1. If I install plain brembo rotors (stock size) and Hawk HPS pads (more bite) on the front am I technically throwing off the braking balance if I still have the stock pads (less bite) and rotors on the rear or can the electronic brake force distribution system account for this? The reson I am asking is because I have heard several times now while watching sports car reveloution in the speed channel how important it is to keep the brake system balanced. They always have some guy from stoptech on there talking about if you upgrade the front you have to do yada yada... to the rear. Don't all these big brake kits cause the car not to brake as it was designed to from the factory?

2. What is the best pressure bleeder? Is the old pumping the pedal more effective/better?

3. What about ABS and clutch bleeding? Do you have to have the key turned partially in or have some sort of bmw electoronic code thing to flush the abs lines? Is it necessary to flush them? If you don't and you activate this won't the old fluid mix with the new? Same for the clutch - do you/should you bleed the clutch - if you don't will the old fluid mix with the new? Don't you have to depress something to bleed the clutch (I have a regular not an S) i.e. what's the propper procedure for bleeding the clutch? Do you bleed it after you have bleed all four wheels? Will the old fluid mixing with ate super blue be a problem - are they compatable chemically? Will they mix to form a nasty color in the resovior?

 

1-no brake bias is primarily a function of pressure, the radial position of the caliper, and diameter of the wheel cylinder(caliper bore)
2-a) don't know; b) old-style tend to be more predictable
3-clutch has seperate bleed nipple on the slave cylinder, ABS contains such a minimal amount of fluid, it can be neglected. & as long as all fluid is DOT4, the color doesn't affect the chemical composition significantly

 

you will add more front bias to the braking, and may benefit from changing the rear pads. But most of your braking is done at the front wheels.... It's a front heavy car to start with, and the weight transfer under braking only makes this more true.

What would be much more dangerous would be to put much stickier pads on the rear, and not on the front. Then the ABS would kick in the rear long before the fronts got to the limits of adhesion.

Matt