E60: Replacing all Brake Discs and Pads.

1. Jack car, remove wheel. REAR ONLY - ensure handbrake is off.
2. Remove plastic caps and 7mm Allen-head bolts.
3. Remove caliper and hang it from the spring.
4. *On front-N/S and rear-O/S ONLY* - Remove pad wear-sensor by gently working it up out of the slot with a small flat-screwdriver. Part of the green plastic may brake off but it's very unlikely the sensor will stop working, so provided you are careful to retain the metal clip it will fit back on tight enough.
5. Remove 18mm bolts from caliper bracket and lift out of the way.
6. Remove the stud holding the disc to the hub using a 5mm Allen-key socket.
7. Wobble the brake disc off. REAR ONLY - It may need whacking from behind with a hammer as it will bind to the handbrake shoes.
8. ** If you are replacing the inboard handbrake shoes, then do this now.
9. Fit the new brake-disc to the hub. The hand-brake may need adjusting for the drum to slide over the shoes as it self-adjusts to stay against the worn drum on the old brake-disc. It will likely need adjusting to the new drum anyway. 
10. Reverse steps 5 to 1.

Pad wear-sensors are a pain to remove.

I wangled all 4 discs and pads for £140 from LVW who supply where I work. 

Belaco are a budget make, but we fit them to vans at work and they seem OK.

Mintex pads do the job.

Plenty of meat left on the old discs, but the MOT fail showed brake imbalance.

The old pads looked alright too, but no imbalance reported on the retest.

E60 530d MOT Fail - Brakes, Trailing Arm

After the horror of the swirl-flap failure and engine swap, the E60 went off the road again at the start of December after an annoying MOT fail on imbalanced brakes, likely discs and pads, and split trailing arm bushes on the N/S. The tester also failed it on a bend in the rim of the N/S/R alloy wheel, which is reasonably bad, but enough to be an MOT fail I am not too sure.

This is the bush on the offending arm with the most play, but I still can't see a major split as I have with other bushes.

Closer inspection reveals what could be a split on the right side of the pic, but it's still not a shut case. Maybe the rubber has separated from the metal outer and is moving around?

Ok, so it's no small dent. The inner rim is bent, where the tyre sits, but I've had similar sized ones before that have been no problem. 

Is it repairable? Perhaps, but I have no spare wheel to use and a replacement is £200. Maybe the MOT tester was having a bad day?

E46: Brakes + oil leak sorted - still running rough!

Wednesday 16/7/14:

Replaced vacuum-pump.

Replaced both camshaft-sensors.

Replaced MAF sensor.

Well, I'm certainly glad to report that the oil gushing onto the exhaust / cat has stopped with the replacement of the blown up vac-pump and I now have good pedal feel and stoppage. Sadly, even the return of some vacuum isn't enough to cure the low-idle and rough running. I replaced the obvious things, both cam sensors and the mass-airflow meter, but this hasn't sorted it either. I'm guessing there is either a severe vacuum / vent problem, or it's going to be to g related... Oh joy!

The diagnosis will go as follows:

Remove and fully check out inlet manifold.
Thoroughly check all CCV lines and the valve.
Clean and check all electrical connections.
Test for compression.
Move on to timing.

Other jobs:

Adjust handbrake and refit discs.

Fibreglass fill n/s/r wheel arch.

Check squeaky ABS sensor.

E46 318ci Brakes Checklist

Calipers pushing back fine, hoses not collapsed or clogged.

No fluid coming out of master cylinder itself, so brake pipes not clogged.

Fluid drains from the master-cylinder from the spout that joins to the hose that runs to the servo-housing.

Master cylinder no pressure? No visible leak.

Servo stopping master-cylinder from pressurising?

Pedal not operating?!

E21 316: MOT + New Brake Hoses.

Took the car in for MOT last week expecting to come home with a great long list of costly repairs, like split bushes or the back being too low and fouling the tyres, so I was hugely relieved to find out it had failed only on a wiper-blade and one brake hose was swelling under pressure!

To celebrate the victory I treated the car to a full set of Goodridge stainless-steel brake-hoses, front and rear, as I figured if one is beginning to swell then they could all do with replacing. The set cost me £93 from CAM Motorsport on eBay, which was slightly dearer than average, but they were the only stockist who could guarantee them in time for my re-test. For the price you also get two 1L cans of Super Blue Racing Brake-Fluid, worth about £30, which has a higher boiling-point than normal, though I doubt I'll ever get to try that out, but hey at least I had some fluid.

Oh, and I also bought the best dang Bosch wiper-blades I could find!