Custom Brembo Big Brake Kit

[ucsbwsr]

I wanted to share the big brake kit I built for my X5D.

I have a detailed build thread for my E70 if anyone wants to see more:
https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...og-m57-x5.html

This link has great info explaining different applicable brake systems.
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1450854


My X5 tips the scales at 5,000lbs, which is on the lighter side for an E70 but still heavy in general. Now that I have the M57 diesel engine tuned with some other performance goodies power is up to ~370whp 580wtq, factor in the hauling + towing ability, and there are lots of situations where better braking is beneficial. I view this primarily as a safety and performance upgrade.

Essentials
- F10 M5 front calipers + 400mm F10 M5 front rotors
- Porsche Panamera/991.2 rear calipers + 385mm F85 X5M rear rotors
- Custom brackets F/R High Performance Tuning of brake system for all cars
- Goodrich SS brake lines 6-pieces
- Hawk Ceramic pads

The "easy" upgrade would be to run E70 X5M or F85 X5M brakes since they are bolt-on HOWEVER the E70 X5M front calipers are a dated 4 piston design, F85 is much more appealing as it uses the newer 6-piston monoblock Brembo calipers (same as the F10 M5 calipers I run) but both F85 and E70 front rotors are heavy.

In contrast the F10 M5 rotors are larger (marginally at 395mm vs 400mm) and lighter. The downside is the they require custom caliper brackets to fit the rotors but considering the M5 rotors ~7lbs lighter each, that's a good deal. 7lbs isn't huge but considering that's rotational mass that weight is amplified during acceleration saving 7lbs off each front rotor is roughly equal to 42lbs.

I also run Camaro ZL1 wheels which are forged and relatively light, about 10lbs lighter per wheel compared to the OEM 20" wheels you find on X5 and X5Ms. Do the math on that and my wheel/tire setup is saving about 120lbs of gross weight so I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot by adding unnecessarily heavy rotors.

I wanted to explain all of these weight savings as people keep asking "Why not just install the PNP X5M brakes, why spend more for the adapters"
-Weight, that's why. My wheel/tire/brake setup offers superior braking performance and saves over 160lbs of theoretical gross weight. Not to mention keeping the rotational mass down will further help fuel efficiency, suspension performance, etc. Weight is the enemy for nearly everything performance and efficiency related.

Moving to the rear axle I could have also used stock E70M or F85 calipers BUT the calipers are actually the same as the non-M E70 calipers, just with larger brackets to fit the larger rotor. BMW P/Ns are different to reflect the different bracket (which is part of the caliper and not sold separately) and the black paint (e70) and blue (F85) paint the calipers received. Remove the bracket and paint and the actual caliper is identical between all E70s, F15s, and F85. I am not sure why BMW insists on using ugly floating 2-piston calipers on their $100,000 flagship cars but it drives me crazy. You can spend $15,000 for carbon ceramic brakes on a 2020 F90 M5 and it still uses 2 piston floating calipers. I understand "if it works it works" but there are some standards and expectations. $100k M5s don't come with cloth seats do they? Then why use rear calipers which look like they came from a Nissan Altima?

Obviously I am not a fan of the aesthetics of the 2 piston floating rotor design so I opted to retrofit a Porsche rear caliper, 4-piston monoblock. The calipers needed to be machined and required custom brackets but well worth the effort for the added clamping power and "proper" aesthetics.

Enough of my opinions, onto the pics!

Here is where we started. Calipers were sourced from wrecked M5s and Porsches.



More cleaning


You can see the M5 caliper with the "///M" decal missing has a large gouge that ran the length of the caliper, I assume the wheel broke during the crash, yikes.


Use a metal file to level and smooth out the gouge


I completely disassembled the calipers and one bleed nipple on the M5 caliper wasn't cooperating, more on this later



Next was to get the Porsche calipers machined down




Time for a test fit




The stripped bleed nipple was a real joy to remove but thankfully I was successful. I very carefully bored out the remaining metal from the nipple and used a die to finally remove all material. What a pain.




Calipers were ground, brushed, and sanded down in preparation for paint. Up next was masking.


Primed!



Paint! I used VHT caliper paint. I was thinking of painting the calipers Laguna Seca Blue, British Racing Green, Imola Red, or Rhapsody Blue (Lincoln) but I felt the dark colors would be too ...dark and considering the black/grey theme of my X5 I wanted some contrast. I have put BMW M brakes on 2 of my personal cars already and don't usually use bright colors so I got a wild hair and really wanted something that would pop and grab some attention, I was OK with this as well since my rear calipers are monoblocks and not the fugly OEM floating 2-piston calipers.




Applying Brembo decals ...with lasers! Calipers were clear coated with a high temp clear after this.



Time to clean and rebuild the pistons and seals






I used a Dorman bleeder repair kit. Thankfully with some thread sealant I was able to get everything sealed up


Full Kit laid out



I realized that I painted an area of the caliper I shouldn't have and needed to scrape off the paint to allow some clearance for the brake pads to move freely. Using a chisel followed by some fine sand paper made these areas buttery smooth



Applied a ceramic coating


Goodrich lines. 6 pieces 4 for each corner and the two short ones replace soft lines located on the body by the fuel tank.



