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      04-28-2020, 12:35 PM   #1
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Custom Brembo Big Brake Kit

I wanted to share the big brake kit I built for my X5D.

I have a detailed build thread for my E70 if anyone wants to see more:
https://www.xbimmers.com/forums/show....php?t=1605036

This link has great info explaining different applicable brake systems.
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1450854


My X5 tips the scales at 5,000lbs, which is on the lighter side for an E70 but still heavy in general. Now that I have the M57 diesel engine tuned with some other performance goodies power is up to ~370whp 580wtq, factor in the hauling + towing ability, and there are lots of situations where better braking is beneficial. I view this primarily as a safety and performance upgrade.

Essentials
- F10 M5 front calipers + 400mm F10 M5 front rotors
- Porsche Panamera/991.2 rear calipers + 385mm F85 X5M rear rotors
- Custom brackets F/R High Performance Tuning of brake system for all cars
- Goodrich SS brake lines 6-pieces
- Hawk Ceramic pads

The "easy" upgrade would be to run E70 X5M or F85 X5M brakes since they are bolt-on HOWEVER the E70 X5M front calipers are a dated 4 piston design, F85 is much more appealing as it uses the newer 6-piston monoblock Brembo calipers (same as the F10 M5 calipers I run) but both F85 and E70 front rotors are heavy.

In contrast the F10 M5 rotors are larger (marginally at 395mm vs 400mm) and lighter. The downside is the they require custom caliper brackets to fit the rotors but considering the M5 rotors ~7lbs lighter each, that's a good deal. 7lbs isn't huge but considering that's rotational mass that weight is amplified during acceleration saving 7lbs off each front rotor is roughly equal to 42lbs.

I also run Camaro ZL1 wheels which are forged and relatively light, about 10lbs lighter per wheel compared to the OEM 20" wheels you find on X5 and X5Ms. Do the math on that and my wheel/tire setup is saving about 120lbs of gross weight so I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot by adding unnecessarily heavy rotors.

I wanted to explain all of these weight savings as people keep asking "Why not just install the PNP X5M brakes, why spend more for the adapters"
-Weight, that's why. My wheel/tire/brake setup offers superior braking performance and saves over 160lbs of theoretical gross weight. Not to mention keeping the rotational mass down will further help fuel efficiency, suspension performance, etc. Weight is the enemy for nearly everything performance and efficiency related.

Moving to the rear axle I could have also used stock E70M or F85 calipers BUT the calipers are actually the same as the non-M E70 calipers, just with larger brackets to fit the larger rotor. BMW P/Ns are different to reflect the different bracket (which is part of the caliper and not sold separately) and the black paint (e70) and blue (F85) paint the calipers received. Remove the bracket and paint and the actual caliper is identical between all E70s, F15s, and F85. I am not sure why BMW insists on using ugly floating 2-piston calipers on their $100,000 flagship cars but it drives me crazy. You can spend $15,000 for carbon ceramic brakes on a 2020 F90 M5 and it still uses 2 piston floating calipers. I understand "if it works it works" but there are some standards and expectations. $100k M5s don't come with cloth seats do they? Then why use rear calipers which look like they came from a Nissan Altima?

Obviously I am not a fan of the aesthetics of the 2 piston floating rotor design so I opted to retrofit a Porsche rear caliper, 4-piston monoblock. The calipers needed to be machined and required custom brackets but well worth the effort for the added clamping power and "proper" aesthetics.

Enough of my opinions, onto the pics!

Here is where we started. Calipers were sourced from wrecked M5s and Porsches.



More cleaning


You can see the M5 caliper with the "///M" decal missing has a large gouge that ran the length of the caliper, I assume the wheel broke during the crash, yikes.


Use a metal file to level and smooth out the gouge


I completely disassembled the calipers and one bleed nipple on the M5 caliper wasn't cooperating, more on this later



Next was to get the Porsche calipers machined down




Time for a test fit




The stripped bleed nipple was a real joy to remove but thankfully I was successful. I very carefully bored out the remaining metal from the nipple and used a die to finally remove all material. What a pain.




Calipers were ground, brushed, and sanded down in preparation for paint. Up next was masking.


Primed!



Paint! I used VHT caliper paint. I was thinking of painting the calipers Laguna Seca Blue, British Racing Green, Imola Red, or Rhapsody Blue (Lincoln) but I felt the dark colors would be too ...dark and considering the black/grey theme of my X5 I wanted some contrast. I have put BMW M brakes on 2 of my personal cars already and don't usually use bright colors so I got a wild hair and really wanted something that would pop and grab some attention, I was OK with this as well since my rear calipers are monoblocks and not the fugly OEM floating 2-piston calipers.




Applying Brembo decals ...with lasers! Calipers were clear coated with a high temp clear after this.



Time to clean and rebuild the pistons and seals






I used a Dorman bleeder repair kit. Thankfully with some thread sealant I was able to get everything sealed up


Full Kit laid out



I realized that I painted an area of the caliper I shouldn't have and needed to scrape off the paint to allow some clearance for the brake pads to move freely. Using a chisel followed by some fine sand paper made these areas buttery smooth



Applied a ceramic coating


Goodrich lines. 6 pieces 4 for each corner and the two short ones replace soft lines located on the body by the fuel tank.



