Oh wow I'm so glad you said that because you are so right about heel toe with the factory brakes and it has bothered me. That was one of the reasons I wanted the new brakes. I heel toe in my VW without any issues, its got the perfect balance.
Did you install the kit yourself or have a shop do it? I have done rotor and pad swaps before but never a caliper swap. One of my buddies said he would help but I just don't want to get in over my head.
I did it myself. Doing calipers isn't necessarily hard, but it is messy and you do have to bleed them properly afterwards. Bleeding them sometimes is an excercise in patience, but isn't a hard thing to do.
Just be careful with the brake lines when you're removing them from the hard lines on the body. The nuts strip very easily as it's a soft metal, so make sure you get the proper flare wrenches for the job and do not use regular wrenches. The flares wrap around the nut head and grab it better than standard open ended wrenches.
Good point BP, I made that mistake on my first brake job. I learn the hard way how valuable flare nut wrench are. Heres a good value set imho:
http://www.amazon.com/Williams-11692...are+Nut+Wrench
Jonny if you tackle this job don't cheap out on these as crappy flare nut whrench will flex and strip the nut which kind of defeat the purpose.
Also this tool makes bleeding brakes real easy:
http://www.mityvac.com/pages/products_bcbe.asp
agreed on the points above - proper tools make every job easier.
i have a motive pressure bleeder that makes 1-man bleeding possible - great for me as i'm usually working on stuff really late at night.
peter
2004 330i ZHP
2005 330iT ZHP
2010 328iT M Sport
+1 on the motive pressure bleeder. They're ~$50 on Amazon with the BMW/German adapter, and worth every penny. I've also used a Mityvac to do my Miata track brakes (bleed every event, flush every 6 months - so LOTS of brake work). I like the Motive a lot better. It introduces positive pressure into the system rather than pulling a vacuum. That means much less chance of air infiltrating through a fitting. I could never get the bleed nipple to seal well enough that it wouldn't let a bit of air in while I bled. The result is that you can't actually tell when all the air bubbles are out because more are constantly coming in right at the fitting. This isn't an issue with the motive. Also with the motive, you can fill the thing with a whole pint or quart of brake fluid and not worry about the reservoir running dry and ruining your flush. With the Mityvac, you have to habitually check the reservoir fluid level.
+1,000,000 on proper flare wrenches for a brake line change.
Blake - 2005 330i ZHP 6-sp
BP, I'm curous how hard do you track your? The rotors are up to the task? How many track days can you do before you need to change them?What pad are you running? I have pretty much researched every single option and I think it is definitely the cheapest one to own (cost of ownership which includes cost of consumable was the most important factor for me). Pads are about 40/50% cheaper than the brembo/ST. Rotors are dirt cheap 55$ on amazon for high carbon centric (i have had good experience with them on other platforms) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER
totally. i actually had an issue when bleeding my brakes a few months ago (with the motive bleeder), one of the rear bleeder valves somehow did not fit the threaded hole very well, and even at 1/4 turn open, it was introducing air into the system - enough that i was seeing small bubbles. it was confusing the heck out of me one night as i probably pumped 200ml of fluid through that caliper, and the bubbles persisted! i then deduced it was the bleeder valve, and replaced it, and it bled fine after that. weird.
peter
2004 330i ZHP
2005 330iT ZHP
2010 328iT M Sport
To be honnest i have only tried HF junk and these, and there is a big difference!!! As far as I know, Williams are snap-on idustrial brand made outside of the US (Taiwan) so instead of paying 225$ for the kit, you pay arround 65$ for a well made/design tools. http://www.snaponindustrialbrands.co...CAT3%20197.pdf
The other option, that might be even better is to buy individual snap-on whrench with the size that you need the most often (9mm-11mm and/or 10mm-12mm). I honnestly rarely/never use the bigger wrenches in the kit.