Install of F80 M3/4 Front and Rear Brakes, SLG brackets, ER Brake Lines

[mwpa71]

Thanks mate.. Most appreciated

[kiwie91]

Awesome information in here, found this thread very helpful, have just purchased a set of m4 brakes and SLG brackets for my 08 135i and will attempt this swap soon. My main concern is finding wheels that will fit, currently on some 18x8 et38 CSL style wheels and not sure if they will clear.

Apart from APEX EC-7s are there any other 18inch 5x120 wheels that you know of that would clear these brakes? Only reason I ask is I live in new zealand and shipping a set of APEX wheels over here is very expensive, especially with the current exchange rate?

Would you happen to know the minimal internal diameter of barrel required to clear the front brakes?

SLG claims 17inches is minimum required but so far all wheels ive found, manufacturers state they are 'Big Brake Compatible' but do not have 17inches of barrel clearance. Furthermore SLG claims it will fit most 18inch wheels, however so far im having a hard time finding any that do fit.

Cheers,
Elias

[houtan]

Awesome. You are going to love the brakes.

Other than than Apex wheels and the wheels pictures on the slg website, I know the M3/M4 wheels will clear. The problems is they most likely aren’t the correct offset for the 1er. Sorry, not much help.

[CalvinNismo]

There was a guy that had the F8X brakes fit under 18" OZ Ultraleggera's. There were photos (page 4) but the links are now dead.

https://www.babybmw.net/threads/370m...rs-125i.86796/

[kiwie91]

Ended up biting the bullet and ordering a set of apex EC-7s as they were a safe bet, proven to work. Now debating tire sizes, houtan you're running 255s in the front right? Do you think that would work with bc coilovers or would the reduced inner clearance be an issue?

Cheers,
Elias

[houtan]

Originally Posted by kiwie91

Ended up biting the bullet and ordering a set of apex EC-7s as they were a safe bet, proven to work. Now debating tire sizes, houtan you're running 255s in the front right? Do you think that would work with bc coilovers or would the reduced inner clearance be an issue?

Cheers,
Elias

Nice!

I am not sure tbh since I have TC Kline SA Konis with TC Kline springs in the front. I don’t know if BCs are bigger, smaller, or the same.

At my ride height, my front tires did not hit the strut (but they were really close) and are about a quarter to half inch clear of the spring perch. I had a lot of clearance to the fender so I installed a 5mm spacer.

I am running 3.7 degrees of camber with TC plates, and zero toe. Hopefully that helps.

[houtan]

Brakes have been awesome btw. Went to a half mile event a few weeks ago and probably did 10 runs in a row at 158mph or more with little to no waiting between runs and the brakes didn’t miss a beat. They were awesome. My best speed was 161.8 mph.

[kiwie91]

Originally Posted by houtan

Nice!

I am not sure tbh since I have TC Kline SA Konis with TC Kline springs in the front. I don’t know if BCs are bigger, smaller, or the same.

At my ride height, my front tires did not hit the strut (but they were really close) and are about a quarter to half inch clear of the spring perch. I had a lot of clearance to the fender so I installed a 5mm spacer.

I am running 3.7 degrees of camber with TC plates, and zero toe. Hopefully that helps.

Awesome thanks for the reply, So does your lower spring perch sit above your tire? That seems to be the trick to getting wide tires to fit, along with a lot of camber.

I will have a look at my car and see if I can get my spring perch to sit above the tire.

Thats good to hear on the brakes working well, and thats some impressive speed. I am yet to install mine since my wheels havent arrived yet but did a test fit of one of the fronts and it all fit nicely, very excited to get them and the new wheels on.

[houtan]

Glad to help. I found some pictures I took when I was test fitting. These are without a spacer.

[kiwie91]

Originally Posted by houtan

Glad to help. I found some pictures I took when I was test fitting. These are without a spacer.

Awesome thank you, really appreciate it, I will test fit the wheels once they arrive and see what the inner clearance is like, and then choose tires accordingly, think I should be able to get to 3 degrees of camber fairly easily with the camber plates on my coilovers just a matter of if I can push the spring perch high enough to got it over the tire, maybe if I swap to shorter springs, we will see. Wheels should be here in about a 5 days.

[Boosted71]

Do we know what size spacers we need for the arc-8 wheels to fit?

[CalvinNismo]

Originally Posted by Boosted71

Do we know what size spacers we need for the arc-8 wheels to fit?

For 18x8.5 ET45 ARC-8’s on the front you need a 6mm minimum spacer to clear the spokes. To clear the barrel you need pads without weights (or you need to remove the OEM pad weights) and you need to shave down the extremes of the caliper to provide extra clearance.

ARC-8’s fit fine on the rear.

[Boosted71]

Originally Posted by CalvinNismo

For 18x8.5 ET45 ARC-8’s on the front you need a 6mm minimum spacer to clear the spokes. To clear the barrel you need pads without weights (or you need to remove the OEM pad weights) and you need to shave down the extremes of the caliper to provide extra clearance.

ARC-8’s fit fine on the rear.

Ok cool, I picked up +35 so hopefully that'll give me a little more room to work with

[CalvinNismo]

Originally Posted by Boosted71

Ok cool, I picked up +35 so hopefully that'll give me a little more room to work with

Please share some pictures of your setup!

[Expert@ApexWheels]

Originally Posted by Boosted71

Ok cool, I picked up +35 so hopefully that'll give me a little more room to work with

That will give you quite a bit more clearance on the inner spoke side of the wheels for the calipers but be sure you have a set of camber plates that let you dial in a decent amount of negative camber if you're running stock fenders. You'll need camber to make that lower offset work.

-Tom

[kiwie91]

Finished up the install of the m4 brakes on my 135! Big thanks to houtan for the information provided, made the process much easier especially the photos outlining what to trim.

Got the apex ec-7 wheels mounted with some Hankook vents R-S4 tires a 5mm spacer on the front to clear the BC coilovers, running 235/40/18 square which with the m factory LSD provides plenty of grip. Very happy with the setup!

follow the link below for some photos!

https://www.instagram.com/elias_135i/

[A97syclone]

Would this setup work on a 3 series Xdrive front end? I know most of the components are different, but the hub/brakes look the same as 2wd versions.

[houtan]

I don’t know for sure, but it would be worth calling SLG and asking. they would know the answer.

[A97syclone]

Originally Posted by houtan

I don’t know for sure, but it would be worth calling SLG and asking. they would know the answer.

They said they will fit fine so I picked up a set of brakes yesterday. The disks are almost worn past the "min thickness" though. Any tips on the best replacement disks?

Also I'll be installing 1M width fenders and am planning on 18x11rear and 18x10 fronts ET 22 ish. Do you see any issues with this?

[houtan]

I haven’t looked into replacement options so I don’t have a clue. If you find any, could you please post them here so others are aware?

Hard to say about the wider wheels and lower offset. Apex would know for sure or if you go to the F 80 forum, if they are running similar offsets and sizes you can figure out if it will work since you are running the same factory brakes now.

[LanceM26]

Hi Everyone, coming here from the 2addicts page as not many people have done the 380 rotors up front. I've got an arc-8 et 38 and have camber plates. I should be able to get this to fit up front right?

[LanceM26]

Originally Posted by Boosted71

Ok cool, I picked up +35 so hopefully that'll give me a little more room to work with

How'd that go for you?