OEM front caliper


F10 M5 front caliper


OEM rear caliper


Porsche rear caliper


OEM front rotor


F10 M5 front rotor (Zimmerman)


Oem rear rotor


OEM F85 rear rotor


Time for install


OEM F85 dust shields F/R



Bleeding the brakes. I didn't run the DSC/ABS actuation via INPA/ISTA since it wasn't included in my INPA software and I don't have ISTA No real worries as all the changes I made were downstream from the DSC pump. Smartwater bottle FTW.



Installed






The bedding process was straight forward with the Hawk pads but I am driving moderately on the brakes for a bit while things continue to get settled.
Here are some additional pics!






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      04-28-2020, 01:27 PM   #2
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Wow! Good work!

Do you plan to sell the brackets?
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      04-28-2020, 02:01 PM   #3
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Looks amazing. Make sure to keep an eye on the people behind you next time you hit the brakes
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      04-28-2020, 04:49 PM   #4
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Fantastic work. I usually look at the pictures and then go back to read the copy, but this time I read it to follow the teardown and build. The color you selected "pops" very well.

Very easy to read and follow. Excellent!
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      04-28-2020, 09:03 PM   #5
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Been following the build on IG, love the write up!
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      04-29-2020, 03:48 PM   #6
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That’s awesome
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      04-29-2020, 04:19 PM   #7
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Are rotor weights accurate, may be should have been the other way around?

Lovely set up though
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      04-30-2020, 09:47 AM   #8
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Definitely looks badass, I am curious as to how it will actually stop, especially in a potential emergency situation etc. Might need to do adjust the bias to the rears?
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      04-30-2020, 10:18 AM   #9
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Amazing work! I just upgraded to the M brakes (4 piston) to mine but yours is truly next level!
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      05-03-2020, 02:54 AM   #10
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Crazy stuff, I bought the exact same adapters from Tronik and have the same M5 calipers sitting in a box right now. My porsche ones somehow were lost during shipping and I'm currently awaiting for a new set. Looks amazing though. I also feel the same regarding the rear floating calipers, such a shame of BMW...
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      05-03-2020, 10:34 AM   #11
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Was curious what you were upto during the lockdown. Knew your car wouldnt be just sitting in the garage.

Great work on the rattle can paint job, it looks amazing. Any issues with DSC due to the different braking bias?

Last edited by Deftronix; 05-03-2020 at 10:40 AM..
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      05-04-2020, 03:29 AM   #12
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ucsbwsr Can you confirm the rotors don't rub the inside of the porsche calipers? I was told that you were supposed to shave off 5mm of the inside. The areas that are marked in red below.
Attached Images
 
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      05-19-2020, 01:57 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quick View Post
Are rotor weights accurate, may be should have been the other way around?
I have no motivation to mislead anyone or spread false data, the weights you see if what they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgz View Post
Wow! Good work!

Do you plan to sell the brackets?
No, you can buy them from Tro-nik.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by deemo319 View Post
Fantastic work. I usually look at the pictures and then go back to read the copy, but this time I read it to follow the teardown and build. The color you selected "pops" very well.

Very easy to read and follow. Excellent!
Thanks! I have been making forum threads for long enough to where I think I have the process down. I think many people are like me and want photos but it helps to have some context via text.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colodano View Post
Definitely looks badass, I am curious as to how it will actually stop, especially in a potential emergency situation etc. Might need to do adjust the bias to the rears?
Quote:
Originally Posted by chemist_slime View Post
Crazy stuff, I bought the exact same adapters from Tronik and have the same M5 calipers sitting in a box right now. My porsche ones somehow were lost during shipping and I'm currently awaiting for a new set. Looks amazing though. I also feel the same regarding the rear floating calipers, such a shame of BMW...
Thankfully the Porsche calipers are pretty reasonable to acquire, I bought mine for $200/pr.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Deftronix View Post
Was curious what you were upto during the lockdown. Knew your car wouldnt be just sitting in the garage.

Great work on the rattle can paint job, it looks amazing. Any issues with DSC due to the different braking bias?
No issues and I don't expect any. I have a few hundred miles on the setup and I consider them to be fully bedded. Performance is great.

This project started long before COVID, I think it has been a 3+ month project doing it on the side. My quarantine project is mainly my E39 540i Touring which currently has the motor out for chain guides, vanos rebuild, and complete clean and reseal. Manual trans is replacing the auto, and I have a Zionsville cooling setup to go in along with an upgraded throttle body, manifold, custom intake, and custom tune. Should be fun once done!

