Brake Upgrade Teaser

[SkrApUNB]

Looks Great Ryan... mind if i ask you how much this cost you for the parts? and What are the benefits to jumping to 330 brakes besides the obvious dramatic aesthetic improvement.

[danewilson77]

More braking surface area, I would think would be an effect all around on bite, fade, etc....

Droid! Srs Legitness!

[Hornung418]

Will need DIY for late in the summer...Don't think stock 328 brakes would do very much good with an additional 140hp...

[adb1028]

Yummy.

[Ryans323i]

Looks Great Ryan... mind if i ask you how much this cost you for the parts? and What are the benefits to jumping to 330 brakes besides the obvious dramatic aesthetic improvement.

I picked up all 4 calipers for $150 shipped from a salvage yard in GA, which IMO is fantastic. The SS brake lines were $100 from ECS Tuning. and the rest was around $520 from Brake Your Self.

I did a lot of reading before I decided to do the upgrade. I really only wanted to do the fronts, because with the rears I'd have to modify the parking brake shoes. Then I read about evenly distributed braking vs undistributed braking, and how that could lead to more wear and tear on parts and possibly less effective braking. Then I thought about just getting better 323i parts all around, but the setup looks so wimpy behind my 18" wheels. The brake master cylinder was also a concern, "would mine be powerful enough?". Both the 323i calipers and 330i calipers are single piston and relatively the same size, and the two models' master cylinder are nearly the same as well (since my car has DSC, yes that matters). So the only choice was upgrade all around. As Dane mentioned, I believe the greater surface area of rotor and pad will create more friction and help the car slow more quickly. A neat addition is, my car's curb weight is 3153lbs, the 330i is 3285-3362lbs, so logically speaking (with my upgraded suspension) I should be able to stop better than the 330i. (not sure about the zhp, but that doesn't matter, it's not special anyways)

I really like the idea of this setup because it's a cohesive system that BMW designed. It helps with the theme of "BMW's e46 m3 sedan concept" I'm going for, rather than just throwing a Wilwood or Brembo BBK on her. (And yes, it was cheaper.)

[danewilson77]

Well done. Great write up Ryan!

Droid! Srs Legitness!

[SkrApUNB]

Great write up for sure!!!! looks great as well. i will definitely be looking into this in the upcoming year! Thanks A lot.

[Ryans323i]

Thanks guys. Look for my DIY coming soon.

I've had to significantly modify the parking brake shoes, so I must first see if they still work. If not, I have another plan.

[az3579]

I've had to significantly modify the parking brake shoes, so I must first see if they still work. If not, I have another plan.

What's this "other plan"?

[Ryans323i]

Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I'd have to buy 330i parking brake shoes, cut the bottom mounting area off, cut the bottom mounting area off my 323i parking brake shoes, and weld the 323i mounting area to the 330i upper shoe area. Like in this picture LINK (Sorry, can't import the pic.)