Upgraded 650i to M6 brakes

[LordCash]

OK, so last week I decided to take Bear up on his offer to buy his factory M6 brakes since he had Brembos installed on his M6 rattlebox.

I drove down to SoCal to visit my parents before they left for a vacation (they are both retired, so anytime is a good time for a vacation for them!) and while I was done there, I drove down to Eurorev in Inglewood and had them install Bear's previous brakes on my barely used 650i.

So out with the 2000 miles factory 650i brakes and in with the 5000 mile M6 brakes!

Everything went well and apparently it was like Bear said - a straight bolt on swap. The only thing that needed modification were the brake shields which were too small and had to be "rolled" a bit to clear the larger M6 rotors. The brakes fit fine underneath the 19" flower power wheels. And of course they function just fine, too! :tongue:

I bought them primarily for aesthetic reasons since I will soon be getting new wheels and I think they will add a little visual excitement.

Thanks to Bear for selling me the brakes. I was also impressed that he drove up from Long Beach to the Eurorev to say hello to me and it was nice to meet someone from KOTR face-to-face.

Cheers!

Lord Cash

[cobradav]

Kewl. Go M6 :bmw:

Will these get a Paint job as well?

[LordCash]

Kewl. Go M6 :bmw: Will these get a Paint job as well?

Dave,

I got them already painted to match. They were painted in BMW factory with factory paint - in Germany. That's why it took 1 month to get them to me. I paid an extra $400 to get them painted. That's a lot for two mirrors, I know, but seeing as my car is only 4 weeks old (two weeks in Europe and two now in the U.S.), I wasn't ready to have the whole car painted, so it seemed like a good idea.

I'll be posting pictures after the install, of course. Part of my "M-ification" project! Hahahah. Just kidding (kinda!). Don't anyone hate on me - I have reasons for upgrading certain parts to M6 specs (brakes=done; mirrors = soon to be done; wheels = considering M6 forged 19") but I am not trying to pretend my 650i is an M6. As discussed before, if I really wanted an M6, I would have bought one. That said, I do like the aesthetics of some of the M6 items and am upgrading accordingly. But never will the 650i badge come off - I am not trying to fool anyone!

[BHR4CE1]

Don't anyone hate on me - But never will the 650i badge come off - I am not trying to fool anyone!


Then there will be NO hate! LOL!

[cobradav]

Kewl. Go M6 :bmw: Will these get a Paint job as well?

Dave,

I got them already painted to match. They were painted in BMW factory with factory paint - in Germany. That's why it took 1 month to get them to me. I paid an extra $400 to get them painted. That's a lot for two mirrors, I know, but seeing as my car is only 4 weeks old (two weeks in Europe and two now in the U.S.), I wasn't ready to have the whole car painted, so it seemed like a good idea.

I'll be posting pictures after the install, of course. Part of my "M-ification" project! Hahahah. Just kidding (kinda!). Don't anyone hate on me - I have reasons for upgrading certain parts to M6 specs (brakes=done; mirrors = soon to be done; wheels = considering M6 forged 19") but I am not trying to pretend my 650i is an M6. As discussed before, if I really wanted an M6, I would have bought one. That said, I do like the aesthetics of some of the M6 items and am upgrading accordingly. But never will the 650i badge come off - I am not trying to fool anyone!
Hww, I was speaking of the brake calipers - would they get a red or black or color match paint job?

As far as the mirrors are concerned I agree on the aesthetics, heck even the 3 series has better looking mirrors :shitfan:

[LordCash]

Sorry for the confusion Dave. I was a little confused on this post...I had just finished up a bottle of wine that night :cheers:

Just goes to show you: "Don't drink and post!" :)

Anyway, the calipers are currently black, but, yeah, I might paint them. We'll see.

Lord Cash

[LordCash]

By the way, you can now see the brakes thanks to the M6 wheels which are much more "open" in nature than the flower power "Sport" wheels.

Lord Cash

[Stratus650]

By the way, you can now see the brakes thanks to the M6 wheels which are much more "open" in nature than the flower power "Sport" wheels.

Lord Cash

That looks cool! So was it that straight forward? I mean the swapping? I thought other things in the M6 were different like the brake booster, etc.

So lemme get this straight, I only need to change the Calipers and the Disks ? anything else aside to rolling the brake disk covers at the back ?

[Enigma]

LC, :fotosign: . However, I think, black brakes go best with your 6er colour. Just my .02c. :dunno:
VR>

[LordCash]

That looks cool! So was it that straight forward? I mean the swapping? I thought other things in the M6 were different like the brake booster, etc.

So lemme get this straight, I only need to change the Calipers and the Disks ? anything else aside to rolling the brake disk covers at the back ?

Yep, exactly. Calipers and Rotors were changed. Either role the shields or buy M6-specific ones. Brakes were bled and - done. Some of the bolts and such were already attached to the calipers so I can't speak to all the nuts and bolts - but between the ones already attached to the calipers and my stock ones, everything was there to hook them up. I had the work done by a professional shop - and they didn't have any problems with the installation.

