Good find but I disagree on cost of front rotors. CSL units are insanely expensive compared to 330i Zimmerman or any other quality brand.

 

Good call out. I thought I saw front pairs from 300+, but that looks like it was 328mm for standard M3.

 

This is cool, but is it really an upgrade for only 20mm more rotor? Someone calculate how much more sticky you are getting.

I like my cheap 330 rotors.

I bought a pair of CSL rotors once by mistake from the dealer. Try explaining that to the parts manager and telling him "nah, I just wanted an estimate".

 

I wanted to share for fitment and information retention on the forum - I think the braking performance improvement is going to be fairly marginal in terms of the normal driver use case.

Realistically, I imagine people would be most interested in doing this for the large caliper size increase more so than for dedicated performance. The E9x and E70 calipers are lighter, probably by a few pounds but again won’t matter to most.

There are many threads on the merits of CSL vs Non - and it’ll come down to the individual if it’s worth it or not! To your point, I think having the 330 rotors from a cost perspective will be nice, but it would also be nice to have a beefier looking caliper.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience at the parts desk. The cost per rotor didn’t give you any red flags? 😁

 

The one thing left out of the parts list is which e70 rear calipers to use. The 48i and 50i have a different part number than the 30i and 35i. Anybody know which e70 rear caliper to use?

 

The 135i swap might require an adapter, but gives you the choice to use standard M3 rotors for a much lower consumable cost, and 6 piston front calipers.

 

Wanted to chime in and say I did exactly as described in the video, and it was actually very easy and probably one of the best upgrades I have done on my E46. Never really going to be using brembos to their max potential on the street, so the extra stopping power is always welcome.

I ordered these for $615.99, normally $1268.95.
M3 CSL Rotors 34112282445 from Turner Motorsport Front TrackSport Rotor Set - 345x28mm ES#4164902

I then was able to get both the left and right e90 335i front brakes, pads, with the brake lines still attached from Ebay for $79.99.

I couldnt locate the same caliper carrier bolts like in the video, so I ordered ones from FEBI BILSTEIN for $45.
34106864424

Provided you have torque wrench, car jacks, and tools, this took about 1 hour per side.

Side note: the e90 brakes I ordered also included the brake wear sensor and was able to fit them into my 2000 323ci and not get any errors.

Not required, but it definitely helps to have the M3 rotor set screw 34211161806. ($15ish)

I also had to bleed my brakes so I ordered these.
Brake Bleed Catch Bottle Kit MOT-1820 $25.70
European Power Bleeder MOT-0100 $59.75
BMW-81220142156 OEM DOT 4 Brake Fluid x2 $6.15

Theoretical total amount: $853.73

I needed spacers for the e90 calipers to clear my wheels as it was rubbing against the spokes of my wheels, ordered 10mm hubcentric spacers from dinan, front and back
Also ordered a steel brush set to clean mating surfaces and the brakes I picked up from ebay
Typical supplies like brake clean, rags

Have spent about a month driving these in and did the typical break in procedure. (3 full stops at 60mph, 3 full stops at 40 mph and 5 full stops at 20 mph) I luckily have a long stretch of empty country road to do this in. Have no complaints, I wish there was an option to upgrade the rears without having to weld the spline to keep the parking brake or some jank drum/shoes retrofit

 

Have no complaints, I wish there was an option to upgrade the rears without having to weld the spline to keep the parking brake or some jank drum/shoes retrofit

Weld the spline?

The move is to swap in 330i trailing arms and axles.