I just read in another post that the late model 06's (MCS) had 07 brakes (or something to that effect).

True? And how would I be able to tell on my late model 06 (delivered Nov 1 06, don't recall build date and I'm out of town away from the car)

 

Just read it again in the http://www.motoringfile.com/ buyers guide. ANy more info? How would one tell? I think mine may have a late Sept 06 build date but can't recall for sure...

Anybody?

 

Looking at part #'s on RealOEM one finds that the front brake caliper for a build date of 11/06 is the same as build date 06/03. So there was no change in the caliper part #. Then if you look at the R56 front brakes you can see the caliper is an obvious different design.

R53 Front Caliper
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...34&hg=34&fg=05

R56 Front Caliper
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...23&hg=34&fg=05

Doing the same for the rear one sees the same. R53 has a different rear caliper then R56

R53 Rear Caliper
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...35&hg=34&fg=10

R56 Rear Caliper
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...64&hg=34&fg=10

Now if you look at the JCW Front Caliper on an R53 it does look like the R56 Front Caliper. The parts #'s are different but that might only be due to the red paint on the R53 JCW. Otherwise the part diagrams look to contain the exact same parts.

 

I think the report was about late build '06 Cabrio's in particular. Makes sense since the '07 Cabrio remained an R53 (yeah, I know, it's an R52 or whatever...not my point), yet the Coupe moved to the R56 for '07. Standardizing brakes for '07 was probably the goal.

 

I didn't check the vert's brakes. I think ya'll know how to use RealOEM to do that now if interested.

 

I'm curious about this as well. I have an October '06 build MCS...how can a dummy like me tell if I have the JCW brakes?