Anybody tried the M4/M3 Brake upgrade carbon ceramic Gold or even Blue Caliper?

[crawlin]

I was looking around for it and couldn't find anybody with it yet, I figured the wheels wouldn't be too big of an issue since you could just grab the stock 5 spoke 19's for a quick solution till something else that is a little better looking comes to mind and fits. I know its quite expensive still the carbon ceramic with the gold calipers are going for around like $4-5k for just fronts from what i could see. The blue's though you can get for around $2500-3k for a full set front and back which somebody has done im sure and I couldn't find.

IM TALKING THE 2015/16/17 M3/M4

I guess I'm interested to see if anybody has retrofitted either but more so the ceramic gold caliper set and how much better the factory over performance was over factory was.

anybody??

[Bruticus]

It works with a 380x30 disc. Somebody said it would brake like hell

[crawlin]

[QUOTE=Bruticus;21173919]It works with a 380x30 disc. Somebody said it would brake like hell


Brake like hell meaning? I cant see it being anything but an upgrade if set up correctly, obviously stock brake master cylinder could be an issue if it cant move enough fluid for such a bigger set of calipers and such. I could see it out braking the stock size tires quite fast especially the gold ceramic calipers from the M4's so an upgraded tire and a wider tire could be needed but may be very worth it as im going to be upgrading to some better wider tires anyway.

As far as disc size what did you mean? is that the stock disc size for that set up or you would have to find a specific rotor that size? forgive me, Im just starting my research.

[Bruticus]

Sorry! It means it breaks fantastic!

You have to drive minimum 19" rims and yes wider rims or with spacers.
To drive this caliper you have to drive the M3/M4 brake disc, stock size not specific.

But this size of caliper I wouldn't recommend for a car less than 1600kg. A 4Piston caliper with ab big brake disc is lighter and enough performance.

For show, I also would drive the 6 piston

[crawlin]

Originally Posted by Bruticus

Sorry! It means it breaks fantastic!

You have to drive minimum 19" rims and yes wider rims or with spacers.
To drive this caliper you have to drive the M3/M4 brake disc, stock size not specific.

But this size of caliper I wouldn't recommend for a car less than 1600kg. A 4Piston caliper with ab big brake disc is lighter and enough performance.

For show, I also would drive the 6 piston

Yea I see what you mean with the 6 piston gold calipers being too much braking and probably instant lock up a lot of the time but upgrading to the blue 4 piston m3's would probably be a badass setup to do and should be more than adequate street and track especially with upgraded pads. But yes the 6 piston golds would look nasty on the Z4M especially it being such a small car lol.

I actually like having an 18" rim on my M coupe, but brake upgrade will be needed eventually and I doubt ill be keeping the stock calipers so ill most likely be selling those and upgrading to the blue 4 piston calipers which seems the more practical option but who knows, if a bad ass deal on the gold six piston comes around maybe ill spring for it?

anybody done the blue 4 pistons yet?

[Bruticus]

Originally Posted by crawlin

Yea I see what you mean with the 6 piston gold calipers being too much braking and probably instant lock up a lot of the time but upgrading to the blue 4 piston m3's would probably be a badass setup to do and should be more than adequate street and track especially with upgraded pads. But yes the 6 piston golds would look nasty on the Z4M especially it being such a small car lol.

I actually like having an 18" rim on my M coupe, but brake upgrade will be needed eventually and I doubt ill be keeping the stock calipers so ill most likely be selling those and upgrading to the blue 4 piston calipers which seems the more practical option but who knows, if a bad ass deal on the gold six piston comes around maybe ill spring for it?

anybody done the blue 4 pistons yet?

How about the 6Piston Perfomance Break. It's the easiest way of getting Perfomance, Look and mounting. You can also drive it with the stock disc and fits under 18" and is very cheap.

The 4 Piston caliper should also work without a problem but I don't know the dimensions for the disc. Had to take a look.

[inTgr8r]

Sorry, I just don't understand why people try these type of setups.
For one you can guarantee that the rotor offsets will be wrong.
More importantly whether they are 6 pot 4 pot or whatever is irrelevant to a properly implemented system.
There is a huge variance in piston diameters in the specific applications out there.
This has a big impact on brake bias.

When it comes to the single most important safety system on our cars, why mess around for the sake of 'bling'

.....stepping off of soap box now.

