brake upgrade for M760i

[jokerswld34]

After about 28k, My M760i was due for a brake replacement, both front and rear. Pads were low and rotors were starting to vibrate badly.

The only complaint I have about this car is that the brakes are a bit underwhelming for such a fast and heavy car. I am a bit disappointed it didn't come with either the 6 pot M brakes or Carbon Ceramics as standard since either would've been a better braking system for this beast. but it does have massive rotors (396mm front and 398 mm rear) and the f90 M5 rear calipers so it got me thinking maybe I could improve the brakes since I have to service them anyway.

I first looked at swapping the fronts to the 6 pot M brakes but the company that makes a mounting bracket for them was about 10-12 weeks out for production. I couldn't wait that long So I started looking for rotor and pad upgrades .

With a little help from my dealer to confirm sizing, I ended up purchasing Dynamic Friction Carbon Alloy performance discs (Slotted) for the front, OEM rear discs and EBC Bluestuff NDX track/street pads front and rear from buybrakes.com. Great company and helpful. Not a lot of options for this car so I was very lucky to find the slotted fronts in stock. Rears were unavailable so OEM was the only option.

Fitment was excellent and the slotted front rotors look awesome. I chose the slots instead of drilled because I went with the EBC pads which are more track focused and the slots will help keep the pads in good shape. Brakes are very quiet and seem to have much better cold bite than the OEM pads. I'm still in the break in period before I perform a bed-in so I havent really tested the pads but I'm going to bet they will be a pretty significant upgrade over the OEM.

I'll follow up with feedback after the bed in process but feel free to ask any questions if you're interested in upgrading your brakes.

I also am having a full t titanium exhaust custom made for the V12 so will have videos of that in the near future

[M_Bimmer]

jokerswld34 Thanks for posting.

While I have not had the same issues that you've had on my G12 B7, which actually stops better than my F85, with zero noise, where my F85 sounds like "junk".

Unfortunately, the OEM G12 B7 pads dust is more than anoying, especially since it's a PITA to clean the 21" Alpina wheels.

Now that my brake pads and rotors require replacing in the next month or so, I may opt to follow your lead, but I will need to do a bit more homework, as I'm not sure the differences between the 760 and B7 brakes.

Keep us posted on the pros and cons of your setup.

[Mnotfeelingit]

Looking forward to this !

[jokerswld34]

As far as Alpina brakes go, I think the rotors are a bit smaller than the M760 and the rear caliper is different as well. If you contact your SA at the dealer and ask for rotor sizes, you can start looking for options. The M760i has 396mm F and 398 mm R rotors for reference.

So far, I'm very happy with my new setup. I was a little premature with my initial bed-in processes but during the high speed braking cycles, the pads did not fade really at all. Braking is smooth and quiet, although not quite as smooth as OEM due to slight, and I mean slight, feedback from the slotted rotors. No noise. I'm seeing good pad deposit on the rotor face and less dust than stock pads. Theres still dust though but it seems like a bit of an improvement. Could also be from the initial break in layer that the EBC Pads come with that is causing the dust...

Initial pad bite is great and stopping power seems increased. It's still quite cold here in MA so I haven't been able to test the limits yet but during normal driving the pads are doing great. They are good cold and when I have gotten heat into them, they stop amazingly quick. I think the rotor slots have been helpful in the initial break in and maintaining good pad deposits on the rotors during daily use (in abrasive mode).

I'll post some pics if anyone wants to see the rotors. We should be getting some 60 deg weather coming soon so I'll do another bed in process and push the brakes more. More feedback to come.

[Wills2]

I think the M760i has the same front calipers as the X3M, I would look to change the pads if the M car has different ones with more bite, BMW brakes aren't the best, the ones on my 7 look huge up front but the braking performance doesn't match the size (they are the upgraded M performance ones) so I think the same as the M760 and the X3M but I think the pads are different.

[Derived]

I also find the braking to be the only weak point of my M760, and I think it's a bit inexcusable that they didn't at least offer the carbon ceramics as an option, the car needs them badly.

They are certainly adequate, but there have been times where I would like more. Additionally, at least from the factory, the noise and dust are truly unacceptable for such an expensive car - it squeaks constantly unless it's very warm outside, and the dust is so bad that it's nearly ruined the OEM finish on the wheels after 37k miles. At a minimum, I would love to improve on whatever horrible pads BMW used from the factory. All these years and they still seem to have this issue...

I have thought as well that when it finally does need new rotors in the future, perhaps trying to adapt the CCBs from an F90 M5 might be an option...I imagine they'd be nearly bolt-on apart from perhaps some adapter brackets for the calipers. That would really take the car to the next level.

[jokerswld34]

I looked into the CCB retrofit. It is possible although it requires more effort than just swapping the standard F90 M brakes. It requires a different parking brake, dust shields, adapters, lines and I believe a master cylinder.

The biggest deterrent is the sheer cost. You can buy a CCB kit for the G12 but it costs almost $20k USD for all the parts. You can try to source everything from eBay but even then, the cost is quite high and with eBay items, you really don’t know condition or mileage of the carbon rotors and pads.

I’d say it would be worth the investment if you plan to keep the car forever. Then you may never have to do a brake replacement again. If you’re looking for an upgrade try the F90 M5 front brake replacement. I’m going that route soon as even after the slotted disc and track pad upgrade, I’m still not quite happy with the brakes.

[jokerswld34]

Here’s the parts list for the retrofit if you’re interested.

Carbon ceramic brakes set for BMW G-series

Front:

gold BMW carbon-ceramic 6-pot calipers(34 11 8 089 939, 34 11 8 089 940)
carbon-ceramic pads (34 11 7 991 034, 34 10 8 093 715)
carbon-ceramic rotors, size 400-38mm (34 11 7 991 105, 34 11 7 991 106)
adapters to install
Goodridge rake lines
brake sensor
all bolts
Rear:

gold BMW carbon-ceramic 1-pot calipers(34 20 8 064 491, 34 20 8 064 492)
gold BMW carbon-ceramic brackets(34 20 8 064 493, 34 20 8 064 494)
carbon-ceramic pads (34 21 7 991 044, 34 20 8 093 737)
carbon-ceramic rotors, size 380-28mm (34 21 7 991 107, 34 21 7 991 108)
adapters to install
brake lines
brake sensor
all bolts
brake fluid

[Derived]

Thanks for the info, was wondering about the master cylinder. I have an E60 M5 as well and I know there is a company that makes the brackets necessary to bolt on the CCBs from an F10 and the OEM master cylinder seems to work just fine for those at least. A few have done that successfully so far.

Does seem like take-off CCBs come up often enough on Ebay/etc, but you're right that condition is hard to assess if you do this.

I actually reached out to RacingBrake a while back to see if they made a CCB kit for our cars but haven't heard back yet, may have to follow up or call, could be more cost-effective than trying to adapt OEM parts and might even end up with a better system.

Never having to think about the brakes again is a huge draw too, few seem to take this into account...CCBs on a street car will essentially never have to be replaced, and even pads I've heard can go 75-100k miles with "normal" driving. There was a great thread on MBWorld a couple years ago where someone had bought a new S63 and managed to burn through the OEM iron rotors in something like 27k miles or so. Because the car does so much brake-biased stability and traction control, and of course is so heavy and powerful, you really burn through iron brakes quickly - and a full set of those is still very, very expensive to replace. CCBs would have been lifetime parts practically on that car, would have paid for themselves easily if one was to keep the car a long time, to say nothing of the better performance.