Thanks Jonesy. Everywhere I contacted (and I tried just about everywhere) and asked about 8 Series Brembos, the answer was "Ha! Good luck!". I think you've done very well there, make the most of it.
Erm...I'm not too good at the internet. I've read the guide to posting pictures, but I haven't got around to trying to make it work yet. As I said, I intended to do the work myself (and photo it in stages) but had to have it done for me due to non-BMW related commitments (i.e. work and family events). I might try taking some wheels off and snapping some pics in the future.
Aaah...thirty miles with no MoT...erm...it happened to be thirty miles to the test centre? Yes, thats it...

I've just realised that there's a link for EBC Brakes Direct on the Board Index offering 15% off for BMW5 forum members. Just enter the code listed for a discount. Was that there when I ordered mine 3 months ago? If it was, D'OH!

I'm replacing all the hard lines on my car and all the flexis with Goodridge lines. I do hope this isn't going to be an issue, I will be most upset!

Please let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Hi, watching this thread with interest, with my blue E28 in mind, have just this morning test fitted 345mm four pot fronts with alloy bell discs from a late E34 M5, and the 328mm vented single pot rears to go with them. All a direct fit! Need to be careful wih the wheels though, an early E34 M5/ 850 wheel fits, the 8 x 17 Remotecs the car currently runs wont even go over the rear brake! I'm looking to use the 328mm rears and a bespoke setup on the front, with a 360mm ish disc, with carefully chosen 18" wheels. The fronts (before you ask!) are off to Malaysia along with a set of 300mm vented rears for an E28 528i racer being put together by a very good friend.

Ye Gods! Are you looking to stand this thing on its nose?
Are you intending this for track use, road use, or both? Have you run large brakes before (I'm going to guess that you have) and, if so, what anti-roll bars does yours have? The extra weight, combined with the 215x45xR17" wheels and tyres, has upset the handling on mine. I'm looking at fitting Whiteline anti-roll bars and poly bushes to (hopefully) negate some of the 'waywardness' the front now has on bumpy roads and in truck ruts. I'm also considering 16" wheels, which should just fit. Any experience you could share on this subject would be appreciated.

by waywardness i assume you mean tramlining - 17's will exacerbate this and 16's will improve matters a bit, i assume all the suspension arms and linkages are in good shape? ie recently replaced.

These cars will never be pin sharp with the steering box but a little wear in every component adds up.

certainly look at TCA bushes, centre link, steering box play and the steering box mount.

Hi Duncan. All bushes, arms, sway bars, etc. are less than 2 years old and in good order. In fact, just about all of the suspension on the front end has been replaced in the last 4 years, includimng the struts. I need to check the steering box, I haven't for a while but it was good on the last check. 'Waywardness' means tramlining and responding badly to bumps, potholes, rippled tarmac, speed cushions, large camber changes, in fact anything that puts an uneven force on the front wheels. It was there before the brake mod, I put it down to the large and not too light wheels (bk racing 141 'Alpina' look-a-likes), but it's fairly pronounced since the big brakes. It's not a massive problem, mostly just an annoyance, but the roads around here are dismal and I want to eliminate it as much as possible. I'm considering paying for some modern (eek!) light wheels as well as 16s to reduce the unsprung mass. I'm told OZ Racing do some very lightweight alloys in 17". I imagine you'll pay for them mind, and I haven't found out if they'll fit an E28.

i have a similar problem with the 17" style 5's i have. like you every single suspension and steering component was replaced with oem stuff in the last 6 months.

i now run 16" BBS RS005 on front and 006 on rear and this helps a great deal. not totally eliminated but a huge difference. the next thing i will do which should cure it will be to relocate the battery into the boot

i think its wheel size and width rather than weight - how do you imagine relacting the battery will help?

I may (not yet decided) have a M5 battery box and carpet set for sale....

Assuming were discussing 535s here, I think I can answer that. Good batteries (I use Bosch Silver) are very heavy, and in the regular E28s sit in the very front left of the engine bay. M30 engined E28s are, I think, 53/47% front biased weight distribution. The E28 M5 had components re-distributed during design to balance this slight nose heavy bias, resulting 51/49% front (I think, again). In theory, moving as much as possible to the boot would help handling.

appreciate the weight bias issue and its effect on handling but i don't see how this would remove the inherent numbness and tendency to tram line that an e28 on big wheels exhibits.

It might reduce under steer a touch but thats it i would think?

Duncan

With me my problem lies more so with taking corners at high speed. its fine on a straight or bumpy road. but when i push the car on into corners i find that you instinctively turn the steering wheel a certain amount and then realise going thought the corner you need to turn it a bit more, then turn back again. its hard to explain but if you drove it you would understand

replaing the 17s with the 16s has seriously reduced this sensation by a huge amount. i compared the weight of the style 5 with the rs005 and there is a big difference!! couple with the extra wieght of the bigger calipers and disks all adds up.

so by sticking the battey in the boot as well will go a long way towards cancelling out the extra unsprung weight added by the bigger disks and calipers

i fear its just the box set up (by design) rather than weight. mine is numb at the helm and its not accurate like a decent R&P set up.