[GuidoK]

I think the rotorsize will be more upsetting the brake bias than the piston size difference.
So front and rear might be the way to go, the rears (normal steel) alone are 370mm! (ceramic:380), the front ceramics are 400mm. I think aesthetics wise that should be mandatory (front: huge golden caliper with huge carbon rotor, rear: tiny rusted cast iron caliper with small rotor.... I dont know.... )

I think if you want to make this work, first make/design your own brake system with less expensive parts is a more sensible way to go (been there done that).
As far as bmw prices go, the rotors alone are almost $4k/piece I think


A 6 piston caliper alone isnt really an issue; I drive 6 piston front, 2 piston rear.

[Bruticus]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

Sorry, I just don't understand why people try these type of setups.
For one you can guarantee that the rotor offsets will be wrong.
More importantly whether they are 6 pot 4 pot or whatever is irrelevant to a properly implemented system.
There is a huge variance in piston diameters in the specific applications out there.
This has a big impact on brake bias.

When it comes to the single most important safety system on our cars, why mess around for the sake of 'bling'

.....stepping off of soap box now.

I can understand your distrust. Fact is the stock brake is shit.
Maybe it's enough for daily use without driving to the limit.
Rotors will be offset, thats right but it's no problem to get the caliper fitted to the disc.
Depending on what you want to do. If you want to go on track,
you better should also change rear calipers but no must.
You will feel a little difference if you brake to the limit (rear part of car gets a bit light and up)
Thats my experience from the track. I solved this by using 4 piston calipers for rear.
For city and fast driving, 6piston perfomance brake (not m4 ceramic) is not that bad

Hope I didn't get you mad or something. And yes my english isn't the best

[crawlin]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

Sorry, I just don't understand why people try these type of setups.
For one you can guarantee that the rotor offsets will be wrong.
More importantly whether they are 6 pot 4 pot or whatever is irrelevant to a properly implemented system.
There is a huge variance in piston diameters in the specific applications out there.
This has a big impact on brake bias.

When it comes to the single most important safety system on our cars, why mess around for the sake of 'bling'

.....stepping off of soap box now.

You can take any type of mounting issue such as rotor offset and mounting holes and say whatever you would like, that doesn't affect my decision much. All brakes that will need to be added will have to be modified other than aftermarket kits that come with mounting hardware. Also I'm talking about putting the front and rear brakes all the way around in both scenarios that's my fault for not making that clear I wouldn't leave the stock rears on of course if I could avoid it. I would get the entire system off the car if possible.

I will agree that 4 piston 6 piston may not matter depending on the setup and how its implemented but i doubt BMW does it for looks. I myself am not doing this upgrade for looks, yes it looks better but I'm doing it for performance, its not for the sake of "bling" so please don't make this into that type of thread.

You would understand why people try these type of setups if you have done them in the past like I have and seen the massive gains. Its not just BMW's i started out in honda's and I also Have done upgrades on my Sonoma with Z28 brakes and everything turns out much better performance wise and when sticking with the same manufacture there is a lot of crossover benefits when installing the brakes and other things like suspension, engines, etc...

My question was to see if people have done them and how they have turned out and what kind of gains were made. Plus sometimes they can be had cheaper since they are take offs people don't need sometimes with low miles. Obviously carbon ceramics are going to be expensive but then again how much are they aftermarket?

I wouldn't say the stock Z4M brakes are shit lol, they are pretty good for everyday, I haven't gotten mine to the track yet as I have only had it a little while so for the track I can't really comment.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by crawlin

I will agree that 4 piston 6 piston may not matter depending on the setup and how its implemented but i doubt BMW does it for looks.

A manufacturer chooses more pistons if it wants to use a larger pad. To spread the load.
Als with more pistons you can apply different loads on different parts of the pads. 6 piston calipers (and more) usually have pistons of different sizes in the same caliper, where the front of the pad (front-rear as in rotation direction) gets a different clampforce as the middle or rear.
This all can help in getting a more proportional feeling in the brakes. That was at least I think the biggest difference in feel when I went from stock setup to a 6/2 setup; the feeling that you could really modulate the amount of brake force. (so thats with the 6/2 bmw performance calipers compared to stock bmw calipers)

[crawlin]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

This all can help in getting a more proportional feeling in the brakes. That was at least I think the biggest difference in feel when I went from stock setup to a 6/2 setup; the feeling that you could really modulate the amount of brake force. (so thats with the 6/2 bmw performance calipers compared to stock bmw calipers)

I can see what you mean, with a one or 2 piston setup i guess you would be describing an all or nothing feeling in a way as where you could roll into heavier braking easier with the 6 piston set up. I cant remember one way or the other as I haven't driven a 6 piston set up in a while.

Also I could see a more even wear pattern on the pad as there are going to be more pressure points.