[ziggy2308]

First off, I want to thank all the helpful posters in this forum, as I am not a "mechanically" inclined person, this was the first work I have done myself on my car. It is recently out of warranty and BMW wanted crazy money for this job, which prompted me to do it myself. The previous posts in this forum by other members had all and every answer I was looking for.

My front sway needed to be changed as it was finished (at least the links for sure) and needed to be changed, I took the opportunity to upgrade to the CP sway bar and wow, what a pleasure to drive! The only comment I would add to the procedure is that even though it is relatively a simple procedure is that
1. it can be done either on ramps or with both fronts hanging with the car on jacks, there seemed to be conflicting opinion on this.
2. the "hex" that needs to be held while using a wrench to turn the bolt is critical, don't try to turn the hex turn the wrench or chances are you will strip the hex and you are done! this part and the strength needed for both on and off is the biggest challenge to this job IMO

My question is the following, for the pads I had ordered Akebono ceramic "eur 1505" pads as per every website I visited. Unfortunately, once I removed my pads they were clearly much bigger from leaf to leaf. I worked on the phone with Akebono, and with my VIN and the measurement of the pad I was removing, I needed the pads for thee 550i, which fit 100% "eur 1409". I double checked online with vin lookups and I don't see in my cars options anything that indicated that I hove those brakes as an option, my car is US spec and I live in Canada. Has anyone else with an early F10 had this issue? I am now going to do the rears and am not sure if I should order the 550i size pads or the 535i size pads, I like to assume that the front and rear should match each other. I know I can just remove and measure before I order but kind of wanted to know if there was info on this first?

Thanks for the help guys! Oh and the ceramic Akebono's are great, no dust no squeal, but the car does bite less than with the oems, but I much prefer the progressive feel.

Ziggy