[Mike535xi]

Hope everyone is having a great winter, Just wanted to give a 2-month update on my new (to me) 2011 535i Xdrive in dark graphite metallic. So far, I have put a tick over 7,500 miles on the car. In those 7500 miles, I have experienced no issues, knock on wood it stays that way. I have averaged 23ish mph combined, although a majority of my miles are interstate. Things to comment on, the Xenon headlights are very good (still miss high beam assist from my f30). The multi-contour seats are very nice. The base stereo is more than enough for my applications. The brakes dust up quite a lot and makes keeping wheels clean hard. I have also done one oil change on the car at Century BMW in Greenville SC. I apologize for the quality of the photos updated, the forum doesn't allow for large file sizes.

Cheers!

-Michael

[StradaRedlands]

These are great cars, glad yours meets all your needs!!!

I run Akebono pads to mitigate the dust and recommend them when you need refresh. With a new to me car, I usually end up changing pads sooner than needed just to get the cleaner pads in.

[ChiltiCoatl89]

Looks great and I too Run Akebono! Just keep up with Oil Changes (5kish Intervals) Check frequently for Oil Leaks at the main limiters like OFHG and Valve cover, and check your underside (Trans Leaks and Engine Oil Pan Leaks) Plastic parts for cracks, and always plan ahead if you do see them and do not ever panic, the community is here for you!

[ctcarbonari]

Beautiful ride and great to see that you've been enjoying it these past couple months!

+1 to Akebono

I went with ATE and although performance-wise I'm very happy, I've been regretting living with the brake dust for another pad life cycle.

[Surly73]

Mike535xi

On the brake dust:

Starting with the F-series cars, BMW quietly changed their factory brake pad formulation to ceramic. On the 5 series, nothing was said about it and there are no other options. On cars like the F30 3-series, there were different formulations which came on different packages (e.g. normal, M Sport, M Performance) with different part #s. The higher performance packages usually came with more traditional (for German cars) dusty semi-metallic pads which stop better and have a more progressive increase of brake torque with pedal pressure.

I found the original pads on my F10 to be virtually dustless. I also found that they didn't give the feel and confidence of the traditional "dirty" pads from E series BMWs (although they were pretty good). When I did my first brake jobs I went out of my way to find the old dusty formulation for both front and rear which was a bit of a chore because, again, on the 5-series this pad change was not talked about or mentioned in any of the part systems. On the 5 series there is no option - this is the pad for all of them. The parts specialists at places like ECS and FCP were only vaguely helpful when I described that I was looking for "old OE" compound - not aftermarket, but also not what the corresponding part numbers were for the F10.

All that being said - if you're complaining about excessive dust then someone probably did something like what I did for the last brake job. If you go get the original part number for the pads your brakes may very well be nearly dustless again. No need to go the aftermarket Akebono route, IMO. Although it's a sweeping generalization, I've generally found that prioritizing "no dust" leads to compromises somewhere in braking performance. The "new" F-series factory ceramic pad did a pretty good job of staying clean and still working pretty well.