I, too, was initially worried about the proportioning valve, master cylinder and various other potentially-different parts but two facts (provided by Bear) led me to believe everything would be OK if just the rotors and calipers were swapped...

1) The weight difference between an M6 coupe (3909 lbs) and 650i coupe (3814 lbs) is less than 100 lbs - so this isn't the same as swapping the brakes to another vehicle they would physically fit but would have vastly different weight such as the X5 (5335 lbs). I would assume with an M6-to-X5 swap there would be more pieces you would have to change to have good proportioning and even braking.

2) Brembo, the after market manufacturer of "big brake" kits has a single part number for their rotors/calipers for both M6 and 645/650. So, apparently they are satisfied the other parts are compatible.

And, in my driving I have not experienced any problems. I went into this with my eyes wide open knowing that the brake performance in day-to-day use probably wouldn't be noticeably improved over the already-very-good 650i brakes (and it hasn't been) and this swap would mainly be an aesthetic change. I am completely happy with both the looks and the performance of the brakes. Zero problems.

Lord Cash

Lord Cash - Is the brake feel different? Are the stopping differences any shorter? Do your fillings fly out of your teeth during a really strong panic stop?

[Stratus650]

That looks cool! So was it that straight forward? I mean the swapping? I thought other things in the M6 were different like the brake booster, etc.

So lemme get this straight, I only need to change the Calipers and the Disks ? anything else aside to rolling the brake disk covers at the back ?

Yep, exactly. Calipers and Rotors were changed. Either role the shields or buy M6-specific ones. Brakes were bled and - done. Some of the bolts and such were already attached to the calipers so I can't speak to all the nuts and bolts - but between the ones already attached to the calipers and my stock ones, everything was there to hook them up. I had the work done by a professional shop - and they didn't have any problems with the installation.

I, too, was initially worried about the proportioning valve, master cylinder and various other potentially-different parts but two facts (provided by Bear) led me to believe everything would be OK if just the rotors and calipers were swapped...

1) The weight difference between an M6 coupe (3909 lbs) and 650i coupe (3814 lbs) is less than 100 lbs - so this isn't the same as swapping the brakes to another vehicle they would physically fit but would have vastly different weight such as the X5 (5335 lbs). I would assume with an M6-to-X5 swap there would be more pieces you would have to change to have good proportioning and even braking.

2) Brembo, the after market manufacturer of "big brake" kits has a single part number for their rotors/calipers for both M6 and 645/650. So, apparently they are satisfied the other parts are compatible.

And, in my driving I have not experienced any problems. I went into this with my eyes wide open knowing that the brake performance in day-to-day use probably wouldn't be noticeably improved over the already-very-good 650i brakes (and it hasn't been) and this swap would mainly be an aesthetic change. I am completely happy with both the looks and the performance of the brakes. Zero problems.

Lord Cash

Hmm.... Nice! :mrgreen: I need to do some research, If the Stock M6 brakes turns out to be cheaper than a Brembo kit, i'll see if its worth it, Coz i have to buy them brand new, dont think will find used and in good shape. Ill see... Thanks for the details LordCash !

[LordCash]

Lord Cash - Is the brake feel different? Are the stopping differences any shorter? Do your fillings fly out of your teeth during a really strong panic stop?

Overall, the brakes feel pretty much the same. I'd like to say they feel a little more forceful, but that is probably just psychological. If you look at the test data from the magazines, the 60-0 stopping distance is pretty much the same between the 650i and the M6. Within a few feet either way (some tests have the M6 inching out the 650i while others have seen the opposite).

So I wouldn't expect the stopping distances would be any shorter (or not enough that you could determine it without instrumentation). However, I believe the cross drilled rotors of the M6 brakes should help reduce fade in repeated, hard stops. Can't say I have really subjected my car to that kind of torture, though, so I can't speak to the actuality of this assumption.

Do my fillings fly out of my teeth? Absolutely not! Though since I have two fillings still from childhood (maybe 12 years old) that probably should be replaced, I wouldn't really mind if that happened as it would give me a good excuse to get them replaced :)

All-in-all, for my purposes, the performance is the same -- but the look -- especially in open wheels like I now have...in the words of Borat....N I C E !!!

Lord Cash

[LordCash]

Hmm.... Nice! :mrgreen: I need to do some research, If the Stock M6 brakes turns out to be cheaper than a Brembo kit, i'll see if its worth it, Coz i have to buy them brand new, dont think will find used and in good shape. Ill see... Thanks for the details LordCash !

Thanks!

You can occasionally find nice take-offs on eBay for M6 brakes but they are pretty rare. I imagine ordering the parts from the factory would be pretty expensive, maybe exceeding the price of Brembos. Don't know. I was fortunate to get them from Bear and they had only about 8K miles or so on them. And I got them for a good price. I can't complain :)

Lord Cash

[BHR4CE1]

I was fortunate to get them from Bear and they had only about 8K miles or so on them. And I got them for a good price. I can't complain :)

Lord Cash


They actually had under 5k on them. The car doesn't even have 8K on it yet! And during the first 4k I didn't really "drive" the car, so I hardley ever used the brakes. Now I drive the hell out of it! Woo Hoo!

:greenlaff: