brake swap: Girling to Ate - possible? parts?

[binaryfarms]

Has anyone switched their front brakes from Girling to Ate?

I need to replace the front calipers on my track rat car and I'm wondering if I should try to switch to the Ate's and upgrade the guides with a bushing kit to eliminate some of the caliper twisting. The kit is apparently is only for the Ate guides. The Girlings that are on there now have LOTS of slop/twist on the guide pins and the pads are unevenly worn from twisting.

Would the Ate's with the bushing kit be a noticable improvement? If so, where is the best place to get the ATE caliper carrier, and is that the only other part I would need? Are there other differences?

Thanks in advance.

[cthulu703]

Let me just preface by saying I don't know from experience, but I would find it hard to believe that BMW manufactured two different hub/knuckle assemblies with different hole spacings, and two different sets of rotors with different offsets on the hats, just to switch manufacturers of their calipers for the 3 series. I switched from a stock girling MC to an ATE MC from a 750il and they had the same mounting CD's. If no one knows I would not be too worried about the answer.

[binaryfarms]

Thanks - that was my hope and looking at the part numbers in the ETK it looks like this is the case. Just kinda hoping someone had actual done the swap.

So assuming it's a simple bolt on, any ideas on where to track down left and right front caliper carriers? I've heard that pickings at the junkyards here in LA are kinda slim, and I've had no luck online.

[AdamF 88iS]

The ATE calipers will bolt on and they are a great upgrade. You may not feel the difference in the car, but you pad life will be better and you won't have problems with the sliding pins getting rusty and seizing up like you do with Girlings.

They ATE calipers are only used on very early cars, so good luck tracking them down.

[binaryfarms]

Thanks, that's great to hear, pretty disappointed with pad wear so far so that alone would be worth it. This was with Porterfield R4s pads, which I got 3 schools out of, but the pads are chunking and have worn at a pretty good angle because of the twisting. Gonna try Hawk blue's or HT-10's this time.

I actually found the ATE in the ETK in later cars (90-91) didn't try the earlier years, will check it out, thanks again. Looks like it may take a while to find.

If anyone has any suggestions for places to look it would be a great help. I have calls in to Eurodepot, CR's wholesale, as well as Elite Foreign and Express autodismatling here in CA.

[rs4pro3]

I'll check my 2 parts cars and see what calipers they have.