I'm also looking at a new set of rotor and pads. Steering wheel on X5 is vibrating a bit under hard braking so it is a sign to get new ones.

Im looking at the brembo sports drilled rotors on tireracks.com
Brembo Sport Drilled Rotors


What do u all think and has any one uses them before?

You will get better performance and service life out of the solid plain rotors. If you are more interested in the looks then these are fine. Might want to also look at Centric rotors, if you are not happy with the OE rotors.

they look good but other than keeping the heat down do they outlast oem? If you told me that a better pad and these rotors could get me to 60,000 or 80,000 instaed of 40,000 then there's value to me.I'm pretty white bread when it comes to cars function.

I can't guarantee how long they will last because it depends on a lot of factors; towing duties, driving style, etc. However, I changed all four corners on my 02 4.4 sport to Centric plain rotors and Axxis XBG pads about 35,000 miles ago and they still seem to have a lot of pad life left. I am a believer of changing out the rotors with every set of new pads due to BMW rotors being on the thin side, so rotor life is not that important to me. It seems most pads wear before the rotors anyway. You may be able to get even longer life out of a Centric rotor/Axxis Delux pad combo as the Delux pads should be easier on the rotors. I would also feel confident that this combination is of much better quality than pads/rotors sourced from the local auto parts store. Also, don't be fooled into thinking Brembo, etc. aftermarket rotors are better than the Centric's just because of the name. Brembo big brake kits are one thing. Replacement rotors are another.

Much Respect for your opinion... unless I can see a value for how I drive/performance etc... why should I pay more

I ride motorcycles The BMW crowd is always complaining about how difficult, costly repairs are because BMW takes the simple to the ridiculous in terms of parts and their placement. The parts are twice the japanese equivilent with minimal diffence in performance.

Some of the BMW is real fresh squeezed lemonaide but, you get a lot of coolaide with your lemonaide. the proof is how they love riding their bikes but, hate all the little problems and difficulty working on them. I think it's the same with the cars. BMW is built by zero tolerance engineers for zero tolerance engineers. Like my neighbor who has 4 newish BMW's and drives his toyota camry every day:dunno: WTF:dunno:.... you guessed it, he is an engineer.

Don't get me wrong I love the car but when it comes to coolaide I don't want to pay for lemonaide. Opinions vary...

This is all meant in fun but, you know there is some truth to what i'm saying... peace

Well, as far as the rotor is concerned, if the venting doesn't meet or exceed OE standards, then you could possibly experience more brake fade due to heat. Plus your rotor hats are going to turn rusty and look horrible after a while. I get your logic though. Some parts I would go aftermarket because they may be as good, but others will fall short. I like to think I am using the good stuff as far as brakes are concerned because they are important.

The Centric rotors are not BMW rotors. They are also aftermarket, but they are a good quality aftermarket product. There are many less expensive aftermarket products that do not meet or exceed OE quality. I choose not to buy those. I paid $392 for the centric rotors and Axxis XBG pads for all 4 corners (plus shipping). Just out of curiousity, how much was your total at the local auto parts store?

By the way, I just re-read your first post. I changed out my rotors and pads with the Centric/Axxis stuff between 80,000 and 85,000 miles and well. My X now has 120,XXX miles on it and I have a lot of life left on the pads/rotors. What products/brands did you change to at 85,000 where you are already changing them again?

Edit; I just saw you paid $167 for the fronts. I pad $70 more, but feel the quality of what I got over what could be purchased at the local parts store was worth it. I know I have OE or above venting, black coated hubs and shimmy free pedal feel. I am still curious as to what pads you had that wore out in 35,000 miles.

That's a killer deal for rotors/pads on all 4 corners. Well done! :thumbup:

BTW: your comment on Brembo et al name not meaning higher quality (necessarily) was spot on. My comment about throwing brembo blanks on there was meant as an inexpensive solution to the issue. The blanks function just fine, though they will not look as nice as the centric's over time. I'm somewhat of an anomoly as in my experience I develop rotor cracks before (lots of track time on my cars). Haven't had to worry about the X5 as the previous owner bought the extended maintenance plan (yay!). On my M3 I'm replacing brake rotors with PFC products. Nice US made products (priced accordingly). They work fabulous on the track though!

Thanks. Rotors from Dave Z. and pads from Turner Motorsports.

A friend of mine uses Performance Friction as well for his e36 M3 race car. He runs in the BMWCCA club races and does pretty well. He has the Performance Friction, two piece race rotors utilized with the stock calipers and still competes very well in his class. He has tried a bunch of other stuff in the past, but he loves the PF products.

I think these are the ones he uses;

Also seems that Brembo is an OE supplier to BMW, at least for the 4.6is model. I ordered Brembo rotors from AutohausAZ for $97 each that carried the same PN as the BMW OE - 34 11 6 756 847

They came in a BMW Group original parts box with the same PN listed - no Brembo shown anywhere on the box.

That's a pretty good deal for an OE rotor for the IS model, since normally best pricing you can find for those is $150 or more.

So with Textar pads, which is also an OE source to BMW, I paid $270 for my complete front brake job. Plus another $20 for the sensor that doesn't seem to be working.

Sounds like a pretty good deal for the "is". Brembo is a OE supplier as far as I know. Last I knew, so are Balo, Zimmerman and Ate, etc. I was only trying to point out that just becasue these companies make OE rotors, doesn't mean that their rotors labeled OEM from random retailers are the same exact product or meet the same standards.

What do you mean your sensor isn't working?