DIY: Brake Pad Replacement DIY

skru_fase a écrit

J'ai trouvé le premier rotor le pire, surtout en récupérant le clip. Il était beaucoup plus facile d'obtenir les clips sur des coussinets usés (mes coussinets de rue).

J'ai du mal à récupérer les clips. Je pense que je vais juste conduire sans eux pendant un moment et espérer que les coussinets portent assez pour que je puisse les faire "mordre"

///My5UV a écrit

J'ai du mal à récupérer les clips. Je pense que je vais juste conduire sans eux pendant un moment et espérer que les coussinets portent assez pour que je puisse les faire "mordre"

Si vous changez les plaquettes assez souvent, vous trouverez une technique qui rend le processus beaucoup plus facile. Parfois, j'oubliais et installais la roue, mais je pouvais toujours installer le clip avec la roue après.

I suppose so... I can do the rear open-spring style in no time at all, but even the how-to video I found shows the guy struggling to get both sides in enough to push the center plate into place. Seems like the spring ends should be a couple mm deeper than they are.

After enough practice I can do this now without hassle and just using my fingers.

You position the clip with the centre nose just on top of the metal bracket. Then you push the lower end of the clip into its place at the pad whilst holding the center plate firmly in place. Then you repeat with the upper end of the clip. At this point the lower end pops out. You repeat again, all the time keeping pressure on the centre plate, and this time it will be closer before the other end pops out. After one or two iterations of this both ends are in, with a couple of millimeters of purchase on the pads. Now you use both hand to push and move the centre plate so that the nose pops into the bracket, done. It always takes a couple of iterations but it also always works. I just did it replacing with brand new full size pads and it was no hassle.

bump - i also did this job and am experiencing soft pedal/different engagement after changing pads only. The oem pads used to engage right near the top with a firm pedal - the new pads (ferodo ds2500s) engage much lower, maybe a third of the way down. I cracked open the reservoir and bastered out some fluid during this job to accommodate for pushing the pistons back - i don't think i removed that much, but did I somehow introduce air into the system? anything else it could be? also, what level are you supposed to keep the brake fluid at? it's difficult to tell with the reservoir covered by tupperware. where is the indicator?

I did this a few weeks back and wanted to add a few things:

1) sometimes just loosening the pins doesn't cause them to come out of the rubber boot, but you can use a hook or flathead screwdriver to push them out once they are unscrewed

2) the rear anti-rattle clips are much easier to remove and replace than the front ones

Important:

3) I had to compress the pistons more after removing the caliper because the new pads were significantly fatter than the old pads and therefore there wasn't enough clearance to put them back around the rotors (which I had also replaced). The common brake piston tool doesn't fit in the E9x FRONT M3 caliper (but it does fit in the rear caliper, unless I was doing it wrong) but the 8" C-clamp did fine. However be sure to compress the piston very slowly, because if you do it too quickly brake fluid will leak from the master cylinder, and if that happens the brake fluid can ruin the vacuum sensor and put your car into limp mode. If that starts happening you will need to replace the vacuum sensor.

That's what happened to me btw: I compressed the front driver's side caliper too quickly, brake fluid leaked but it wasn't so much that I was concerned so I forgot about it. Then a few weeks later I kept getting a loud buzzing sound from the front of the car. Turned out the leaky brake fluid ruined the sensor. This is not uncommon and there are a few threads about it. Here's one: https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1338052

Trying to change the front pad and rotor first time on my 2011 e92 M3 today but the front pad with a clip seems to be glued onto the caliper super tight. I couldn’t pry it away using a flat head screwdriver. What’s the trick in getting the pad off? Every YouTube video I could find either don’t have the clip on the pad and just fell off when you remove the caliper or it could easily pop off by hand.

miata.nut wrote

Trying to change the front pad and rotor first time on my 2011 e92 M3 today but the front pad with a clip seems to be glued onto the caliper super tight. I couldn’t pry it away using a flat head screwdriver. What’s the trick in getting the pad off? Every YouTube video I could find either don’t have the clip on the pad and just fell off when you remove the caliper or it could easily pop off by hand.

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513739

That one?

Use the screwdriver between the clip and caliper and push it out and up so that part that sticks out in the middle rests on the caliper. Then you can pull out the top and bottom tabs with the screwdriver easier.

miata.nut wrote

Trying to change the front pad and rotor first time on my 2011 e92 M3 today but the front pad with a clip seems to be glued onto the caliper super tight. I couldn’t pry it away using a flat head screwdriver. What’s the trick in getting the pad off? Every YouTube video I could find either don’t have the clip on the pad and just fell off when you remove the caliper or it could easily pop off by hand.

