[Apples12]

Hi All,

I'll be attempting front and rear brake pads on my 2014 LCI 520D tomorrow afternoon and I was wondering if anyone had any tips?

for the rears - i understand i must...
1 - remove wheel, undo caliper and remove old pads/shims etc
2 - remove the park-brake motor (with the parking brake off),
3 - wind the piston from the back with a torx45/triplesquare,
4- compress the piston from the inside with a winding tool or clamp/similar, reattach motor
5 - put new shims in, place pads in place, reattach caliper, pump brake a few times to rebuild pressure and i'm good to go?


for the fronts - is it any different? i have a winding tool to hand, also esys but not very proficient with esys just yet.

also, is it still normal practice to apply copper grease anywhere the pad is meeting the caliper seat? (obviously not between pad and disc!)


many thanks

[Apples12]

tackled the rears on the weekend - piece of cake for anyone looking to do these.

I went for the Textar pads from eurocarparts on the halloween30 deal - brought the rear pads down to ~£50 (much better than the £107 quoted by dealer for pads alone)

The markings on the OEM pads and the Textar pads were IDENTICAL - down to even having 'TEXTAR' and their part number stamped into both the BMW pad and the OE replacement, to my untrained eye - the compounds looked similar too.

Removal was straightforward - 15mm to counterhold and 13mm to undo

my advice here would be to crack the T30 bolts holding the hand-brake actuator/motor on with the caliper still attached

remove caliper, remove old pads and shims, clean seats, apply copper grease to tabs on new pads and a little on the face, use a T45 to wind in the socket where you removed the motor, use a Gclamp or similar to push in the piston, remount everything.

when resetting the rear brake indicator, parking brake must be off

All in all took me an hour to do the rears - first time i'd attempted on a BMW having previously worked on my old golf's.


good luck to anyone attempting it themselves.