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Thread: Brake upgrade

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2018
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    '99 E39 M5T

    Brake upgrade

    I've acquired all the parts to upgrade to the 530/540 brakes. In the process of rebuilding the calipers, I found one of the pistons to be a little too marred up. In my search, I couldn't find replacemenr pistons, specific to the calipers. I did find pistons to another BMW, that were the same dimensions, but was told by the vendor, that they will not work. I ordered them anyway. Upon receiving, I measured old against new and everything matches. We will see how this turns out.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    The pistons are available as you discovered from multiple sources. FCPEuro, Centric, etc. Some times they are listed for the 540 only. Note the early 540 calipers had unique carriers and rotors ('98-2000). The trick is to use the combo that matches as they will not interchange. (Carrier and rotors) Calipers are all the same '98-2003. Add the sliver colored stainless steel brake lines and you are golden.

    A little epoxy paint and some elbow work and you have a good looking example.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by StephenVA; 03-14-2019 at 11:20 AM.
    Current Garage Highlights
    2003 525iT TiSilver
    2002 M5 TiSilver
    1998 528i KASCHMIRBEIGE METALLIC (301) (Goldie)

    Former Garage Highlights
    2005 X5 4.8is
    2004 325iTs (2x)
    1973 Pantera L
    1971 Dodge Dart Swinger "Lite Package"
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack Alpine White
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack GoManGo Green
    1969 Road Runner 383
    1968 Barracuda Formula S 340 Sea Foam Green

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
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    Milton, WV
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    1,286
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    2002 BMW 530i Sport
    Quote Originally Posted by Wagon727 View Post
    I've acquired all the parts to upgrade to the 530/540 brakes. In the process of rebuilding the calipers, I found one of the pistons to be a little too marred up. In my search, I couldn't find replacemenr pistons, specific to the calipers. I did find pistons to another BMW, that were the same dimensions, but was told by the vendor, that they will not work. I ordered them anyway. Upon receiving, I measured old against new and everything matches. We will see how this turns out.
    What upgraded parts are you installing?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
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    '99 E39 M5T
    Quote Originally Posted by crazy4trains View Post
    What upgraded parts are you installing?
    530 calipers, carriers, rotors and pads.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Coral Springs, FL
    Posts
    2,457
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    E21,E38,E39,F10 M5
    I have a set of 540 calipers from my 2003 available , havent gotten around to posting them for sale yet. PM me if you're interested.

    Stancing is for drivers trapped in an abusive relationship of their own lives.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Alexandria, VA
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    9,049
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    ‘01 540’00 528T’03 525T
    I’ve done the front brake upgrade from a 2000 528iT to ‘01-‘03 front 540/530 brakes. To tell you the truth, the old 528 brakes were pretty damn good, they stop the car just as good as the bigger brakes do. The down side of the swap, excessive unsprung weight gain with the bigger brakes. The rotors are much larger, the calipers are iron, and the carriers are more beefier than the iron ones from the 528, much more beefier than the older 540 carriers from the ‘97 to ‘98 540’s too, I’ll get to the comparison between the early 540’s and the facelift 540’s in a bit.

    I do love how the bigger brakes fill the wheels though, it just makes me feel beefier.... Does it stop the car any better? Not really, but if you track the car, I’d bet the 540/530 brakes would take you 1 extra lap before the brakes started to fade, the real reason for bigger brakes, cooling, which is why I ask my friends who want to dish out tons of money for fancy BBK kits, are you gonna track the car or something? Because if you are not, you’re just wasting your money.
    Now, if you just want it to make yourself feel beefier about yourself, they will feel a bit better, if it makes you happy, than go for it. But I do mainly say this to friends whose cars obviously tell me that they should spend their money on other more important things like maintenance, which their cars were showing me the general lack there off, as I was tightening the last bolt on the water pump that I just installed on his car, and he couldn’t afford to front the cash for all the other cooling system parts that should all be done right now, while I was in there.... and I’m doing this for him for free, on my day off....

    All that aside, if it makes you happy, you wanna feel beefy about herself? Sh!t man, go for it!!!
    So! When I was picking up my bits, for the calipers and carriers, I bought them off of our good buddy Redshift out in Raleigh, NC. These came off of his ‘03 540 wagon, which just sold for $72,000 last week! He had them on a shelf, and offered them to me for a hundred bucks, said they only had 20,000 miles from a rebuild that he did on them, I had them in a box for almost 6 months before I decided to go ahead and order rebuild kits for them, not that I didn’t trust Brian, shoot, Brian’s one of the most trustworthy people on here, but because I am an ocd goofy mofo like that, all this is like a hobby for me and I just enjoy knowing I’ve touched everything on the car, and that it just gives me a reset for my own minds benefit...... *Does that make me weird? Maybe, maybe not.

