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      09-28-2012, 07:52 AM   #1
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DIY custom OEM Rear BBK

After installing the ECS front OEM big brake kit for the E85 Z4 (non /m), I also wanted a matching BBK for the rear of course..

When I bought the ECS kit they also had this crazy sale for matching rear calipers (135i performance calipers in phoenix yellow) for only $99 /piece, so I took advantage of that

This is how I designed my BBK:

initial fitting on the stock rotor and stock mounting points showed that this had potential:



You can clearly see that the caliper was designed for much lager rotors.


Offset would require some adaptation:



Lots of room between caliper and rotor on the inside




Not so much room between caliper and rotor on the outside

In -c-'s thread about Z4, 2.5, 3.0 easy cheap brake upgrade's I already wrote that E46 330i rotors would never fit and that the best options would be an E90 rotor (320i) which is roughly the same size or an X3 rotor if you like a challenge. The X3 rotor is 320mm (vs. stock 297mm), so much larger, and in combination with the ECS front BBK a well used combination size wise (front 325mm rear 320mm; eg. used in a 330i etc).
Also the x3 rotors are thicker, so overall they can handle more forces and dissipate more heat.

But the X3 uses a larger diameter e-brake than the stock z4 (185mm vs. 160mm). But I decided to go for the x3 rotors after all

First of all the x3 rotors have a ridge on the inside which had to be removed with a lathe:



About 9mm has to be taken of.

Then I had to fit and measure the offset from the rotors compared to the calipers. Between the caliper and caliper mounting points on the suspensionarm aluminium bushes can be fitted to place the caliper more outwards. After fitting some testbushes and measuring the space between caliper and rotor with some feeler gages I found that the bushes should be 7,65mm thick:



So the final size of the aluminium bushes I made on the lathe is 7,65x30mm and the hole is m10 (a bit over 10mm).


To fit the calipers you need longer bolts:



I used the same blots as the rear bolts from the underside pullrods. (M10X35-10.9ZNS3 part nr.: 31 10 6 772 199).
Be sure to use 10.9 bolts in this application


After that came the adaptation of the e-brake, protection plate etc.
I used the protection plate from the e46 330i (34 21 1 166 107 and 34 21 1 166 108) which had to be modified to fit the larger calipers and different z4 hub:



The red lines & holes is where I cut the plate and drilled some holes. The holes are for mounting an 'elevation' mountingplate to fit the e-brake shoes. These brake shoes cannot be fitted directly on the protection plate because they will then touch the brake caliper and they will not fit properly in the brake rotor. The mountingplate for the brake shoes is fitted with m6 bolts where the elevation is done by a washer and a nut between protection plate and mounting plate (washer and nut obviously on the m6 bolts)

The yellow area on the plate is where you have to bend it a little.


Next the mounting plate for the brake shoes. For that I used the "Supporting ring brake shoe" as bmw call it from the 130i (34 21 6 771 430). (the e60 has a similar construction but these mounting plates are too fragile and narrow to modify for fitting on the protection plate as I experienced).
This is how the final brake shoe mounting plate looks like:



The red lines indicate where I cut/drilled the plate, and the yellow corner indicates where I bent the plate a little bit upwards to support the brake shoe on that spot.


Next is fittng the protection plate:




Fitting the caliper:




Fitting the brake shoe mounting plate:




The brake shoes themselves also have to be modified.
I used brake shoes from the e46 330i. (185mmx20mm)
I chose to adapt only the side where the expanding lock is located:



I cut away a piece on the expanding lock side and welded the corresponding piece of metal from the original brake shoes in place.
3 area's should be aligned to the original z4 e-brake (all on the expanding lock side):
1. The holes where the spring fits. (use the original spring; it fits between the expanding lock and the bearinghousing)
2. The little slot where the expanding lock fits into
3. The 'pins' which push against the metal piece form the suspension arm which lock the brake shoes in place.


