[///MPhatic]

Just had the car coded for the CS upgrades, and the CCB's. Took about 20 minutes front to back with a super slow laptop. The drive past 4 miles to see if the errors are still there will have to wait until it's dry out again, but I did get a quick driveway snap.

ABS/DSC bleed + traditional bleed is next week.

[///MPhatic]

A few more snaps after the rain.

[///MPhatic]

Car drives fine.
Squeaks come and go, not as consistent or bad as last night (every time I turned left at all)
Errors remain, they come on at 4 miles, close them, then they come back on at 6.8 miles.
And a weird thing happened a few times. Lights off, but when I shut the car off and got out the rear lights were still on. Did that a few times, now working as normal (this was the clue that I missed that the brake light switch was too close to the brake pedal arm).

I had the CS coding done as well, can't tell any difference, but I drive with everything off, and I wasn't driving hard.

[///MPhatic]

ERROR UPDATE

Status: Fixed.

Cause: Brake light switch

When removing the clip/brake booster pin/nuts we must have inadvertently hit the brake light switch and pushed it in towards the brake pedal arm so closely that just about anything would cause the brake lights to be on, including just shutting the door.

Not really knowing how a brake light switch works, I got in there and started fiddling around and pushed it all the way in towards the brake pedal arm, which, to a person that doesn't know would be like, hey, this was loose, and I pushed it into place. No. I basically adjusted it all the way to the arm, then, again, not knowing how a brake light switch works, couldn't get it adjusted back out no matter how I pulled on it.

I finally just pulled the brake pedal lever in the opposite direction of normal and it pushed the switch back out where it wasn't touching, and no more brake lights.

After my drive just now there are no errors at the 4 or 6.8 mile markers that there were before.


Some notes:

Car drives fine, pedal is a bit weird at the top, could be just from being CCB's or could be the air in the ABS unit. We will see next week when I get my ABS/DSC bleed.

Wet performance is DRASTICALLY reduced. Pulling out of the car wash I didn't think I was going to get the car stopped. A couple pumps and it was decent, but certainly not double the normal braking force (or whatever increase it is when you have metallic pads and iron rotors when they are wet).

Those that say there is no brake dust are high. There is still brake dust, it's just vastly less compared to the iron rotor stock pads, and also much less than the CarboTech pads by quite a margin. It's even a good amount less than the Akebono pads, which are fantastic on dust. Maybe this is just dust from nowhere since they were just installed, but with 54K on them and light applications I expected there to be ZERO.

There are still some squeaks and squeals here and there, which will hopefully just magically disappear.

Overall this job was a PITA, but like most things if I were to do it again I'd pretty much breeze through it.

I'll get the sizes and make a list of the 7 rubber nipples and 1 stopper needed to keep brake fluid from getting everywhere.

[///MPhatic]

A couple of before and after pix.

Before and after front by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

Before and after rear by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

[allinon72]

Easy fixes are the best!

[///MPhatic]

OK, so an update on this.

After 2 traditional heavy bleeds (4 psi on the Motive per nipple) my brakes were good, but the initial bite wasn't there.

Did the ABS/DSC bleed today, but instead of using ISTA my mechanic used a older Snap On Solus scanner tool.

ISTA basically cycles the ABS valves 3 times, which my mechanic thought was overkill (he regularly works on Porsche/BMW/Ferrari/Audi/etc), but the Snap On only called for 1 cycle while pumping the brakes, so that's what we did.

We then bled the driver's side outside nipples only, rear then front, 5 second each while the brakes were pumped and the Motive at 20 psi instead of 15.

Then we did all nipples the traditional way, same 5 seconds per nipple + the Motive.

The Snap On tool did call for 20 psi on the Motive instead of 15, not sure why.

Worked like a charm, pedal is vastly improved, brakes start earlier and hit harder.

Very happy with the results!

Colors. 6 by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

Colors. 1 by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

[///MPhatic]

I also wanted to thank kubax86 (bimmer-remote.com) for coding my CS diff/steering/dsc and my carbon ceramic brakes. Even on a dial-up slow laptop it only took 20 minutes front to back.

[///MPhatic]

Very happy to report that after washing the M2 with these CCB's a few times there is no longer that huge amount of orange (rust) residue all over the barrel when I go to wipe the wheels off. Seems like a little thing, but for someone like me (re OCD) that has spent so much on nice wheels, it's a huge plus. Even without wiping them down they're passable IMO.