This video kind of helped- not sure if you've seen it.

Had to use another smaller screwdriver on the two ends since they were not flexing much by hand.

Ximian wrote

miata.nut wrote

Trying to change the front pad and rotor first time on my 2011 e92 M3 today but the front pad with a clip seems to be glued onto the caliper super tight. I couldn’t pry it away using a flat head screwdriver. What’s the trick in getting the pad off? Every YouTube video I could find either don’t have the clip on the pad and just fell off when you remove the caliper or it could easily pop off by hand.

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513739

That one?

Use the screwdriver between the clip and caliper and push it out and up so that part that sticks out in the middle rests on the caliper. Then you can pull out the top and bottom tabs with the screwdriver easier.

BMotorenWerke wrote

This video kind of helped- not sure if you've seen it.

Had to use another smaller screwdriver on the two ends since they were not flexing much by hand.

I didn't have problem removing the clip though it flew off dangerously when I pried it off. LOL

Ximian wrote

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513739

That one?

Use the screwdriver between the clip and caliper and push it out and up so that part that sticks out in the middle rests on the caliper. Then you can pull out the top and bottom tabs with the screwdriver easier.

I was having difficulty removing the pad. Turns out the original factory pad is taped to the caliper using a super strong double sided tape. I had to pry the pad off using considerable amount of force. Never seen brake pad taped to caliper in my life. BMW is special! 🤣

I prepared to swap the rear brake pads after getting the idrive warning : "brake pads at minimum thickness go to the nearest BMW center ... "
Bought new pads, got all prepared and read this DIY thread then found that the pads still had plenty of thickness at least 5 millimeters (see both pics below are the old pads) ! Tried to pull the sensor and it broke. Bad advice on some videos to remove the sensor at the beginning, it's better to remove it from the pad after removing the pad itself if you want to reuse the sensor. I actually ordered the sensor but FCP Euro shipped me wrong parts not from my order (Volkswagen ignition coils !!), i emailed them about their error, they didn't even apologize and first thing they worried about is the ignition coils. We'll see how they handle this, but based on sofar i do not recommend them. Then it also rained and i couldn't do the other wheel (yeah no garage for some of us ). I feel like i wasted my time due to poor sensor design (my car is my own factory delivery, this is the first brake job so all parts are oem).

There are a couple good reasons for it to trigger that early:
Pad wear can be uneven side to side and even across the pad
Most people keep driving for weeks after the warning
The thinner the pads, the more heat gets transmitted to the caliper seals and fluid

When I was regularly tracking my e36 I just zip tied the sensors out of the way since I was swapping between street and track at least once a month

///My5UV wrote

There are a couple good reasons for it to trigger that early:
Pad wear can be uneven side to side and even across the pad
Most people keep driving for weeks after the warning
The thinner the pads, the more heat gets transmitted to the caliper seals and fluid

When I was regularly tracking my e36 I just zip tied the sensors out of the way since I was swapping between street and track at least once a month

i posted pictures of the worn pads above. I don't see any part of them that looks worn out to the point of justifying the warning. It looks like half of the pad thickness is still there.

First, great information and tips in this thread.

Second, a potential issue I'm having. I'm swapping to a pair of track/summer pads, and I noticed that on the front calipers, the top caliper pins seem loose inside the bushings. There's a bit of radial play, as if the bushing inner diameter is slightly too big. The bottom pins, on the other hand, are a tight fit as I would expect. The pins on the rear calipers have no play either. There's no unusual wear on my street pads.

It doesn't seem right for the top pins to have play like that, am I correct, or is it actually typical on our cars? I'm thinking I should replace the bushings.
Thoughts?

jm1234 a écrit

Je tiens à ajouter que lorsque les freins sont froids, vous pouvez retirer le piston en tirant simplement fermement vers l'extérieur sur l'étrier de frein pendant 60-90 secondes. Je n'avais pas de pince C assez grande, alors j'ai essayé et ce n'était pas très difficile. Je n'ai pas eu à m'inquiéter du fait que la pince C en métal ne gratte rien non plus et c'est une chose de moins à réaliser pour la voiture.

Merci pour cette astuce! Je me suis gratté la tête pendant un moment sur la façon de faire levier sur l'étrier pour rétracter le piston sans la pince C. Je vais en acheter un de toute façon.

L'ensemble du processus des plaquettes de frein n'était pas trop mauvais, mais c'était assez ennuyeux pour me rappeler que j'en ai assez d'échanger les plaquettes de frein pour les événements sur piste. a ne vaut pas le coup.