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BMW X5 Big Brake
Installation photos
Installation highlights
This big brake kit fits the factory X5
4.4i 19"
wheels without spacers. Calipers are available in red, silver, or black. Custom caliper colors are also available. Call for
details.
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380mm (15") rotors!
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8-piston calipers w/4 brake pads
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Floating rotors
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Hat can expand without distorting rotor
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Huge Brembo rotor is 34mm thick
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Almost too nice looking to install the wheels
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Happy owner is 3rd from the left
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Fits stock BMW 19" wheels
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Installation Details
The X5 brake kit from Brembo uses a pair of
380mm x 34mm rotors with 8-piston calipers. This is truly a gigantic big
brake kit. However, the huge 8-piston calipers are aluminum alloy and
weigh nearly 5 pounds less each than the cast iron, single-piston stock calipers.
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Each Brembo caliper holds four, full-sized brake
pads. It's almost as if they took two, 4-piston calipers and mated them
together.
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The Brembo rotors are gigantic
at 380mm (15") x 34mm. However, they are only 1 pound heavier than the
stock 332mm x 30mm rotors on the 3.0 and 4.4i X5. This is because the Brembo
rotors are 2-piece with "floating" aluminum hats whereas the stock rotors are
1-piece and made of iron.
The 4.6i X5 has much heavier
356mm x 36mm 1-piece rotors and the weight savings of the Brembo kit is significant.
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Prior to the
installation, I laid out all the parts and tools required.
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The stock brakes use heavy
(17 pound) iron calipers with a single piston. The calipers float on two
sliding pins and are very flexible. Thus, brake pedal feel is not linear,
since the caliper is bending as you push the brake pedal. The
Brembo kit uses ultra-stiff calipers which are rigidly mounted to the
car and use multiple pistons on each side rather than the stock, 1-piston
floating caliper design.
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The installation went very
smoothly.
I
disconnected and plugged the stock brake lines, removed the two 16mm bolts
attaching each caliper to the steering knuckle, and simply lifted the entire
assembly off. The rotor was held in place by a 6mm allen retaining screw and
plenty of corrosion. I needed to whack the rotor a few
times with a dead-blow, hammer before it would come off.
The
Brembo caliper adapter attached with the same bolts used to hold the stock
brakes. I used a wire brush attachment on a drill to clean the rust
off the hub before installing the Brembo rotor. The rotor backing plate did not need to be trimmed or bent. The caliper
bolted to the adapter and then I attached the stainless braided Teflon
line at both ends. Finally, I bled the brakes, using the technique
described here: How To Bleed Brakes.
A few whacks on the caliper with a rubber mallet helped break loose any bubbles
trapped inside.
Below
are a few shots to admire before we put the wheel back on:
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The 2nd side went faster than the
first. Before we knew it, the wheels were back on and the car was ready to
be test driven.
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Now it was time
to break in the pads and rotors.
I took the car onto a long, quiet road where I could easily do repeated 60
to 10 to 60 to 10 mph runs and get the brakes up to temperature. After about
the 10th threshold braking event, I turned it around and headed
back. As we slowed down, you could see smoke wafting from the rear brakes, but not a wisp
from the front. It's tough to get 380mm x 34mm rotors
hot enough to bed. Regardless, after the brakes cooled down, they felt better and more
responsive. I did about a 10 minute cruise to cool them off and then pulled back
into the driveway.
A close inspection
showed there was a uniform deposition of material across the faces of the massive
rotors; exactly what we were looking for.
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Then it was time for the festivities. First, the
obligatory group photo:
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George, Dave Z (me), Tommy
(the owner), Chris, Rich, Maria, Dave Y, Shane
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Tommy and Rich had to take
off to separate engagements, so the rest of us headed to Panevino, our regular
post-clinic venue, for lunch:
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Another nice end
to a big brake clinic!
Postscript: Tommy reported that
he was thrilled with the braking performance. The stiffer calipers are easier to
modulate and they really make a difference when bringing the X5 down from
serious speeds. A few months later, we installed the Brembo 4-piston
rear kit to bring the system into balance and the system became even better.
Nose dive was reduced and the car felt more stable braking from higher speeds.
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