Electronic Gremlins w/ BBK?

[CWCary]

Will the installation of say a Brembo or Stoptech BBK cause any electronic problems on the M3, with, for example, the ABS or perhaps the BMW pad wear sensors or something else of which I'm unaware?

For example, I installed a "skip~shift" eliminator on my ZO6 which performed flawlessly, but I was stuck with the instrument panel warning to shift from 1st to 4th!

Thanks

[STALKER]

I believe your pad sensor will not work anymore. Other then that, your car will perform the same with no issues.

[CWCary]

Right Stalker, I figured that since there is no place for the sensor wire and I doubt the after market BBKs use OEM BMW pads. What I am trying to ascertain is whether or not I will be stuck with some silly brake pad warning on the intrument cluster because the feature has been defeated; or more importantly will there be substantive issues with say ABS, EDC, or DSC!

On the other hand, perhaps I'm misreading your post and that you are saying that I actually will have no issues save having to be cognizant of the pad wear on my own, which I've been doing for say 35 years!

Thanks for the reply

[JAJ]

Originally Posted by CWCary

Will the installation of say a Brembo or Stoptech BBK cause any electronic problems on the M3, with, for example, the ABS or perhaps the BMW pad wear sensors or something else of which I'm unaware?

No problem with the BBK, PROVIDED it's properly proportioned to match the car. That's the essence of Stoptech's sales pitch: that their kit mimics the behavior (from a hydraulic pressure versus brake force perspective) of the factory kit on both axles so that ABS and stability control will work properly. I presume that Brembo, AP Racing and the rest all do the same level of engineering, but they don't talk about it as much.

Some calipers use pads that support the factory sensors just fine and others don't. BMW's sensor is a standard form factor, so if the pad has a notch, the sensor will fit. From personal experience, the Stoptech ST-40 caliper supports the sensor, and the AP Racing CP5555 caliper doesn't.

[STALKER]

Originally Posted by CWCary

Right Stalker, I figured that since there is no place for the sensor wire and I doubt the after market BBKs use OEM BMW pads. What I am trying to ascertain is whether or not I will be stuck with some silly brake pad warning on the intrument cluster because the feature has been defeated; or more importantly will there be substantive issues with say ABS, EDC, or DSC!

On the other hand, perhaps I'm misreading your post and that you are saying that I actually will have no issues save having to be cognizant of the pad wear on my own, which I've been doing for say 35 years!

Thanks for the reply

All your systems will work as they did before, just not the pad sensor. Which you can easily monitor yourself, like you have been. I had over 100 000KM on my Brembos, not one issue, street or track. That was on my e46 M3. I will be getting Brembos for my e90 M3 aswell.

[Green///Hell]

It wont do much. There are not too many physical electronics attached to the braking system anyway.
Specific brake applications exist in order to mantain a perfect brake bias as well as working within the limits of the master cylindar for the brake system.
Either zip tie all your sensors up and forget about them or you could snip the end off of the pad wear sensor and jump it by tieing both internal wires together and defeat the error lights.

Real question is, will you actually get any use out of having a bbk on your car?

[CWCary]

Thanks to all for replies. More particularly as follows:

JAJ: Thanks for the ABS & DSC info.

STACKER: Thanks for confirming what I believed you meant in your original reply.

PANDA///MONIC: Thanks for the sesor defeat info.

As for the necessity of a BBK for street use, the answer is most probably not. However, My last Harley-Davidson had the floating caliper, fixed disk arrangement which I did not care for. I replaced it with Performance Machine one piece fixed calipers with HD stainless steel floating roters and was much happier. Obviously I was not tracking the HD, a custom softail.

Also, I'm deciding between the M3 and a Porsche C2S, which also has the fixed caliper system, equally useless for street use, but the braking arrangement is the only feature of the M3 with which I'm not happy with OEM equipment and let's face it the M3 even with BBk is a lot cheaper than the C2S.

Thanks again,

Curtis