Bavarian-Board.co.uk - BMW Owners Discussion Forum Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Technical & Model Specific Forums > BMW 5 Series
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - E60 (545i) DIY Rear Brake Pad and Disc Replacement
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

Forum LockedE60 (545i) DIY Rear Brake Pad and Disc Replacement

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
Andrew Rolland View Drop Down
Moderator Group
Moderator Group
Avatar
Go away rain

Joined: 19-August-2004
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 6579
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Andrew Rolland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: E60 (545i) DIY Rear Brake Pad and Disc Replacement
    Posted: 05-February-2014 at 19:25
E60 (545i SE) Rear brake pad and disc replacement. I also bled all four callipers and replaced all four bleed nipples. See this post for more details on how to bleed the E60 braking system.

Tools you will need

Trolley jack
Large flat blade screwdriver for retaining/turning brake disc
6mm Allen key for disc retaining screw
7mm Allen key for calliper retaining bolts
8mm Allen key for pollen filter removal for access to master cylinder
T25 Torx bit for removing pollen filter base unit for access to master cylinder
18mm socket for calliper cradle retaining bolts
11mm open ended spanner for front bleed nipples
9mm open ended spanner for rear brake bleed nipples
1/2” Square drive breaker bar
Torque wrench capable of measuring up to 120Nm (wheel bolt torque)
Long nose pliers
A brake bleed kit
Rubber mallet, bigger is better!
Two litres of BMW DOT 4 Brake Fluid
My dad who didn’t fall asleep this time.

My 545i has 82,200 miles on the clock. When it was serviced by BMW 18 months ago at ~73,000 miles they told me that the rear brake pads and discs needed replacing. The CBS at the time told me that the rear brakes were good for another 36,000 miles. I didn’t argue as such with BMW at the time when I told them that the CBS says they are fine. The answer I got was that was just a mechanics opinion.

A year ago at the MOT at ~76,300 miles the local garage also told me that the pads looked thin.   So two different garages have told me the same thing. Hmm.

Recently after having to stop sharply due to an emergency vehicle on coming, I moved off to a screeching sound coming from the rear brakes. When I stopped and checked the brakes a few miles later the pads in my opinion did look thin, even though the CBS was telling me that they were good for 39,000 miles.

So I thought before the upcoming MOT to avoid any more comments, I would just replace the pads and discs.

Parts used were genuine BMW pads, discs, sensor and DOT 4 brake fluid.



Photo 1, most of the ingredients required laid out on my bench including the two front suspension arms I replaced two weeks ago!

As my discs are so big they are two piece to keep the weight down. Eurocar parts offer two piece discs but they were offering the choice of two, but as they were of different physical dimensions and they were more expensive than BMW I went for the genuine ones which I knew would fit. BMW offer ‘value line’ parts for some older models to keep folk like me buying parts from them and not the aftermarket.

The brake discs are the same ones as all the decent E60/1 and E63/4 models (the V8 ones!) and if you must the 6 pot DIEsels. No manufacturers name on the disc.

The brake pads are the same ones on the bigger engined 5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series, X5s and X6s. BUT get this the pads will also fit a Rolls Royce Phantom, Rolls Royce Drophead Convertible, Rolls Royce Coupe, which of course are really just a 7 Series underneath.   I wonder how much the same set of brake pads would be if I walked into a Rolls Royce dealership to get them in a Rolls Royce box? The BMW pads have Textar stamped into the backing.

The rear brakes on the E60 are conventional disc and pad set up with the handbrake operating via smaller handbrake shoes in the centre hub of the rear brake disc so the disc is really a combined disc and drum.

Jack up and remove the rear wheel. Be careful here, you will need the handbrake to be off and the car out of gear or park to allow you to rotate the wheel/hub when required and to allow the disc to be withdrawn over the handbrake shoes. I had to persuade both rear wheels to leave the hub by means of rotating the wheel and striking the inner side wall with a rubber mallet to break the corrosion between the hub and alloy.

Insert a large screw driver into the disc vents to prevent the disc from rotating when undoing the disc retaining screw. 6mm Allen key.



Photo 2 showing the disc retaining screw removed

Lever out the brake pad retaining clip, lever the clip towards the calliper.

Remove the two caps from the calliper retaining bolts and undo and remove the bolts 7mm Allen key.



