Brake Pads
 

So, I have the "stock" brakes, not Wilwood. And the power booster. But I have to say I'm not that impressed with the brakes. There's no reason why this brake system shouldn't work really well on this light weight car.

The car is fairly new, #1642.

I'd like to use something similar to the Wilwood BP-20 compound.

What year/model BMW should I be looking at for brake pads?

Anybody have a good recommendation for replacement pad?

Get in touch with EBC Brakes. They have replacement pads for the BP20's

Good luck.

See if Pagid makes a pad for that bmw. I am NOT impressed with the standard brakes either, I kind of got talked into them when I bought the car. I’ve already ordered the big Wilwoods, can’t have enough brakes on a sports car.

What year and model of BMW are these brakes from?

I am interested in this also. Everything I have searched says E36, but I don't know if all of them use the same size pads.

A friend with a Backdraft runs EBC Yellows and is quite happy. But I understand they are a bit dirty. BP-20s are dirty as well but work good.
Jim

The early cars like mine use E36 (325i 1992-1998) rotors / and pads front and rear.
Rear rotor is a solid 280x10mm
https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E36-32...aking/Rotors/2

Later cars switched to a rear ventilated rotor that uses a different caliper.
(When Backdraft started making their own rear hubs)

I assume *meaning PM Cashburn to verify....or contact Iconicparts.com
The later cars use the M3 rear ventilated rotor 312x20mm
https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E36-M3...aking/Rotors/2

They use different pads

Replacing the pads may be warranted, but I'd go through a full bedding-in procedure first, just to see if that solves the problem. While this is generally for new pads and/or rotors, it can be done on any vehicle. When I did it on my daily driver it made a significant improvement. You've got nothing to lose except a few minutes of your time, and you may well get the brakes working as they should and avoid the need to replace the pads - at least for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC62yTRxc7M

I got this e-mail back from Perry at Iconic Parts:

"the only info i have on the front calipers is that they are from an e36 325i "

Don't know the year, though. But I suppose the exact year isn't necessary, as long as you know the series and model.

I like the Hawk 5.0 pads, I might try those.

More info please my 2012 will lock the rears first . I am happy with the power just not the proportioning . Hope this makes sense.

I put on the Hawks, less costly and work well. At least for me.

Pricey, but the best pads for road racing. We always favored the yellow Pagids for the 996 and 930 Porsche’s. They used to make a blue pad for street use that was pretty good too.

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/BMW...ing-brake-pads

Brake pads, this is not a smart aleck or know it all post, just a bit of a warning to be careful for those that might not be aware. "Racing" brake pad compounds, in any form are very seldom safe or good in street use, especially in a light car like our Cobras. The usual complaint is that the car just doesn't stop as well as it should. Road racing pads are made to work at specific temperatures an it's very high and virtually never reached in a street car. That's one of the many reasons there are several "warm up" laps in a road race, with riding the brakes and speeding up and hard pressure on the brakes prior to the start of a race, getting as much heat as possible in the pads and rotors. You never have a chance to do that in a street car so the racing pads never reach the proper temperature to really work. Especially true if you are cruising down the freeway with lots of cool air flowing over the brakes and some idiot puts you in a situation of a sudden stop, racing pads just won't work well at all. Last thought, we used to buy pads by the case for street races and changed them every session out, all of them......the pads were the cheapest, softest pads we could buy, but they would work immediately, no warm up required. They didn't last long, but that's a who cares situation so it worked well and we won a lot of races with cheap parts. Long post, but the message I hope is just be careful with racing or ultra high-performance pads made for heavy cars as they can be dangerous on the street and you just might not need them in a street Cobra.

That is very true. For track use I like the Wilwood PolyMatrix-E pad. Very aggressive once you get a little bit of heat in them. Didn't need much heat, just drag the brakes a little on the out lap. But, they were pretty noisy and made a lot of dust.

On the street I like the Wilwood BP-20. Good feel, minimal dust, quiet, and lasted a long time.

Yesterday I ordered some Hawk Ceramic pads. For stopping power a feel, Hawk rates the HP-S, HP 5.0, and the Performance Ceramic as exactly the same. The differences are in temperature operating range, dust, and noise.

Does anyone have experience with the Wilwood BP-10 pads?

I have used the Hawk HPS (High Performance Street) pads on my daily driver and can vouch for them. For my Subaru Forester XT, they have significantly more stopping force over OEM pads, no fade during hard braking and generate little dust.

I didn't like them on the street. Not near enough braking power, and somewhat difficult to modulate. The onset felt soft.

The BP-20 feels a lot better (to me), and works a lot better. But the BP-20 does create slightly more dust. Not much, just slightly more.

Similar experience as Bob. I ran BP-10s in my Superformance, w/ Wilwood 4-piston Dynalites. Not a bad pad, just not great. BP-20s were much better and did well on the track. But dirty.
Jim

As I said , the Pagid blue pads are for the street ( black pagids are another street pad) the yellow and orange pads are generally meant for track use. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. I’ll differ with you on using street pads on the track, that’s a good way to boil your fluid. I guess as long as you’re changing frequently it might be ok, but you’ll burn thru a ton of pads.

Are the BP-20 pads available for the BME E36 calipers on our cars?