Its just the way it is - 16's help and the weight shift can do no harm but it done' think it will erradicate what you feel.

what you describe is the reason i have a slice of e28 in the garage with the steering box, linkages, x-member and struts with a view to mocking up an R&P set up.

If you get around to it, please let us know how that goes. I'd love to drive an E28 that doesn't have to be muscled around bends at speed.

Hi, sorry for slow reply, virus+too much to do+ not enough hours in a day+ not sleeping properly!!!!!
Firstly, stop beating up the steering box installation, theres nothing wrong with it!

You need to separate all the problems out from each other; tramlining is an inevitable consequence of large rims and wide tyres with low profiles, only minimised by a full geometry check to reset everything to allow for a new ride height if lowering is also an issue, more castor will help if it can be done without making the car too heavy to park. Big brakes will dramatically raise the unsprung weight, therefore as a consequence of the installation, compression and rebound rates on the shock absorbers will all be wrong. moving sprung weight around the car will not change that fact. Having said that, on the subject of batteries, i converted my E28 to a Powervamp aircraft battery in 2006, best thing I ever did. Much better than a bucket of acid.

Anti roll bars are very powerful springs, and although basically inert on a perfect surface in a straight line, and theoretically inert in a straight line over a speed bump, if driven across a bumpy surface an upgraded anti roll bar will make the car fidgety as it rapidly adds and removes spring rate to each side of the car, quite apart from the risks of going too thick giving the car a dry only set-up. Have just fitted M5 25mm/18mm anti roll bars to mine, untested as yet. i'm guessing any thicker on the rear one and i would need to disconnect it in the wet.
Cheers
Peter

Sorry for the late response, I have only just caught up with this, but I have to laugh at this "Claim from BMW back in the day" God it makes me laugh, why weren't they just honest enough to admit that the only reason that the battery ended up in the boot is that there simply wasn't any room under the bonnet for it anymore, they used the battery space for the air box, and it's a bad place for that too, the intake is pointing at the old battery tray, so little opportunity for a good supply of fresh air! Weight distribution IMO had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Basically the cars are old in their design and a handful in what ever guise you have, that's part of the attraction for me.

You may laugh at BMW's reasoning, but the fact is anyone who wishes to improve the handling of an E28 has to accept that weight needs to be taken off the front. At the cost of a rather vulnerable front end, the E12 M535 lost the lower valance, the bumper, runner strip and irons, to hang a bendy plastic spoiler straight off the grille support.

If you look under the bonnet of an E28 M5, you will see that the battery has to go in the boot as there was no room anywhere else, the idea was not exactly new, the humble Mini? If you really want to improve the way an e28 handles, you would do better to make changes to the suspension set up, I am not convinced that the battery out weighs the ABS unit in the o/s front corner. The weight you are going to add with a big break set up will only make things worse. If it understeers (i.e. turn in and it tries to go straight on) then softer springs are needed at the front to give more grip, or at least softer by comparison to the rear, if it's oversteering (i.e. tail happy) then softer at the rear. Obviously anti roll bars will play a part in weight transfere characteristics and decent shock absorbers will control the springs travel. Lowering an E28 will only help upto a point as this introduces negative camber, and so lessening the contact patch of the tyre and reducing grip.

IMO there is only so much you can do, the e28 is tall and narrow. I have managed to do quite a bit with my M5 using custom made springs and adjustable camber plates, it is great on track but not nice on bumpy road services. I strongly believe that there is no real compromise, it is track or road. There are lots of previous threads to be found on here with reference to suspension.

I dont suppose you have got any pics of the brake upgrade have you?? just out of interest as to how the look on the car cheers Jonesy

I am pretty sure that Splondike and Andyb both posted Pics of there upgrades some time back, Pm Splondike, I am sure he will send you some pics.

Standard rears:


Here are the E34 540i rears:


Only pic I have that shows the 302mm fronts...

cheers for that, just wanted to see what they look like on the car. love the drilled + grooved discs.

Same here. Perhaps something modern car designers could learn from? Going on a slight tangent here, I recommend trying a Caterham. I did. I couldn't decide whether to laugh maniacally or wet myself. I settled for a bit of both. Absolutely fantastic.

Just found some 540i E34 Brakes for sale. Do you need the brake master cylinder and servo aswell or just the calipers, carriers and discs?
This is for e28 520i brake upgrade,

Cheers

I'm running standard servoe and master cylinder and it's all fine

cheers andy!

Hello. I haven't posted on this one for ages. Reason being, I've just had to leave my previous job due to injury and I'm now trying to find a new career with no heavy lifting! The car will be on hold for now, but I promise this thread will be finished as soon as the car is. I have Whiteline ARBs waiting, someone who can weld on standby (see an old thread about Whiteline ARBs) and just need the income to justify Spax PSX shocks/springs and Lenso BSX 16" wheels and then we'll see what this cars about.
If a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing right.

I agree with you. They fit straight on with no problems & you can still use 16" wheels!

I ran these brakes with the e28 metric wheels for a while!!