Best brake setup??

[paulm3]

Hi,

After my trip to the ring I need new brake discs and pads, I currently have yellow stuff pads and oem discs all round, these worked ok and with the castrol super response brake fluid didnt fade to much (they rear pads were smoking whilst queing to come off the track lol)

Is this a decent setup or can I get better?? without doing a BBK route.

Cheers for any input :)

[c_w]

As you found the Yellowstuff and OEM discs combo is a great all-rounder that you can use on track too without it fading and ruining the day. One more addition is the brake cooling ducting to the back of the discs, this massively reduced brake temps. You say you didn't get "too much brake fade"? As I've never had any but I did do the ducting at the same time as fitting the Yellows the first time. Even with semi slick R888s and laping around 8mins at the Ring the brakes were always great.

The rear brakes are heavily used on these cars so you need to have Yellowstuff on the back too IMO - not sure if you have just yellows on the front? (standard rear pads just not up to it on track and either overheat or in my case, crumble to dust in an hour so).

For a further upgrade I would recommend Pagid RS29 which are slightly more powerful than Yellowstuff but cost about £220 just for fronts (Yellowstuff on rear would be fine). These pads work well and are also very low dust so great on the road. They also last ages which kind of justifies the price.

You can go to a more aggressive pad though like Pagid RS14, Carbotech XP10 (these I want to try), Carbone Lorraine RC6. The XP10 and RC6 espeically feel like a big brake upgrade in a pad with massive performance but very heavy dust and can be noisy (squeal). RC6 also don't last all that long but the performance is so strong it's worth it for a trackcar. Demon Tweeks are/were selling rear RC6 pads REALLY cheap on ebay (£30ish!!!). So if you pay full price for the fronts (£130ish), then averaging it out that's not a bad price for race pads.

[paulm3]

Cheers CW,
i have yellow stuff all round, i have also taken off the stone gaurds from behind the discs as these soak loads of heat up.

i have some ducting also but havent fitted it yet!! lol. so think i will prob just but teh same set up again then and go from there, next year will be bbk time though as like many ///M cars, its what most lets them down..

[inside]

If you're replacing the discs you can try pfc discs + pads (they have lots of variants). PF discs are (afaik) the only aftermarket alternative to the original ones that feature floating design, and they're suppose to be very good:
http://www.b1a.co.uk/andy/PF.html

I drive their street pads all round and am quite pleased, altough they're not dustless as people say about yellowstuffs (but still better than stock).

[c_w]

Cheers CW,
i have yellow stuff all round, i have also taken off the stone gaurds from behind the discs as these soak loads of heat up.

i have some ducting also but havent fitted it yet!! lol. so think i will prob just but teh same set up again then and go from there, next year will be bbk time though as like many ///M cars, its what most lets them down..

If you fit the ducting, then I would refit the guards as these will channel the air better in the discs. Otherwise the ducted air will be wasted around inside the wheel/arch.

Surprised you had problems wit hYellows on the rear though! Unless they weren't fully bedded in beforehand? and probably are now!

[paulm3]

They were half worn. I ment using tube's to go around the wheel and aim them at the disc's. You can get some duct end's I found a while ago that mount on the back of the calipers that you pop the tube's into so they direct the air onto the disc and caliper to. My friend had them on his evo but can't find them on the internet. I like the look of the pf set to.

[Ashley]

This is what ive done.







Standard discs, Pagid rs29's, Motul rbf600 brake fluid and some Turner motorsport brake ducts which were a tad expensive really. And yellow stuff on the rear. I done 17 laps this year and often done 2 laps at a time and i had no brake issues at all.

[paulm3]

thats the badgers!!! or carbon things... lol.

well once it arrives.. i need a dry weekend now to get the stuff fitted :(

[c_w]

Just looked and those PF discs are nearly £600!!! Far too much if it's just the same size disc as OEM but grooved, it won't offer any performance advantage IMO.

Paul, the original disc guards have an "inlet" on the back for air, if you can attach a flange (a short piece of exhaust tacked on over this opening) then ducted air can be force fed to the centre of the disc, the design is then for the air to be fanned outwards through the middle of the two halfs. The carbon ones are essentially this setup but look much fancier (and much pricier!! )

[c_w]

This is what ive done.

That is a clean car!!

[fok]

I can recommend Carbon Lorraines.........They are excellent but the rears have no spring clip and rattle like mad.........Highly annoying on a road car.

[inside]

I just read about another viable alternative on german forums:
- bmw performance 6 piston calipers (of 1-series 135)
- either E46 M3 discs (325mm) or CSL/Z4MC discs (345mm)

It is basically a cheap and efficient big brake kit. It is reported that you can even fit it on certain 17" wheels with low offset. It fits directly on stock e36m3/z3m caliper adapters, you only need longer bolts.

Cost is app. 700€ for both calipers without the discs, which should make about 1.300€ with csl discs and aftermarket pads.

Here's a pic of someone had it done on an e36 with 345mm discs:

[fastdrive]

but 345 disk can entry inside the 17 wheels?
Nice setup..
I tried for rear zimmerman drilled and red ebc but sincerely dont feel any difference whit stock setup,but i had the bbk front and probabily enough the braking.

[c_w]

but 345 disk can entry inside the 17 wheels?

I think you can with an open back caliper like that which is "curved" to the wheel.

[paulm3]

for that price.. you might as well get a set of stop techs or ap bbk's???