Does anyone have experience with the solid brass brake guide being sold by Bimmer world? How do you like them? Seems like a nice upgrade until I out grow the stock brakes......

https://secure1.nexternal.com/bimmerworl/images/guidepins.jpg

Added them to the stock rear calipers on my dad's race car. Even with an F40 Brembo caliper on the front, there was a noticeable difference in pedal feel when adding the bushing to the rear! Definitely a good (and cheap) upgrade!!

Only issue that I heard of is that they require maintenance. . . regreasing multiple times a year to keep them happy. Not an issue for a track car, but for the street, you may be in there quarterly with a tub of goo.

James said they do a good job preventing tapered wear on the pads, which is an issue with our single piston brakes.

Regreasing multiple times a year? They've only been on the market a few months now. I'm not even sure we lubed ours very well...maybe I should check. Where'd you hear they needed to be lubed all the time?

Well yeh, but that's what James told me. They get squeaky after some use. On street cars, he felt the periodic greasing would be required.

frayed is correct. Any "hard" guide or bushing is going to produce more noise if not properly lubed.

Got ya frayed. I wasn't thinking about the noise. You were referring to noise issues, but I thought you were just saying the constant lubing wouldn't be a problem on a track car since you'd be replacing pads and checking bolts all the time. Just mistunderstood the reason for the concern over keeping them lubed. I was thinking along the lines of the guides sticking or wearing excessively if not constantly lubed.

Oh cool, more parts that make noise!

Between spring and fall the maintenance should be no problem at all.

Thanks guys

Originally posted by M3RACER
Oh cool, more parts that make noise!


LOL.

Ok so I ordered and installed the bushing guides, actually bought enough for all 4 calipers but only installed the front ones.

Ever since I really began to drive my car (ie. driving schools, auto-x) the brake pedal has be a little softer than I would like. I have flushed the system several times and bleed it many times using the manual method. I rebuilt all 4 calipers and even bought brand new stock guide bushings. I have also spoken to people that I felt have very objective opinions when they use a product( don't easily get suckered because its supose to work in theory) and there conclusions have been Stainless steel brake lines don't don't improve pedal feel. For that reason I skipped on buying the lines during the quest to get better pedal feel. About 3 days ago I installed the solid brass guide bushing on the front calipers only, only the fronts because it was late and the next day there was an auto-x so I wanted to sleep. The install was pretty straight foward, just like swaping pads. There was no need to remove the brake linse from the caliper. To my luck the auto-x the next day was postponed so I didn't get to try them out in that enviroment, all I have is 2 days of street driving so far. My initial opinion is these things are awesome! Brake pedal feel is improved, not like a rock but definitely a difference. Even makes my crappy Hawk hps pads feel like they have a better intial bite. I still trying to adjust to the change in pedal feel as some times I find my myself using to much force. I was use to more travel before intial bite. They have also helped getting the brake pedal closer to gas pedal height for heel-toe down shifts. I installed the solid guide bushings WITHOUT making any other changes to the car(brake bleeding, changing pads) just to make sure that I spent my money on something that works. I have already spent enough money on my car and have grown past the phase of putting stuff on my car for the sake of knowing that I have a modified car, I want parts that work! These are my thoguhts SO FAR, only time will tell if I will like them even more. Or if there are any noise issue and quirks that may come up.

Jason-trying to be as objecctive as possible.

Anyone have these for a longer period of time?

Excellent, thanks for the review! Didn't even know these things existed, good to know for the overdue caliper rebuild...

Wow, sounds pretty nice! Thanks for install notes and initial impressions.

I was curious... What type of grease is required, and how often is cleaning/lubing recommended?

Solid guide bushings have been popular within the 'Stangbanger crowd on their -'93 Mustangs for years. The stock brakes on those cars are criminally crappy but the stainless steel guide bushings seem to do wonders for pedal feel. Just be prepared for regular maintenance/replacement if used on a street car.

Ed

I used caliper guide bushing grease, can be found at a local pep boys or auto zone. I plan on cleaning and relubing atleast once a month when I swap to track pads.

Any updates on these brake guides and bushings?

I'm thinking about installing them with a new set of pads.

TIA

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=91886

My thoughts are here, but like I said i'm not good at write ups so if you have a question ask away.

I ran with these bushings on the track this past weekend, now I did change pads as well, but I thought the pedal was stiffer and the brake application felt wonderful. For the price of them I highly recommend them, just remember that you will not have any dust boots anymore. My car is track only so it doesn't matter I just clean them with a brake job.

So a little added maintenance, maybe a little added noise vs. better braking, brake feel and pad wear.

As far as maintenance I would imagine remove pin/bushing, a shot of brake cleaner, maybe a little scrubbing, a light relube and reinstall.

...I'm going to give them a try.

Originally posted by Kenzo
So a little added maintenance, maybe a little added noise vs. better braking, brake feel and pad wear.

As far as maintenance I would imagine remove pin/bushing, a shot of brake cleaner, maybe a little scrubbing, a light relube and reinstall.

...I'm going to give them a try.

Pretty much. I just swapped back to street pads and cleaned the bushing again. All I did is hold the caliper to the side and sprayed brake cleaner in the bushings. It was enough to remove the old lube and dirt. Now that I'm getting the hang of doing it, the extra maintenance isn't really that bad, maybe 5 mins more for each caliper. That includes waiting for the cleaner to dry. Just make sure you always have brake cleaner and lube available every time you do brakes.