Hey guys, i'll post photos tonight but I put new rotors/pads on ma baby almost 2 years ago and honestly... the squeling in the front never went away when coming to stops around the city and i notice a good amount of steering wheel shake when slowing down lightly on the brake pedal on the highway to offramps.... Now... i had broke off one of the heads on the set screw that holds the rotor to the hub... and just left them both out (figured this is just to help lign up the lugs thru the rotor to the hub anyway right?) So i wonder if when i was breaking in the pads that i have warped the rotors a bit... I'll post pics tonight when i have the wheels off for a rotation.

 

What brand pads?
What brand rotors?
Missing rotor hold down screw should not matter...the RIM is clamping down on them....the screws just hold them in place when on the production line....
The is issue is MOST likely a warped rotor or PAD deposits on the rotor....
as far how warped....you are dealing with THOUSANDS of an INCH....so it will not be visible to the naked eye.

 

myth - you can physically warp rotors
truth - overheating your rotors\pads can cause uneven pad buildup on your rotors which is the pulsing


so you overheated your rotors.. are you running OEM? some aftermarket? you can machine your rotors to remove (if they are older, new ones).. or grind them off using racing pads (i have done this with success.. at low temps racing pads are good grinders)


brakes are a weakness on all BMW products.. a big brake kit will solve this - one nice thing is that rotors and pads are cheaper, so i justified it as breaking even over the life of my brakes and then you get much better brake performance (actually, what you get it better heat management\holding potential).. any brake can lock the wheel, but how many times before you start cooking is the main challenge. I spent some time running different rotors and pads before i went to a BBK.. no issues since and this was with heavy track work.


phil.

 

I'm sorry but it's no myth that you can warp brake rotors from overheating them. This is simply not a true statement. Done many, many pads/rotors on BMW's and a couple of MINI's due to excessive rotor runout and has always fixed the pulsation under warranty at the dealer.

Seen more instances of non-OEM replacement pads and rotors both squeal and get rotor warpage.

If you aren't tracking your car there is absolutely no good reason to justify spending the money for a big brake kit.

 

You may want to have the control arm bushings checked as well. Sometimes the pulsation under high speed braking coming to off ramps can be traced to bad bushings.