and a slight bend to the shield.. so I heard)

Anyone know more about this? Or can direct me to any discussion of it.

[pbonsalb]

What is interesting is that BMW did not use them on the 1M and instead used E9xM3 front calipers. My assumption is that the E9xM3 front calipers out performed the 135 calipers even though the 6 piston 135 calipers look higher performing.

[Tracyis300]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

What is interesting is that BMW did not use them on the 1M and instead used E9xM3 front calipers. My assumption is that the E9xM3 front calipers out performed the 135 calipers even though the 6 piston 135 calipers look higher performing.

Yeah! I thought about that too after looking into it... the e9xM3 calipers are larger than the 135(i). So maybe the brake fade is better with the e9xM3 over the 135(i)?... but they sure do look nicer though.

[derbo]

Don't bother with these calipers if you are aiming to track with them. They have high heat retention and the piston caps are made of ceramic. They will become very brittle when paired with track pads that can hold more heat. With the stock pistons being poor, you can rebuild them with Racingbrake.com steel pistons but that would increase your costs to a real BBK.




https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658932


I had a set on my E46 and they were okay for the street but pretty bad for the track. I ended going with Stoptech ST40s and they were miles better in performance.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by derbo

Don't bother with these calipers if you are aiming to track with them. They have high heat retention and the piston caps are made of ceramic. They will become very brittle when paired with track pads that can hold more heat. With the stock pistons being poor, you can rebuild them with Racingbrake.com steel pistons but that would increase your costs to a real BBK.

https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658932

That looks like standard dust boot failure from high heat. Pretty common for tracked cars, especially if you run the pads below 50% thickness.

I do agree that unless you are getting the calipers and rotors dirt-cheap, you'd probably be better-served with a BBK. I don't know what pads and rotors cost for the 135i calipers, nor do I know what kind of selection there is. At least with the M3 caliper you have a huge assortment of street or track pads from Pagid, Hawk, PFC, etc.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by dparm

That looks like standard dust boot failure from high heat. Pretty common for tracked cars, especially if you run the pads below 50% thickness.

I do agree that unless you are getting the calipers and rotors dirt-cheap, you'd probably be better-served with a BBK. I don't know what pads and rotors cost for the 135i calipers, nor do I know what kind of selection there is. At least with the M3 caliper you have a huge assortment of street or track pads from Pagid, Hawk, PFC, etc.

I totally agree with the dust boots. I was referring to the ceramic caps on the pistons that are cracked in the photobucket picture, sorry I'll upload it to imgur. They seem to get brittle with track pads with higher heat retention than the BMW OE pads. I noticed all the issues are with folks who have aftermarket track pads.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by derbo

I totally agree with the dust boots. I was referring to the ceramic caps on the pistons that are cracked in the photobucket picture, sorry I'll upload it to imgur. They seem to get brittle with track pads with higher heat retention than the BMW OE pads. I noticed all the issues are with folks who have aftermarket track pads.

Oh, yeah, that sucks. Definitely not a viable track option. Probably fine for the street or autocross.

I've never seen the ceramic thing before. I wonder if a titanium shim would help.

[derbo]

Originally Posted by dparm

Oh, yeah, that sucks. Definitely not a viable track option. Probably fine for the street or autocross.

I've never seen the ceramic thing before. I wonder if a titanium shim would help.

On my E46 with the setup, I added brake ducts and a 1mm titanium shim to help alleviate some of the issues and my piston caps did not break. I ended up getting ST40 BBK since this is somewhat a half-ass track brake setup on an E46. The person I sold my brakes to, said the brake pistons were incredible hard to remove to replace with full SS pistons from racingbrake. That's the last I heard of my personal setup.

[wyatth]

I’ve long wondered why nearly every E9x BBK is ~380mm/6p and for th E46 they’re 360/4. The cars weight within 100lb of each other.

[roastbeef]

Performance mostly comes from the rotor and pads rather than the calipers. There is no upgrade here, other than aesthetics.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by wyatth

I’ve long wondered why nearly every E9x BBK is ~380mm/6p and for th E46 they’re 360/4. The cars weight within 100lb of each other.

Well the E92 has more power...