135i BBK Conversion Brackets

[dhager11]

So my next venture for my 530i is installing a big brake kit using the 6 piston calipers from a 135i. I know ECS sells a full conversion kit, but I was able to find my calipers for pretty cheap, and all I need are the caliper brackets. Turner sells them, but at almost $500 for the pair, seems a little excessive. I’ve seen a bunch of older posts about people having CAD files for these brackets, but haven’t been able to get ahold of anybody. Does anybody happen to have these files or know somebody with the brackets?

Any input is appreciated! And if you have the BBK, let me know how it feels!


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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Nice calipers. Maybe contact ECS and maybe get them to sell you just the brackets? See what they say, worst they can say on no.

[dhager11]

I did already, and they won’t sadly.


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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I did already, and they won’t sadly.


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Man, that sucks, I was afraid of that. I guess they have the right to not sell the brackets that they either invested good money to have an engineer draw up and have the parts made, or a bracket that they copied from someone else’s hard work to be re copied by another, which is what you are doing, and killing the sales they have going on, on a BBK kit that they market, thereby killing what little sales they have on that expensive kit, yeah makes sense, shoot, you can’t even blame them. They do have every right. Well, if you can’t find anyone, roll up your sleeves, do some precise measuring, order some steel bar stock, lay in your measurements, do the cutting, the drilling, some tapping of threads, it’s not that hard. Then you can share it with us, on here. If you don’t do it, I will. But…..

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Have you figured out which rotors and hats you are gonna go with? Figure out which wheels you will be running, think of the offsets you will run, look at what they have for rotors and diameters that were in the same diameters of the rotors from that 1 series that those calipers came off of, go from there. With the rotors mounted, place the calipers with pads, hooked up to the car so you can pressure up the caliper and have it sitting exactly where they will be, start measuring precisely between the caliper mount points, and the spindle hub. That would be my old school retard way of tackling this. The high tech way would be drawing it up on Solidwerks, which would mean doing some precise measuring, drawing up the parts individually, and modelling all the fitments, my retard way would be simpler, and easier. Either way, I understand why ECS wont piece the kit out.

[dhager11]

Yeah I understand why they won’t piece it out too, so much cheaper to gather all of your own parts. The full they sell advertises as fitting on most 17” and larger wheels, and they give you templates as well to ensure proper figment. I have 17” style 32s and they’ll seem like they’ll clear using the templates. As for rotors, I’ll end up going with the BMW M-Performance rotors for the 135i. I believe they’re 338x26mm if I remember correctly? And I’ll be adding in stainless brake lines for both front and rear while I’m there.


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[dhager11]

Been awhile since I’ve updated this! Decided to just go ahead and order the BBK brackets from Turner as they sold them separate from the ECS BBK kit. Kinda bummed that I had to spend nearly $600 on just the brackets, but such is life I guess! Test fitted everything today and have to use a 25mm spacer up front in order to clear the caliper in the wheel barrel. Of course I could get 18” wheels, but I love my style 32’s too much. I’ll grab some pics of the brackets shortly, but the first pic is the caliper test fitted, and the second one is the clearance between the caliper and wheel barrel with a 25mm spacer.






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[dhager11]

Finally finished! Super pleased with how everything turned out, decided to go Phoenix Yellow for the powder coat. Stopping power is incredible!



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[chuckesteeze]

Looks baller! Do you have any pics from further away? I'd love to see how the brakes and bigger spacers look with the whole car in the shot.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

It does look good. How is the braking power? Was it significant?

[philly98540]

Yeah it does look good. GrearGrinder had those brakes and said they work great on the street. He said they are not big enough for serious track use but decent enough for light track.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yeah, that’s right, he had the ECS kit.

[dhager11]

I’ll have to grab some more pics tomorrow! Braking power is definitely better, still waiting on my stainless brake lines and that’ll be the final test, but as it sits currently it’s a lot different. The initial bite feels somewhat like stock, it once you really push the pedal, the car stops incredibly quick.


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[danb1979]

Have you looked into upgrading the brake master cylinder to the E65 one a la Sreten of M539_Restorations work... Seems to be a popular upgrade & worth while if you've upgraded your brakes

[dhager11]

I’ve heard of that E65 brake booster setup but haven’t read too much into it yet, might be something I need to look in to. Here’s a few more pictures though…..




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[CPHES]

Those are 8 x 17 in the front? I have 9x17 square - will try to figure out spacing. They look good - no rubbing? Guessing tires are stock 235/45/17 fitment?

[dhager11]

Those are 8 x 17 in the front? I have 9x17 square - will try to figure out spacing. They look good - no rubbing? Guessing tires are stock 235/45/17 fitment?

Correct, 17x8. No rubbing at all, and I’m actually running 215/45/17 up front and in the rear I have 17x9 with 235/40/17.


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[Chaotic604]

Old thread, but did you upgrade your rear brakes? Any issues brake bias issues.