Happy Camper: jacking car, rear brakes, etc.

[jlc45]

I want to say THANKS to all the guys and girls who contribute information here on DIY topics. It is so helpful. You helped me with the following work I did on my 2012 135i coupe which has 54,000 km on it.
I bought a new 3 ton jack at CTC and I jacked up the rear by jacking on the small cross-member just behind the differential. That worked really well. I removed the rear brake pads by using the method where you leave the calipers on the car. You just remove the pins and the springs, depress the pistons a little, and the pads pop right out. I cleaned everything up, applied a little lube where the pads ride in the calipers and reinstalled. Pretty simple. Then I installed my summer tires and moved to the front.
In order to jack up the front I had to drive the front wheels up onto the first step of my homemade ramps. (Four levels of 2x10 lumber) Then I was able to get the jack under the standard jacking points. I didn't service the front brakes because I did them last fall. Installed the summer rubber and reversed the jacking procedure to lower the car. Torqued all wheel studs to 100 lb.ft. (spec is 140 N.m.) There was some good info in a couple threads on different ways to jack up the car. Merci mes amis.

[Matticus91]

Thank YOU for searching around and making good use of stuff! You'd be surprised how many people just make an account and their first thread is:

"HOW DO I CHANGE THE WHEEL."

When there's 934,312,875 threads on exactly that topic. It's infuriating when you've put time into a DIY or two lol.

Cheers on a job well done and keep at it! Make sure you bed those brakes properly too

[mackeroni]

Ca va bien, non?

[Stewy_604]

Nice man. Glad you got it tackled ok. Which pads did you go with? BMW OE (Textar)?

[jlc45]

Don't you hate that expression!
I have been doing brakes for 40 years but I've never had a beemer before.
Of course it's very different, but still quite "serviceable".
My other car is a 2010 Acura TL which is a boat but also a very nice fast car.
I don't know what pads are in my 135i because I bought it used and I expect they are just stock pads. They look pretty good and I expect they will last me as long as I keep the car. The car had new rotors when I got it from the dealer, so it seems to be in excellent shape. Thanks for the comments.

[texas128i]

Thanks for the tip on jacking up the front of the car . I just bought a 2008 128i and I was wondering how to deal with such low jacking points.

[blue135]

Is that wheel stud torque a little high? I thought the spec was 80 ft lb.

[jlc45]

Relation between ft.lb. and Nm is 0.74

Instructions with new package of BMW wheel studs said torque to 140 Nm.
140 x 0.74 = 104 ft.lb.
I agree it seems high but that's what I had to go on.
Spec on my Acura with beefier studs is 80 ft.lbs.

Please post more info if you have it.

For jacking discussion, do a search and you'll find lots of helpful good ideas in older threads.

[jlc45]

This list says torque should be 88 ft.lb or 120 NM on 1 series
Sounds more reasonable to me.

http://www.bmwforums.info/bmw-wheels...e-setting.html

[blue135]

I am not remembering well (or getting confused with other cars), but 88 lb-ft sounds more like what I used than 80 or 104.