When all is fitted it looks like this:




Final results....
Front original:




Front ECS OEM BBK:




Rear original:




Rear custom OEM BBK:





The only thing now on the list is fitting some decent brake lines. The rear calipers have a mounting point for the lines which is coming straight out of the cilinder and the original brake lines come out on the underside, so regular kits dont fit. I have a temporary piece of copper line flaired on the caliper and hose (in a 90 degree angle) but that is a bit flimsy. I probably need to use a banjo bolt and an an3 to m10 adapter or someting like that.
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      09-28-2012, 08:44 AM   #2
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      09-28-2012, 08:45 AM   #3
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that looks awesome. I wish I had this on my car.
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      09-28-2012, 10:26 AM   #4
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Any consideration given to f/r bias control?????
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      09-28-2012, 10:40 AM   #5
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No, but that seems to be no problem (so actually yes , I've given that some consideration). These calipers also seem to swap 1:1 on 1 series as part of the performance package without bias adjustment.
ECS recommends when only fitting the front bbk set to use a more aggressive pad on the rear, but that's no issue now
I also didn't experience any premature lockup at the rear with brake tests and braking in the pads.

What might be an option for the future is a bigger master cilinder. Brake pedal travel incresed with this setup about 1cm or so, but the stock cilinder can push around enough fluid (there's easily enough travel to lock up the brakes)

I don't know if an z4m master cilinder would fit and if it is bigger.
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      08-02-2013, 05:27 PM   #6
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yea running the CSL / Z4M rotor is also possable on the front which is a tad bigger than what is on the kit that you are running, you just need to add a 5MM spacer on the carriers as i did mine, fills the wheel super nice.

the car also had shown no ill effects or further travel on the brake pedal. so im thinking this is a great cheap brake mod for the money.

you can get the 1 series brake calipers off of 1 addicts site for super cheap as they come up often.

scored a rear and front setup then all i had to buy was the rotors which can get pricey but all in all i was out 750 dollars total. but what an upgrade!


easy to swap as well.

thanks for the DIY.
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      08-02-2013, 08:07 PM   #7
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Yes, the increase in brake pedal travel is completely gone now. That was the new pads still needing to glaze a bit.

If I would guess the added spacer could be as thin as 3,5mm. The original caliper carriers are ment for a 338mm disc (the z4m disc is 345mm (+7mm :2=3,5mm)).
I don't know if the 338mm (1 series) disc would fit (offset etc).

It's too bad that there's no data on the bmw performance (/m) discs. Normal discs are also made by brembo etc and they have data on their site, but but that's not the case for the performance /m discs.

The rear still is a matter of making your own like I did. I don't think I've seen a manufacturer making a rear bbk for a non m Z4.
Then again on a z4m you can't have the bmw performance calipers I think (unless you make them fit of course)

My rear setup still works fine. A few weeks ago I disassembeled my complete rear axle (I've replaced all 19 bushes for poly) so I had a good look. 1 e brake pad I welded again because it bent a bit during desassembly.
Carefully tig welding (nice small weld) stops the need to grind off the weld on the pad for the spring to fit. (grinding the weld weakens the weld obviously)

Too bad that ECS is still incresing the sales price of the front bbk (I paid more than $500 less 1,5 years ago than the current price), but thats how things go.
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Last edited by GuidoK; 08-02-2013 at 08:14 PM..
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      08-03-2013, 07:33 AM   #8
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very impressive stuff
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      12-04-2013, 06:25 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GuidoK View Post
My rear setup still works fine.
Can you comment on the use of your idea with the 130i/135 shoe carier back plate to make the Handbrake work on 128i/125i for these rear perf brakes. Is it possible for 130i plate to be cut up and used to make 135i brake shoes fit?

The 128i shoes are smaller in diameter. Otherwise everything bolts on (caliper & rotor).
The proper fix requires 135i knuckle with 135i back plate and Hub and 135i hand brake shoes.

Some one on e90post has made e90 work using cusom expanded brake shoes instea of the whole back plate/knucle approach
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      12-05-2013, 04:40 PM   #10
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Did I see a similar conversion for the M cars up front?
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      04-23-2014, 12:26 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrey_gta View Post
Can you comment on the use of your idea with the 130i/135 shoe carier back plate to make the Handbrake work on 128i/125i for these rear perf brakes. Is it possible for 130i plate to be cut up and used to make 135i brake shoes fit?

The 128i shoes are smaller in diameter. Otherwise everything bolts on (caliper & rotor).
The proper fix requires 135i knuckle with 135i back plate and Hub and 135i hand brake shoes.

Some one on e90post has made e90 work using cusom expanded brake shoes instea of the whole back plate/knucle approach
Interesting. I'm trying to do the same thing. I'm using the BMW Performance rotors for the E90. It fits the E90 330 and the E91 and E93 328. It should fit the xi as well but they may have suspension arms in the way.

