Brake Dive
 

Have a '05 4.4i and do a lot of driving in/around NYC, and hence a lot of stop and go. There seems to be quite a bit of dive when I brake and difficult to modulate. I find my bro-in-law's '02 Camary stops w/ less dive :mad: . By friend's Boxster stops w/ zero dip at all from any speed, but that's another story...

I've diminished it a bit by lowering the rear tire pressure to 32, so it is now f/r 32/32, rather than what I got it from the dealer originally 32/37.

Is this normal? What should I compare the braking of this to? Any suggestions for tweaking?

stock brakes on bmw are bite very hard initially. you need to get used to it.

after getting used to bmw brakes, you will find systems on other makes to be too soft and mushy...

It isn't brake bitting. Just that annoying dip right before the x comes to a full stop, as if the front suspension has too much travel...

When you come to a complete stop you are transferring quite a bit of energy/weight to the front end especially in car that weighs over 2 tons. Without the sport package (I don't know if you have it or not) its going to dive a little. Furthermore, you can't compare a toyota that probably weighs 1500 lbs or a sports car to the x5.

Yeah, it's a weight thing. At 5000lbs, you are ALOT heavier than the cars you listed. You might want to get off the gas pedal a little earlier to bleed off some inertia. OOPS! I just noticed the NYC location. Sorry, Now I have to warn you to be carefull no one rams you from behind because you brake better than them. The problem is the traffic, not the X5.

Never noticed it...
I'd suggest practicing easing up on the pedal
as you come to near complete stop.

Tossing people forward as the car comes to
rest, is reminiscent of driver training days.

Easy to learn the "less is more" foot touch
at end of braking, espc. with passengers
on board.
GL,mD