My BMW X5 M50d is sitting at Dealership
 

My M50d has arrived at the dealer, started on pre-delivery with following to be done,

Performance Aluminium Pedals
Towbar
Calipers to be removed and painted & ///M tranfers to be applied
Ceramic pads front & rear
Mudflaps
Tint
Performance Black Kidney Grills
5mm Offset front Castor Bushes

Attached a photo of the front calipher, they are massive. They are off the BMW X6 V8 Hybrid, the M50d here comes standard with same 20"s wheels as on the X5M, although these calipers are only twin-piston.

Thats massive, can't wait to see once everything has been installed.

Here are the 5mm offset castor bushes

nice~~cant wait to see your new X man

I have been studying the front brake calipers on my M50d, considering its is a $190k car here in Australia the calipers really are pieces of s--t, it looks like they rummaged thru a wreckers yard and scraped together bits and pieces to make a caliper.

I mean for $100 retail more there cost on this M50d they could have put the calipers from the X5M. I mean BMW sometimes just don't get it, they go to all the trouble of making a really good vehicle ( 3 turbo's motor that wins awards) and one of the most important aspects and visible as it is with work of art wheels they put a eye sore like this on.

I mean the person that ticked off this caliper must on weekend shoe horse's because he is a blacksmith for sure.

I hope BMW read this post because this caliper should be shoved where it don't fit. Its a disgrace, Merc's even give you a AMG calipers because they realise the visual aspect of there sports cars.

I have decided to remove these and put what I refer to as proper calipers on and send these back to BMW Melbourne to use a paper weights but they will probably use them as thinking caps because they must be sheep that just follow the leader.

Oh and one other thing, I ordered active seats, but now you can only get the drivers seat as active, not the passengers seat anymore, thats fine, but instead of removing the button for it from the passengers side they remove the button from the drivers side so I have reach all the way over to switch the passengers seat button on, or if I am wearing a seat belt I have to ask the passenger to push it for me, they must think its a lefthand drive car. Where the button should be on the driver side is blank, don't they know there left from there right, I mean come on, next thing the tool kit in the back will have lefthand screw drivers and spanners in it.

As you can tell I am a little upset, considering I have not paid for this X5 yet I might just walk away and tell them to shove it, it won't be the first time I have done this to BMW either!

Totally agree.

Nothing worse that this mindless rush toward 'bigger wheels' with people retaining puny brakes!

Kudos for having the $$ to do something about it. :)

Although I think the MARKET is as much to blame as BMW...


A

Yeah, see a lot of Tahoes/Suburbans/Escalades with humongous aftermarket wheels and tiny brake disks. Looks stupid.

Fixed...


IMO, the ONLY reason to go to larger wheels and lower profile tires is to stuff more caliper (stopping power) under the rims. This is why race cars began this trend...however people now have taken this trend as a design element itself, without the concomitant improvement in braking, and people think "big rims" are in and of themselves and 'upgrade'. Past a reasonable profile (50s, but varies based on rim and width) there is only downside

can you retrofit the X5M calipers to the car without changing much else (wheel carrier, hubs, rotors etc)?

I am yet to see an E70 with non-factory wheels in my area. But even with non-factory, the only way to increase wheel size on X5 is to decrease tire profile. Due to wheel carrier overarching over the tire, it prevents ridiculously large wheels, like you see on suburabans, escalades, etc.
Since the brakes on E70 were designed for a certain wheel/tire diameter size, and the size cannot go beyond what the wheel carrier limits to, perhaps it's not crucial to increase the brake disk size. Should be done for looks though.