I'm using the ebrake from a 330. To get it to fit, I'm using the mounting plate for the 330 as well. I'll have to modify that so it fits my 325. Let's see how it works out.
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      04-23-2014, 01:09 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by e90pilot View Post
Interesting. I'm trying to do the same thing. I'm using the BMW Performance rotors for the E90. It fits the E90 330 and the E91 and E93 328. It should fit the xi as well but they may have suspension arms in the way.

I'm using the ebrake from a 330. To get it to fit, I'm using the mounting plate for the 330 as well. I'll have to modify that so it fits my 325. Let's see how it works out.
You want to do the same thing I do.
Use 130i/330i hand brake carrier plate on the small e9x e8x handbrake hubs to mount 130i/330i hand brakes

The brake shoes would need to be modified exactly like this thread - his part numbers are the same as ours , im 90% sure of that.

Alternatively, we can try to use OEM e39 m5/ e46 m3/ e60 530i /x3 hand brake shoes ( diameter 183mm vs 330i's 185mm). The shape resembles this welded mod in this thread 90%. The holes lien up, requiring only one drilled hole and than a filing/grinding to make the Brake shoe- spreader mount & work.

I would buy the original BMW part, because some OEM's skim on material that would make welding like this thread unnecessary. If you do buy OEM, google search to visually compare the amount of meat.

Problem to over come & be aware of- OEM e39 m5/e60 brake shoes are wide ( 30mm vs the 20mm ones used here) . Thats 5 mm each side from brake shoe center line.

Further more, I belive that Caliper spacers/ bushes like here can help us e9x e8x guys mount e46 M3 rear disks, that actually use the wide hand brakes.

Another Alternative solution is this, done to the brake disk: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showpos...7&postcount=28
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In-progress: //M front arm, M3 rack, e36M lip Wishlist: Coils, n55 mnts, headers, LSD, e60 finn diff


"The 1-series is the last car that BMW engineered before the Germans, as a car-making culture, fell out of love with driving." - R&T 2013 135is

Last edited by andrey_gta; 04-23-2014 at 01:22 PM..
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      04-23-2014, 04:25 PM   #13
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Whenever someone does a mod like this (which I applaud) I always feel bad for the next guy who buys this and wonders why his new rotors don't fit lol.
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      04-23-2014, 04:51 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by 3002 tii View Post
Whenever someone does a mod like this (which I applaud) I always feel bad for the next guy who buys this and wonders why his new rotors don't fit lol.

I would list & document and staple it to the owners manual. I wish there was a no rotor grinding solution for the Z4 though, 10mm is alot to give up. I may have rotor ideas though, seems like the X3 rotor is allot like the F10 rear or maybe an e46 330i rear

Assuming mod is successful & reversible one can resell used to the forums/locals
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In-progress: //M front arm, M3 rack, e36M lip Wishlist: Coils, n55 mnts, headers, LSD, e60 finn diff


"The 1-series is the last car that BMW engineered before the Germans, as a car-making culture, fell out of love with driving." - R&T 2013 135is
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      04-23-2014, 06:50 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 3002 tii View Post
Whenever someone does a mod like this (which I applaud) I always feel bad for the next guy who buys this and wonders why his new rotors don't fit lol.
I'm not selling my car (probably ever), but if I do, I'll include the lathe

Quote:
Originally Posted by andrey_gta View Post

Another Alternative solution is this, done to the brake disk: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showpos...7&postcount=28
That is also a really elegant solution.

I might do that to a set in the future (thats a rotor with an aluminium hat), but because the z4 has a massive hat on the rotor, that might involve a different drive flange..... (I don't know if it's safe to mount a caliper that far from the mounting holes/ spacer up an inch or so)

Or I could do this to the x3 disc and convert it back to the stock 160mm handbrake shoes.

My current setup still performs flawlessly. And it's nice to have a sort of OEM look-a-like BBK. Especially at this price.
Not that I would mind a brembo GT set all around, but that is a bit too $$ for me. This current setup (front and rear) has cost me about $2200,- total (so discs, calipers, pads, ss lines, mounting plates, dustplates, postage (to europe$$) etc)
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      08-19-2017, 11:45 AM   #16
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Is there an alternative rear rotor setup to the X3 that will work with these calipers?
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