New member and my 5 lug conversion

[wazzu70]

How do regular e36 rotors line up? Im not looking for the size of rotors the e46m3 had. Not sure if the hat depth between the E36 and E46 rotors are the same.

Kit looks really nice. Good work! I see you have a flange for the bearing race to push up against too. Very nice!

[Dissembler]

Okay here are some pictures of the kit! Also included will be front hubs, and rear hubs and wheel bearings, and brake lines that aren't shown. I will post pictures of those and also of it all mounted up on a front spindle and a rear trailing arm on a workbench tomorrow. Enjoy!

And a front spindle with the hub, adaptor, with the rotor spacer and centering ring installed:


Pictures of calipers and rotors mounted coming tomorrow.

Doesn't look like there is much of the hub left for the wheels or a spacer to sit on. Have you experienced any issues with vibration?

[RobE30]

This looks fantastic!

[LJ851]

A couple questions.

1) Where are the wheel mounting surfaces (change in track width) compared to the stock e30 4 lug hub?

2) Can ABS be retained?

3) With the calipers you have chosen what is the change in F to R bias (if any) compared to stock? Also, are the calipers designed for e30 sized M/C or is a different size cyl. required for oem feel?

The parts look good!

[rongineer13]

How do regular e36 rotors line up? Im not looking for the size of rotors the e46m3 had. Not sure if the hat depth between the E36 and E46 rotors are the same.

Kit looks really nice. Good work! I see you have a flange for the bearing race to push up against too. Very nice!

Thanks! The flange is there for the bearing to push against, and also to help transfer the load onto the thicker part of the spindle at the base of it.

To answer your question about the E36 rotors vs. the E46 M3 rotors, while the hat depth is the same for the rotors, the caliper brackets I have designed (so far) only work with the E46 M3 rotor. That being said, I will test fit smaller E36/46 328i calipers and rotors to see if everything lines up, and get back to you with a complete answer!

Doesn't look like there is much of the hub left for the wheels or a spacer to sit on. Have you experienced any issues with vibration?

There is a solution I have made, yet have not shown, for that issue. So no, I don't experience any issues with that.

This looks fantastic!

Thank you!

A couple questions.

1) Where are the wheel mounting surfaces (change in track width) compared to the stock e30 4 lug hub?

2) Can ABS be retained?

3) With the calipers you have chosen what is the change in F to R bias (if any) compared to stock? Also, are the calipers designed for e30 sized M/C or is a different size cyl. required for oem feel?

The parts look good!

First off, thanks! To answer your questions,

1) The mounting surface is moved out by 12 mm from the stock location. So the total increase in track width is 24 mm, just shy of an inch.

2) I have retained the ABS on my car and it is fully tested and functional! I did not modify any of the ABS system, and the front ABS sensor clears the new 5 lug hub exactly the way it cleared the old 4 lug hub.

3a) The front to rear bias has technically changed, although I cannot give you a calculated percentage of change from stock. The change however, I feel is negligible; and out of the handful of other E30 owners who have driven my car, they would agree.

3b) As for the M/C issue, I have my stock master in my car that I daily drive and I have no real complaints. This being said, I will say that the brakes are designed for a larger M/C, therefore could use a larger one to that the precise factory feel. I am very much a perfectionist, but after the over 10,000 miles I've put on my car I would say the pedal feel isn't too far off.

Thank you everyone for your response! Please feel free to ask any important questions you may have.

[rongineer13]

Here's a few more pictures, as promised. Please excuse the fact that the calipers do not have pads in them. I left the pad sets at work this afternoon!

Here is a better picture of what will be included (the brake lines and hub centrics aren't shown), but no spindles, rotors, calipers or trailing arms are included :p


Front close up. 2 German 5 lug hubs, 2 caliper brackets, 2 front hub adaptors, 2 rotor spacers, and 2 rotor centrics.


Rear close up. 2 E30 M3 rear hubs/drive flanges, 2 FAG rear wheel bearings, 2 caliper brackets. Shown with an E39 aluminum rear caliper and E46 rear rotor. THE PARKING BRAKE STILL WORKS!


Back shot of the front caliper/caliper bracket. Notice all that nice room for the ABS sensor to stay in its home! Don't mind the less than perfectly clean bolts...


And finally a back shot of the rear caliper and caliper bracket. New braided stainless steel soft lines will be included to properly address where that brake line comes out of the caliper, for those of you looking at it!

[norMcal]

This is without a doubt a quality kit. Great job putting this together.

I have driven Ron's car and the brakes feel amazing, way better than on my M3!

[wazzu70]

Finding out if the regular E36 discs or E36 M3 discs fit would be awesome. For myself, I would like to keep 16" wheels as an option :)

If the discs line up and its just a matter of making a different caliper bracket, thats not a big issue.

[rongineer13]

Finding out if the regular E36 discs or E36 M3 discs fit would be awesome. For myself, I would like to keep 16" wheels as an option :)

If the discs line up and its just a matter of making a different caliper bracket, thats not a big issue.

Okay I did a little test fitting yesterday. With some minor modifications, E46 330i brakes will fit my set up! And, according to some threads I found on E46Fanatics, higher offset 16" wheels will fit over the 330i brakes. I still have yet to test fit an E46 325i brakes, I'm trying to find a caliper.

Any chance you can tell me what wheel you would like to use?

[wazzu70]

16" Style 5 for now, but like to keep options open.

From what I can find the e46 and e36 rotors have the same hat depth so they should be interchangable.

[rongineer13]

Okay thanks. I was asking more in regards to how much caliper clearance there would be to play with on the back side of the wheel. It's not an issue of hat depth. It's an issue of diameter and with that, the smaller the rotor, the further inwards the caliper carrier moves towards the spindle.

[wazzu70]

Yes I know. I was more concerned with if the rotor would be centered on the plane you made your caliper centerline. The caliper can be moved in/out radially to match the rotor diameter.

From what I read the 16" style 5 works with the e36m3 full setup so there should be plenty of radial clearance and axial clearance to the inside wheel face.

[R3Z3N]

A concern of mine is the hub stud/wheel bolt holes not having enough material on the outer edge.

Still congrats!

[wazzu70]

A concern of mine is the hub stud/wheel bolt holes not having enough material on the outer edge.

Still congrats!

They are factory E36 hubs. Unless you think E36s dont have enough meat, its not an issue with the kit :)

[rongineer13]

Yes I know. I was more concerned with if the rotor would be centered on the plane you made your caliper centerline. The caliper can be moved in/out radially to match the rotor diameter.

From what I read the 16" style 5 works with the e36m3 full setup so there should be plenty of radial clearance and axial clearance to the inside wheel face.

Okay cool, just making sure I was on the same page as you! It appears an E36 328i caliper over an E46 325i rotor will work out very nicely. That will give you a good amount of clearance.

A concern of mine is the hub stud/wheel bolt holes not having enough material on the outer edge.

Still congrats!

Thank you! And in response to the hub and the previous reply, wazzu70 is correct, these are factory hubs here. There's no less material around the holes on these hubs than any others. I have an E92 335i front hub assembly sitting on my desk at home and there is the same amount of material around the outer radius of the lug holes.

They are factory E36 hubs. Unless you think E36s dont have enough meat, its not an issue with the kit :)

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