[Track/S]

Now you can throw the iron off in the trash, you won't need it, the dust released by CCB does not contain iron.

[ShortSides]

Great looking setup

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by Track/S

Now you can throw the iron off in the trash, you won't need it, the dust released by CCB does not contain iron.

I'm keeping my old set-up just in case I have something catastrophic happen to my fragile carbon rotors.

I do love the fact that there is no iron in the dust, but hate the fact that I can no longer blow my wheels off after every drive with a leaf blower because the dust from the pads is super unsafe without a mask. The price paid I suppose.

[medphysdave]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

I'm keeping my old set-up just in case I have something catastrophic happen to my fragile carbon rotors.

I do love the fact that there is no iron in the dust, but hate the fact that I can no longer blow my wheels off after every drive with a leaf blower because the dust from the pads is super unsafe without a mask. The price paid I suppose.

Interesting idea. I never thought about trying to blow off the brake dust after a drive. How well did that work?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by medphysdave

Interesting idea. I never thought about trying to blow off the brake dust after a drive. How well did that work?

Fantastically, actually.

[reginijr]

Hey , do you have the part number of the booster?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by reginijr

Hey , do you have the part number of the booster?

34-33-7-850-999

Should be about $430 from getbmwparts.com.

[dtmurf]

Nice work. Other than after a wash, have you driven with them in the rain/wet?

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by dtmurf

Nice work. Other than after a wash, have you driven with them in the rain/wet?

Just once, and it was a terrible experience. The car will never see rain again, other than if I get caught in my to-and-from The Dragon every year.

Beyond that I'm dealing with terrible squeal now. It comes and goes. I think I got the brakes too clean before installation because the previous owner of the brakes didn't have any such issues. BMW recommends no lube on anything, but I'm going to take them apart anyway and lube the common areas.

[medphysdave]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

Just once, and it was a terrible experience. The car will never see rain again, other than if I get caught in my to-and-from The Dragon every year.

Beyond that I'm dealing with terrible squeal now. It comes and goes. I think I got the brakes too clean before installation because the previous owner of the brakes didn't have any such issues. BMW recommends no lube on anything, but I'm going to take them apart anyway and lube the common areas.

On the CCB there is supposed to be coded brake logic that frequently applies pad pressure to the disc to keep them "dry". Can you confirm that the coding has been done and is working? No experience here with CCB. I did a lot of CCB research before purchasing my CS and stumbled across that nugget.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by medphysdave

On the CCB there is supposed to be coded brake logic that frequently applies pad pressure to the disc to keep them "dry". Can you confirm that the coding has been done and is working? No experience here with CCB. I did a lot of CCB research before purchasing my CS and stumbled across that nugget.

Yes, I've had the 2NK coded by Kubax86, but I can't tell you exactly what the codes are or what they do because it's all in German.

I have read that the weaker brake booster and 2NK emergency stop coding was so that the calipers didn't damage/crush the much weaker carbon rotors.

I have screen-caps, but was told not to share, so all I can say is that...

Under SALAPA - Element the 2NK code is present, and under Ausgelesen, the first folder says F87CS (I think this is the CS diff/steering/MDM upgrade).

I have read that some manufacturer's CCB do apply the brakes automatically in rain in order to make the rain performance better, but I can't confirm that for the M2/M4, nor can I confirm that I got that coded. I CAN confirm that I hope I never have to drive this car in the rain again.

[Track/S]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

I have read that the weaker brake booster and 2NK emergency stop coding was so that the calipers didn't damage/crush the much weaker carbon rotors.

You would never damage ccb discs in your life by applying more braking force, basically because they are harder than steel.

The booster is only to remove sensitivity to brake pedal.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by Track/S

You would never damage ccb discs in your life by applying more braking force, basically because they are harder than steel.

The booster is only to remove sensitivity to brake pedal.

Not that I want to disagree with you, but I have heard from several experts that this is not correct. What you're talking about that's harder than steel is the friction surface, which is only .01mm thick. The rest of the CC rotor is the core, which is quite weak compared to iron. Iron has a density of 7.3g/cm³ and carbon has a density of 2.3g/cm³, so it's necessary that the clamping force be changed.

As far as every reason for the booster, I can't say, but I do know that the carbon ceramic pads are less sensitive than the stock 2NH pads, even when hot, so I'm not sure how a weaker booster would correct anything. I also know that if you don't change the booster you get a softer pedal, not a harder one.