BMW Z4 E89 Big Brake Upgrades

BMW Z4 E89 Big Brake Upgrades These pages are dedicated to all things related to upgrading the brakes on BMW Z4 E89s (2009-2016)

And…a 340mm PB rear BBK kit..just the adapter brackets and bolts…off to Australia…
05/03/2026

And…a 340mm PB rear BBK kit..just the adapter brackets and bolts…off to Australia…

Another rear PB rear BBK kit ..this one is for 370mm rear F01 discs..Owner wanted the caliper cradles machined and then ...
04/03/2026

Another rear PB rear BBK kit ..this one is for 370mm rear F01 discs..

Owner wanted the caliper cradles machined and then this lot is off to Finland..

So I’ve done a photo sequence showing a neat way of determining, then doing, then checking the caliper carrier cradle ma...
13/02/2026

So I’ve done a photo sequence showing a neat way of determining, then doing, then checking the caliper carrier cradle machining required to use the F10 carrier cradles with the 370mm rear BBK adaptors…first trial fit bracket to cradle, second attempt to insert bolt in middle hole..it will just foul the carrier, third mark said position of fouling, fourth disassemble and machine small amount of metal away at said point, fifth reassemble insert bolt and ideally 24mm washer…this will give the required cut area, sixth disassemble and machine away required metal periodically checking to not go far..finally reassemble and check clearance by using a 24mm socket ….simples

A bumper pack of front and rear brake parts going out today..Shelby Mustang 350R front calipers and 370mm rear discs, F1...
11/02/2026

A bumper pack of front and rear brake parts going out today..

Shelby Mustang 350R front calipers and 370mm rear discs, F10 calipers and cradles along with the 370mm E89 rear BBK adapters..

Meanwhile back on the car I decided to repurpose my p***s enlarger as a pressurised brake bleeder unit.Modern brake syst...
04/01/2026

Meanwhile back on the car I decided to repurpose my p***s enlarger as a pressurised brake bleeder unit.

Modern brake systems are very complex with their ABS/stability control modules.

BMW calls for a two stage brake bleed once the system has been drained as in the removal of calipers and left to drain out.

First stage is a normal bleed on all four wheels..with the rears needing potentially being taken off their mounts and inverted whilst attached to get the air out of the electronic parking brake area.

I was amazed at how long and how much air was in the system with over alitre required to get the first stage done.

Second stage requires ISTA activation of each brake channel on each corner with brake pedal pressed 5 times per chanel to purge air caught inside the DSC unit!

Using 5.1 brake fluid as its now preferred for more complex DSC/ESP units.

New Year’s Eve saw the fitment of the production version of my design for a rear BBK for E89s.I’d fitted a prototype ver...
01/01/2026

New Year’s Eve saw the fitment of the production version of my design for a rear BBK for E89s.

I’d fitted a prototype version early in 2025 and there were a couple of issues with it…one was that the initial design required a couple of spacer washers on certain parts of the adapter bracket to get the caliper cradle (BMW M5/F10) to be fully centralised on the disc..345mm BMW E60, 370mm BMW F01.

Each version different combination of washers. I’d plagiarised the caliper cradle bracket design from other similar BBKs for other cars.

However all these designs used 1mm wider hole spacing than bolt size ..the combination causes a fair degree of ‘slop’ in the total structure prior to torque-ing up the bolts.

This version 7 production bracket uses 0.1mm tolerances instead and has fully rebated machining so no spacers are required.

Interesting the left hand version that used TRW caliper cradle (BMW OE) mated perfectly with the M5 caliper and the bracket…the right hand cradle is a NTY copy and just wasn’t as good at mating up with the OE caliper..did it in the end but more faff.

So the production version now installed in a fetching Phoenix Gold with Ferodo DS2500 pads to match the front…just need to apply the brakes a couple of times from a cold start ..otherwise you don’t stop!

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TD86ND

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