    I glassbeaded the calipers and the carriers, behind the seals, they were immaculately clean, so I sealed them up real well before blasting them, I then went to a machine shop that I used to work at, and used their powdercoat booth, powdercated the calipers and the carriers a semigloss black, then I headed back to my shop to do the rebuild.
    So while rebuilding the calipers, one of the pistons rolled off my work table and gave itself a nasty crunched corner on the inner section of the piston, and a bunch of scratches on its sides, I was gonna grind the crunched section down and sand down the scratches, but then my ocdness kicked back in, and I just had FCP overnight me another one from ATE, why get aftermarket, when the ATE piston was only $10. Oh, I had heard that the pistons from the 528 calipers were all the same, WRONG, they are not. When the piston came in, I finished up that caliper and I was ready to mount everything on. I had ordered the braided steel brake line set for wagons, and 540 rotors from FCP, just the plain Zimmerman’s, I placed them on the hub, tried to mount the carriers, SURPRISE, SURPrise, surprise!!! The rotors were rubbing on the inside of the carriers! WTF???! Turns out, I had ordered early 540 front rotors without realizing there was a difference! F$&@!ng BMW....

    So, turns out, ‘97 to mid ‘99, or was that 2000? BMW changed offset, 3mm to 5mm on the rotors they sit inwards more than the newer 540’s. To make it easier for you not to make this same mistake, always order the rotors for a 530, this will always ensure that you get the right rotors, since all 530’s got everything off the facelift 540 shelf at the factory. So, mid ‘99 or ‘00 and up, the carriers carry the right offset, but are much beefier than the early 540 carriers. Much heavier too. Once FCP got me the right rotors, all was golden. FCPeuro was great to deal with, all it took was a couple emails, a couple days, and a return shipping label, even though it was my fault. Support them!!! They support this forum, they are awesome, they lifetime warranty everything they sell, even used oil, filters, brake pads, rotors.... I don’t abuse them for those disposables, but they will take it and refund your account if you chose to do so. I’m betting this has played a part in Bavautos demise this last week.

    I mentioned that I’d get back to the differences on 528/540 front brakes, well, the rotors are much smaller, strange note, I’m not sure on the actual sizes anymore, but I kinda remember the front rotors diameter being smaller than the rears! Somebody correct me, I’m too lazy to check right now. Other differences, of course the carriers will only work on 528/525’s, they sort of look like the older 540 carriers, the calipers are made of aluminum, which is an excellent heat sink, and they are bullsballs lighter than human balls, (everybody get that?) compared to the much larger iron 540 calipers, why BMW didn’t go aluminum? Probably to save money, or, I may be wrong, they probably already had them from older BMW’s sitting on shelves. The calipers on the older 540’s are the same. The braided brake lines definitely gives better brake feel, as the lines don’t expand when you hit the brakes. So make sure you get those. Bleed out all the old fluid, and you will have excellent brakes for the next couple of years, then it’s time for another fluid flush. Have fun, and Good luck!
    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
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    '99 E39 M5T
    Quote Originally Posted by BimmrMeUpSnotty View Post
    I’ve done the front brake upgrade from a 2000 528iT to ‘01-‘03 front 540/530 brakes. To tell you the truth, the old 528 brakes were pretty damn good, they stop the car just as good as the bigger brakes do. The down side of the swap, excessive unsprung weight gain with the bigger brakes. The rotors are much larger, the calipers are iron, and the carriers are more beefier than the iron ones from the 528, much more beefier than the older 540 carriers from the ‘97 to ‘98 540’s too, I’ll get to the comparison between the early 540’s and the facelift 540’s in a bit.

    I do love how the bigger brakes fill the wheels though, it just makes me feel beefier.... Does it stop the car any better? Not really, but if you track the car, I’d bet the 540/530 brakes would take you 1 extra lap before the brakes started to fade, the real reason for bigger brakes, cooling, which is why I ask my friends who want to dish out tons of money for fancy BBK kits, are you gonna track the car or something? Because if you are not, you’re just wasting your money.
    Now, if you just want it to make yourself feel beefier about yourself, they will feel a bit better, if it makes you happy, than go for it. But I do mainly say this to friends whose cars obviously tell me that they should spend their money on other more important things like maintenance, which their cars were showing me the general lack there off, as I was tightening the last bolt on the water pump that I just installed on his car, and he couldn’t afford to front the cash for all the other cooling system parts that should all be done right now, while I was in there.... and I’m doing this for him for free, on my day off....

    All that aside, if it makes you happy, you wanna feel beefy about herself? Sh!t man, go for it!!!
    So! When I was picking up my bits, for the calipers and carriers, I bought them off of our good buddy Redshift out in Raleigh, NC. These came off of his ‘03 540 wagon, which just sold for $72,000 last week! He had them on a shelf, and offered them to me for a hundred bucks, said they only had 20,000 miles from a rebuild that he did on them, I had them in a box for almost 6 months before I decided to go ahead and order rebuild kits for them, not that I didn’t trust Brian, shoot, Brian’s one of the most trustworthy people on here, but because I am an ocd goofy mofo like that, all this is like a hobby for me and I just enjoy knowing I’ve touched everything on the car, and that it just gives me a reset for my own minds benefit...... *Does that make me weird? Maybe, maybe not.

    I glassbeaded the calipers and the carriers, behind the seals, they were immaculately clean, so I sealed them up real well before blasting them, I then went to a machine shop that I used to work at, and used their powdercoat booth, powdercated the calipers and the carriers a semigloss black, then I headed back to my shop to do the rebuild.
    So while rebuilding the calipers, one of the pistons rolled off my work table and gave itself a nasty crunched corner on the inner section of the piston, and a bunch of scratches on its sides, I was gonna grind the crunched section down and sand down the scratches, but then my ocdness kicked back in, and I just had FCP overnight me another one from ATE, why get aftermarket, when the ATE piston was only $10. Oh, I had heard that the pistons from the 528 calipers were all the same, WRONG, they are not. When the piston came in, I finished up that caliper and I was ready to mount everything on. I had ordered the braided steel brake line set for wagons, and 540 rotors from FCP, just the plain Zimmerman’s, I placed them on the hub, tried to mount the carriers, SURPRISE, SURPrise, surprise!!! The rotors were rubbing on the inside of the carriers! WTF???! Turns out, I had ordered early 540 front rotors without realizing there was a difference! F$&@!ng BMW....

    So, turns out, ‘97 to mid ‘99, or was that 2000? BMW changed offset, 3mm to 5mm on the rotors they sit inwards more than the newer 540’s. To make it easier for you not to make this same mistake, always order the rotors for a 530, this will always ensure that you get the right rotors, since all 530’s got everything off the facelift 540 shelf at the factory. So, mid ‘99 or ‘00 and up, the carriers carry the right offset, but are much beefier than the early 540 carriers. Much heavier too. Once FCP got me the right rotors, all was golden. FCPeuro was great to deal with, all it took was a couple emails, a couple days, and a return shipping label, even though it was my fault. Support them!!! They support this forum, they are awesome, they lifetime warranty everything they sell, even used oil, filters, brake pads, rotors.... I don’t abuse them for those disposables, but they will take it and refund your account if you chose to do so. I’m betting this has played a part in Bavautos demise this last week.

    I mentioned that I’d get back to the differences on 528/540 front brakes, well, the rotors are much smaller, strange note, I’m not sure on the actual sizes anymore, but I kinda remember the front rotors diameter being smaller than the rears! Somebody correct me, I’m too lazy to check right now. Other differences, of course the carriers will only work on 528/525’s, they sort of look like the older 540 carriers, the calipers are made of aluminum, which is an excellent heat sink, and they are bullsballs lighter than human balls, (everybody get that?) compared to the much larger iron 540 calipers, why BMW didn’t go aluminum? Probably to save money, or, I may be wrong, they probably already had them from older BMW’s sitting on shelves. The calipers on the older 540’s are the same. The braided brake lines definitely gives better brake feel, as the lines don’t expand when you hit the brakes. So make sure you get those. Bleed out all the old fluid, and you will have excellent brakes for the next couple of years, then it’s time for another fluid flush. Have fun, and Good luck!

    I'm with you, 100%. I order most all my parts through FCP. I picked my brakes off of a junkyard '02 530/ in all, I'm still under $100, even after some rebuild parts from FCP. That makes the swap worth it for me, rather than doing a standard brake job on the 528. Stainless brake lines are next on my list, as it will be a little while before I tackle the brakes.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
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    My Cars
    '99 E39 M5T
    Crap... I managed to rebuild that calipers, this morning. But, I fireget which carrier goes w/ which carrier. One has 553 stamped on it, the other 554.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Virginia,USA
    Posts
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    My Cars
    528i, 525iT, M5
    Odd is always the left side

    - - - Updated - - -

    Calipers have two IDs
    one is the casing number and the second is the bleed screw is to the TOP when mounted
    Current Garage Highlights
    2003 525iT TiSilver
    2002 M5 TiSilver
    1998 528i KASCHMIRBEIGE METALLIC (301) (Goldie)

    Former Garage Highlights
    2005 X5 4.8is
    2004 325iTs (2x)
    1973 Pantera L
    1971 Dodge Dart Swinger "Lite Package"
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack Alpine White
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack GoManGo Green
    1969 Road Runner 383
    1968 Barracuda Formula S 340 Sea Foam Green

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
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    '99 E39 M5T
    Quote Originally Posted by StephenVA View Post
    Odd is always the left side
    I was curious about that. Good to know... Thanks.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
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    My Cars
    '99 E39 M5T
    I received my E60 hubs yesterday, and sized them up. My new rotors won't seat over them, but my old ones will.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Virginia,USA
    Posts
    3,144
    My Cars
    528i, 525iT, M5
    Use the rockauto.com website to review rotors specs
    https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...hub,rotor,1896
    Current Garage Highlights
    2003 525iT TiSilver
    2002 M5 TiSilver
    1998 528i KASCHMIRBEIGE METALLIC (301) (Goldie)

    Former Garage Highlights
    2005 X5 4.8is
    2004 325iTs (2x)
    1973 Pantera L
    1971 Dodge Dart Swinger "Lite Package"
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack Alpine White
    1970 Dodge Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack GoManGo Green
    1969 Road Runner 383
    1968 Barracuda Formula S 340 Sea Foam Green

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