OEM front caliper


F10 M5 front caliper


OEM rear caliper


Porsche rear caliper


OEM front rotor


F10 M5 front rotor (Zimmerman)


Oem rear rotor


OEM F85 rear rotor


Time for install


OEM F85 dust shields F/R



Bleeding the brakes. I didn't run the DSC/ABS actuation via INPA/ISTA since it wasn't included in my INPA software and I don't have ISTA No real worries as all the changes I made were downstream from the DSC pump. Smartwater bottle FTW.



Installed






The bedding process was straight forward with the Hawk pads but I am driving moderately on the brakes for a bit while things continue to get settled.
Here are some additional pics!

[crystalworks]

They certainly look beautiful. And I bet the breaking performance is improved. Nice work.

Question though. Was going this route a cost savings over using x5m setup? And the rear on the x5m uses floating calipers? Did not ever realize that. What was the total spend on the project? Oh, how much are pads for this setup? As usual, very nice work.

If I ever get my wife's x5d's trans to play nice, might start looking harder at this. Those results are impressive.

[ucsbwsr]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Question though. Was going this route a cost savings over using x5m setup? And the rear on the x5m uses floating calipers? Did not ever realize that. What was the total spend on the project? Oh, how much are pads for this setup? As usual, very nice work.

Lots of variables when it comes to pricing, New vs Used. DIY vs turn-key. How successful one if at finding deals etc. So I would recommend YOU look up what you can find the brakes for in the condition you want them in etc. No clear cut answer however the best example I can make is there are "F15 M Performance brakes" which are essentially E70 X5M system which IIRC it is/was $2,9XX. My system was a little more than that. But this kit has the smaller/heavier rotors, inferior caliper design, non SS lines, etc.

Hawk ceramic pads are $1XX F/R

I bought the rotors from FCP so replacements will be free.

[crystalworks]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I was looking for a ballpark figure for all the reasons you mention.

Again nice work. An inspiration to turn some wrenches.

[Torgus]

Very Nice!

[blue dragon]

This is easily a 4k+ brake system by them time you factor in machine shop milling for the Porsche calipers, brackets from Tronik and used F85 calipers.




I ran the 4 pot system from the E70 X5M on the front of my e70 35D for 6 years, towing a 6000 boat, and it worked well. I initially ran stoptech steel braided lines and then just the stock rubber lines



Tronik sells his brackets and porsche calipers already miled for $1600 USD. This does not include pads or rotors as yet. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Upgrade-cal...53.m1438.l2649


If you have the $$$ and time to scour ebay, it looks like a fantastic piece of kit. You are competing with the F15 guys looking to do the same brake upgrade. If not the F15 m performance brake kit is $2495


https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-part...it-34112348054


That is the route I went with my F15.

[ucsbwsr]

Originally Posted by blue dragon

This is easily a 4k+ brake system by them time you factor in machine shop milling for the Porsche calipers, brackets from Tronik and used F85 calipers.

If you have the $$$ and time to scour ebay, it looks like a fantastic piece of kit. You are competing with the F15 guys looking to do the same brake upgrade. If not the F15 m performance brake kit is $2495

My kit ended up being in the $3,200-$3,500 range and it should be fairly easy for others to do the same if they are savvy. My price included brand new rotors, completely rebuilding/refinishing the calipers, and $1XX for SS lines. So there is money which can be shaved off that total too, I went all in with a full rebuild and upgraded everything .

For those who want a turn-key option and don't want to spend the money on the full kit from Tro-nik or other BBKs, the F15 Performance brakes "aka painted E70 X5M brakes" is a decent option.

However, $2,700 isn't chump change and for those seeking optimal performance/value and comparing the 2 kits I would suggest they view this DIY kit as offering larger and lighter rotors, calipers with greater clamping force and significantly larger brake pads (big variable IMO) for a 25% upcharge and they can draw their on conclusion. I bring this up because at first glance the kits may look very similar and it's easy to overlook those subtle differences which add up to offer much improved performance.

Point is; people have different needs and can draw their own conclusions on what's valuable to them but if performance is the goal it's hard to beat the value of this kit.

[RDAvena]

Agree with reducing cost shopping for calipers. So far I am in for 1100.00, for all four calipers. If I can ask, which are the two tronik carrier sets for mounting the calipers to the X5. For the rear I only see the carrier with caliper option. Thanks.

[ucsbwsr]

Originally Posted by RDAvena

Agree with reducing cost shopping for calipers. So far I am in for 1100.00, for all four calipers. If I can ask, which are the two tronik carrier sets for mounting the calipers to the X5. For the rear I only see the carrier with caliper option. Thanks.

They are listed on his site, if you can't find them or have a question I would shoot him a message on FB messenger.

[Tanny]

@ucsbwsr

for the rear dust shields, how did you change them out?