Photo 3 shows the routing of the pad wear sensor (which is only fitted to the offside), the two plastic caps over the calliper retaining bolts and the two 18mm hex bolts holding the calliper cradle to the hub.



Photo 4 shows the complete routing of the pad wear sensor and its connection to the chassis wiring in the black box.

Open the black box and lift out the pad wiring sensor plug and socket. Disconnect the pad wear sensor plug which is the white one. I couldn’t remove the sensor from the pad so just left it attached to the pad. Carefully pull the sensor wiring from the mounting clips.

Lift off the calliper from the calliper cradle, you may need to lever this out from the cradle to clear any lip on the disc. I sat the calliper on an upturned bucket to prevent straining the brake hose. Remove the outer pad from the calliper but leave the inner pad clipped to the piston. Using a G clamp on the inner pad and the inboard side of the calliper, push the piston back into the calliper. I opened the bleed screw and attached a bleed kit to the nipple so that when the piston is pushed back the fluid in the calliper goes external from the brake system. This avoids any grit or dust going into the brake lines and also prevents excessive reverse pressure in the brake system which may cause seals to be flipped resulting in a complete loss of braking. Remove the inner pad from the calliper. This now means when you refit the calliper there is sufficient room over the new thicker pads and the new thicker disc.

To allow the brake disc to be removed, remove the brake calliper cradle. Two 18mm bolts accessed from the rear of the hub



Photo 5 shows the two brake calliper cradle bolts loosened.

Now to remove the disc. My dad rotated the disc using a screwdriver inserted into the vents (due to the large rear brake disc splasher shield there is very little room to grip the disc to rotate it, hence the screwdriver in the vents) while I struck the rear of the disc with the rubber mallet. After a few turns the disc dropped off, similar to the alloy wheel the disc had corroded to the hub. Sigh of relief.

I was quite worried about the disc not clearing the handbrake shoes. If there is wear in the handbrake drum (the hub of the disc) it would form a lip which would not clear the rear of the handbrake shoes. This is where Haynes says you need to wind back the handbrake shoe adjuster. Haynes says to rotate the disc so that when you look thru a wheel bolt hole you see the adjuster. Insert a screwdriver thru the wheel bolt hole and turn the adjuster until the handbrake shoes are clear of the handbrake drum. And this is the real clincher in their books. Under the photo of this operation, they will state ‘Brake disc removed for clarity’ yeah no wonder!



Photo 6 Brake Disc Removed for Clarity!

Given that in this set up of rear brake, the handbrake is only ever applied when the car is stationary, therefore there should in theory be no wear in the handbrake components as they are only ever contacting a stationary object, apart from the odd handbrake turn!



Photo 7 Handbrake shoe top mount and handbrake lever attachment point.



Photo 8 Handbrake adjuster.

If you look closely you can see a line of blue paint over the adjustment wheel and housing which will have been applied on the production line. This shows that after over 82,000 miles the handbrake shoes have never needed to be adjusted either self or by the screwdriver thru the wheel bolt hole method!

I did not need to touch the handbrake adjuster to allow the disc to be removed or to be refitted. All I did to the handbrake system was to give it a light clean. Nothing more required. I had no intention of replacing the handbrake shoes and they had little wear anyway.

Refit new brake disc. Lift onto the hub after cleaning and lightly greasing the mating surfaces. Tighten the disc securing screw to 16Nm, this drew the disc nice and square onto the hub.

Refit the brake calliper cradle, tighten bolts to 110Nm. You will need to use a socket extension if your torque wrench has a large head as there isn’t a huge amount of room. The rear suspension arm has groove in it to allow access into the lower bolt.

Lubricate the contact points between the pads and the calliper cradle with high melting point grease.

Clip the inboard pad into the piston of the calliper.

Fit the outside pad to the calliper cradle.

Lift the calliper with the inner pad attached over the disc and the outer pad.

Refit and tighten to 35Nm the calliper guide bolts and re-fit the caps which I forgot on the offside!

Clip the pad wear sensor into the inner pad and route the cable wiring thru the clips and re-fit it into the socket on the chassis within the black box fitted to the inner wheel arch lining.



Photo 9 shows the new wear sensor compared to the old sensor.



Photo 10 shows the completed assembly.



Photo 11 shows the new sensor installed and how far it is clear of the disc.