Rattle can paint came out OK, not bad considering it's my first DIY effort but not without flaws.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chemist_slime View Post
ucsbwsr Can you confirm the rotors don't rub the inside of the porsche calipers? I was told that you were supposed to shave off 5mm of the inside. The areas that are marked in red below.
Confirmed. I used Panamera calipers not the Cayenne.
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      05-19-2020, 03:33 PM   #14
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ucsbwsr Thanks for the reply. Where did you get yours for 200/set. Cheapest I've seen is around 400 for the pair. Also, what tool did you use to ground down the mounting areas?
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      05-20-2020, 11:43 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chemist_slime View Post
ucsbwsr Thanks for the reply. Where did you get yours for 200/set. Cheapest I've seen is around 400 for the pair. Also, what tool did you use to ground down the mounting areas?
eBay.

I had a machine shop modify the caliper mounting points.
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- EOS Port Injection Manifold, Fuel-It: Stg 2 LPFP +Lines +Ethanol Sensor
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      07-02-2020, 07:58 PM   #16
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Brake set

Hello sir. This is Ed from Santa Clara CA.I like your brake set up and I'm going to follow your brake set up. Is there anyway you can guide me where to buy the bracket for front and rear & Part numbers, Brake goodridge hoses & part numbers, calipers seals for front and back and part numbers, Whats the measurement to machine shop or cut the Porsche brake caliper for the rear? Let me know and I appreciate in advance. My contact number 4082036435. Enjoy your ride and be safe.
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      07-06-2020, 10:35 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pulubesy View Post
Is there anyway you can guide me where to buy the bracket for front and rear & Part numbers, Brake goodridge hoses & part numbers, calipers seals for front and back and part numbers
I replied to your PM. www.tro-nik.com is where you want to get everything.
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- EOS Port Injection Manifold, Fuel-It: Stg 2 LPFP +Lines +Ethanol Sensor
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      07-09-2020, 07:34 PM   #18
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Now you have to mod the 1 UP !
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      07-10-2020, 07:37 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by denaliman View Post
Now you have to mod the 1 UP !
I already did by removing the red reflective stickers.
The REAL mod would be building a built in locking mechanism.
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- EOS Port Injection Manifold, Fuel-It: Stg 2 LPFP +Lines +Ethanol Sensor
- JB4, Hexon RR550s, Custom Inlet, AR DPs, 3" Exhaust, VRSF 7" IC, ER CP +Tial
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      06-18-2022, 12:18 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ucsbwsr View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by quick View Post
Are rotor weights accurate, may be should have been the other way around?
I have no motivation to mislead anyone or spread false data, the weights you see if what they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgz View Post
Wow! Good work!

Do you plan to sell the brackets?
No, you can buy them from Tro-nik.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by deemo319 View Post
Fantastic work. I usually look at the pictures and then go back to read the copy, but this time I read it to follow the teardown and build. The color you selected "pops" very well.

Very easy to read and follow. Excellent!
Thanks! I have been making forum threads for long enough to where I think I have the process down. I think many people are like me and want photos but it helps to have some context via text.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colodano View Post
Definitely looks badass, I am curious as to how it will actually stop, especially in a potential emergency situation etc. Might need to do adjust the bias to the rears?
Quote:
Originally Posted by chemist_slime View Post
Crazy stuff, I bought the exact same adapters from Tronik and have the same M5 calipers sitting in a box right now. My porsche ones somehow were lost during shipping and I'm currently awaiting for a new set. Looks amazing though. I also feel the same regarding the rear floating calipers, such a shame of BMW...
Thankfully the Porsche calipers are pretty reasonable to acquire, I bought mine for $200/pr.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Deftronix View Post
Was curious what you were upto during the lockdown. Knew your car wouldnt be just sitting in the garage.

Great work on the rattle can paint job, it looks amazing. Any issues with DSC due to the different braking bias?
No issues and I don't expect any. I have a few hundred miles on the setup and I consider them to be fully bedded. Performance is great.

This project started long before COVID, I think it has been a 3+ month project doing it on the side. My quarantine project is mainly my E39 540i Touring which currently has the motor out for chain guides, vanos rebuild, and complete clean and reseal. Manual trans is replacing the auto, and I have a Zionsville cooling setup to go in along with an upgraded throttle body, manifold, custom intake, and custom tune. Should be fun once done!

Rattle can paint came out OK, not bad considering it's my first DIY effort but not without flaws.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chemist_slime View Post
ucsbwsr Can you confirm the rotors don't rub the inside of the porsche calipers? I was told that you were supposed to shave off 5mm of the inside. The areas that are marked in red below.
Confirmed. I used Panamera calipers not the Cayenne.
@ucsbwsr I just bought the panamera calipers also, how much did you shave off? I was told 12mm but looking at yours, were they 10mm instead?
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      08-09-2022, 10:49 PM   #21
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Absolutely incredible. Love this write-up - great job!!

Quick question, I have an E70 X5 35i (2013) with the M-Sport 20" wheels. I've wanted to upgrade the brakes for a long time. You mentioned the F85 front / rear calipers and rotors would be a direct bolt on? I love all of the machining and work that went into these, as well as the weight considerations, but I may be looking for an OEM bolt-on, and appears the F85 may be it?!
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      11-30-2022, 10:07 AM   #22
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^^ Bump on that. Would love a bolt-on solution since I'm certainly not going to be machining/painting calipers, haha.

At any rate; your work is meticulous and your E70 is one of the best I've seen around.
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