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* As you know with any other DIY your proceeding at your own and sole risk, I'm not liable for anything. *
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I got tired of thread jacking other people's posts so here's my DIY for retrofitting the OEM 135i e82, Gray 6 Piston Brembo calipers onto an e46 or e36. This would also work for the yellow calipers if you were so lucky as to find a pair in need of a rebuild, as they are mechanically identical.
I am just starting this build, as the piston rebuild parts just showed up today, but I should have everything completed in the next few weeks to complete my DIY writeup, at which point I will post my final layout to the DIY section.
Parts you will need to start:
(2) Front 135i performance 6 piston calipers.
(2) Oem 135i caliper mounts that come with the 6-piston calipers.
You can source these parts wherever you want or can... I got mine from a fellow BMWCCA member (thanks LarryN).
If you find a set with healthy ceramic caps on the pistons, and you don't intend to take your car on the track, you might be able to just use the calipers as they are, only requiring a modification of the bracket to get these installed on your car.
The factory bracket mounts right up to the e46/e36 brake mounting points, but the 135 had a 338mm rotor diameter, where the e46 330 rotors used with this retrofit are 325mm. This requires us to do some modifications of the bracket to move it 6.5mm in to properly sit on the rotors.
here's a photo of the calipers and brackets, as it comes from the factory for the 135, this photo is without brake pads(and just for clarification, you obviously use 135i brake pads, not 330 pads)
In my case, I do plan to track the car, and the previous owner removed them because he fried the piston's ceramic caps, boots and etc. So, mine required a rebuild. I did some research and was able to find most of the information I needed on what to order but was almost misled by a few posts into ordering the incorrect parts... that's partially why I chose to put together a complete front to back DIY for this project.
Here are some photos of what happens to these on the track...
Don't be worried by these photos, the brakes shold be perfectly fine, just needing new pistons and dust boots, but while you're in there just replace the compression seal also.