As I had replaced the bleed screws there was a bit of spillage from brake fluid on the rear of the calliper. I then bled approx. 500ml of brake fluid from this calliper before re-fitting the wheel and lowering the car to the ground.

Repeat on other rear wheel.

Now, as my CBS said that my rear brake discs had 39,000 miles to go, I checked the thickness of the pads that I removed. The thinnest pad was 5mm (friction material only) which was the pad I could see that I thought looked thin. The minimum thickness of pad is 2mm (friction material only) according to Haynes so I could have just left them for probably at least another 10,000 miles.

Looking at Photo 9 the old sensor cannot have broken the staged resistor within it. I decided to NOT reset the CBS for the rear brakes as I changed them out of sync with the CBS and there is plenty of wear before the sensor even touches the disc.

I then bled the front wheels and replaced the bleed nipples and reset the CBS for the brake fluid.

On starting the car and driving it there were no warning messages from the CBS regarding the new sensor so that confirms that the new sensor was of the same resistance as the worn sensor.

Car feels good; pedal is a bit firmer due to the new fluid.

Two new rear discs, pads, pad wear sensor, four bleed nipples and two litres of BMW DOT 4 brake fluid cost me £264 from BMW. Including bleeding the system it took me and my dad about 4 hours but that included having to reverse the car in and out the garage between each rear wheel and then the fronts. Not too shabby.

Bring on the MOT!


Edited by Andrew Rolland - 05-February-2014 at 19:29
Be exclusive and drive a Petrol 5 Series!

Current
'13 62 F10 535i MSport Auto

Previous
'04 04 E60 545i SE Auto
'03 53 E60 545i SE Auto (Stolen)
'98 S E39 523i SE Auto
Back to Top
Sponsored Links


Back to Top
Andrew Rolland View Drop Down
Moderator Group
Moderator Group
Avatar
Go away rain

Joined: 19-August-2004
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 6579
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Andrew Rolland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-February-2014 at 08:21
Checked back my Service History last night from when the car was at BMW when they told me the rear brakes needed doing.... They told me that I needed new rear pads and quoted me a price incl labour and VAT of £204.  So for another £60 I had replaced the pads and both discs.  Not too bad then I suppose.
 
 
Be exclusive and drive a Petrol 5 Series!

Current
'13 62 F10 535i MSport Auto

Previous
'04 04 E60 545i SE Auto
'03 53 E60 545i SE Auto (Stolen)
'98 S E39 523i SE Auto
Back to Top
Andrew Rolland View Drop Down
Moderator Group
Moderator Group
Avatar
Go away rain

Joined: 19-August-2004
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 6579
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Andrew Rolland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-February-2014 at 11:12
Originally posted by Andrew Rolland Andrew Rolland wrote:

Bring on the MOT!


Aye famous last words!
Be exclusive and drive a Petrol 5 Series!

Current
'13 62 F10 535i MSport Auto

Previous
'04 04 E60 545i SE Auto
'03 53 E60 545i SE Auto (Stolen)
'98 S E39 523i SE Auto
Back to Top
Adge View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie


Joined: 11-October-2016
Location: Warwickshire
Status: Offline
Points: 3
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-October-2016 at 09:10
Hi Andrew-I notice that there is 30% off this weekend at Euro car parts. So as well as the brake pads I thought I might aswell get the Oil/air filters etc aswell and do the whole issue while i'm at it.
Just wondering which to buy-Textar for the pads-Mann for the filters? Not sure what BMW have or which do you Recommend? Are Bosch any good?
Back to Top
Andrew Rolland View Drop Down
Moderator Group
Moderator Group
Avatar
Go away rain

Joined: 19-August-2004
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 6579
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Andrew Rolland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-October-2016 at 18:21
Both Textar and Mann are OEM parts suppliers for BMW so you won't go wrong.

Have a read of this link

E60 OEM Parts identification
Be exclusive and drive a Petrol 5 Series!

Current
'13 62 F10 535i MSport Auto

Previous
'04 04 E60 545i SE Auto
'03 53 E60 545i SE Auto (Stolen)
'98 S E39 523i SE Auto
Back to Top
Adge View Drop Down
Newbie
Newbie


Joined: 11-October-2016
Location: Warwickshire
Status: Offline
Points: 3
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-October-2016 at 20:37
Nice one! Thanks for all the info. I'm not the best with cars etc but with your pics/instructions I hoping I'll be ok.😀
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.141 seconds.