• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Spark Plugs & Ignition Coils
  • OEM BMW Parts
  • BMW Repair Shops

BMW Tuning - BMW Performance & Tuning Guides, News, Videos

BMW Tuning and Performance Guides, Tuning News, and Videos

  • N20
  • N52
  • N54
  • N55
  • N62
  • N63
  • B48
  • B58
  • S55
  • S65
  • M54

BMW E90 Rear Brake Pad Replacement Guide

November 24, 2019 By bmwtuningLeave a Comment

This is a DIY guide for replacing the rear brake pads on your E90, E91, E92, or or E93 BMW 3-series. If you’re also replacing your front brake pads, the steps are very similar, however, there are a few differences. We will link our front brake pad DIY here once we have completed it!

This guide is specifically for E9X 3-series models, but this procedure is generally the same for all BMW models when it comes to the rear brake pads.

Symptoms of Bad BMW Brake Pads:

  • Squeaking, grinding, squealing noise when braking
  • Slow brake response times
  • The brake wear indicator on your dash or iDrive is going off
  • Pedal feels soft or spongy
  • Car vibrates when breaking

How to Replace your BMW Brake Pads

DIY Level: Beginner

Time Required: 1 hour for first time DIY’ers

Replacement Interval: every 50,000 miles

Should you replace your brake rotors at the same time?

Generally, we recommend replacing your brake pads every 50,000 miles and replacing your brake rotors every other time you replace your brake pads. So, every 100,000 miles. However, if you have been driving with bad brake pads for a lot of miles, the metal has been rubbing on metal, etc. then you should replace your rotors or at the minimum have them resurfaced when you replace your pads.

Tools Needed for the DIY:

  • Car floor jack (unless you have a lift)
  • Jack stands for safety
  • Basic wrench set
  • Lug nut remover (should have one in your trunk)
  • Brake caliper tool

Recommended Parts for the DIY:

OEM Jurid Rear Brake Pads or Genuine BMW (if you want to get pricier)

Zimmerman Coat Z if you are replacing your rotors too. If you want a higher performance version, we recommend the Zimmerman Sport Z X-Drilled version.

Brake Pad Sensors

Steps for Replacing your E90 Brake Pads

1. Jack your car

Loosen the bolts on your wheels, then jack your car up using your floor jack and jack stands. You can go side by side or just lift the whole rear end. Just make sure you loosed the wheel bolts while the car is on the ground, otherwise you might have some difficulties while it is in the air.

2. Remove the brake pad sensor

The brake pad sensor is what causes the light on your dashboard or iDrive system to go off. These need to be replaced every time you replace your brake pads. You can find our DIY for replacing these sensors here: BMW E90 Brake Pad Sensor Replacement DIY. The sensor has a little clip with it that will pop off along with the sensor. You can use a flat head screwdriver to pop off the sensor.

e90 brake pad sensor removal

3. Remove the clip on the front of the caliper

The front brake pad is held in place with a clip that protrudes from the front of the caliper. Remove this – you should be able to do it easily with your hand.

e90 brake pad clip

4. Remove caliper bolts

There are two bolts on the back side of the caliper that hold it in place on the rotor. Use a 5/8 socket to remove the bolts on the caliper. Be careful, once you remove the bolts the caliper will come loose from the wheel. You do not want the caliper to just dangle from the car, so get something to place underneath it to hold in place prior to removing the bolts.

e90 brake caliper bolts

5. Place something underneath the caliper

As mentioned above, don’t let the caliper hang from the brake lines. Place something underneath it that will hold it in place without putting pressure on the break lines.

e90 brake caliper

6. Remove the brake pads

The outer pad does not have any clips so you should be able to pull it out without any resistance. The inside pad is held in by clips that clip inside of the piston. You can pop the rear pad out from the backside – put your hand behind it and try to push it forwards from the back.

bmw brake pad replacement

7. Clean the caliper

We recommend pulling the caliper bracket outwards and spraying all of the components with brake cleaner or WD-40.

cleaning bmw brake calipers

8. Get clearance for the new brake pads

The new brake pads will have a lot more meat on them then the old ones, so you will need to push the piston back inwards to create enough clearance for your new pads to fit in and then fit back onto the rotor. You might be able to put a lot of muscle into this and get it to move – but it’s easiest to use a brake caliper spreader tool for $10 and using that.

bmw brake caliper tool

9. Put the new pads in

Place anti-squeal paste (Part # 20240) on your new pads and then put them back into place inside the caliper. Here are pictures of the inside and outside caliper being put into place.

bmw e90 inside caliper

bmw e90 outside caliper

10. Reattach caliper

Reattach the caliper to the brake rotor, and put the two bolts back into the back side of the caliper to secure it on the rotor.

bmw brake pad replacement

11. Replace the brake pad sensor: DIY here

And voila! That should be it. Note that this DIY is specifically for the E90, but it is applicable and mostly similar for all rear brake pads on any BMW.

Before you Drive with your new Brake Pads

Make sure you pump your brakes multiples times and hard before you actually start driving! This will make sure they set properly. Take your car for a slow test spin around the neighborhood and break the pads in. Pump your brakes while your stopping and brake hard to get them to break in nicely before trusting them in traffic.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: DIY Guides, N52, N54

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Get Free Tuning Guides

Learn how to take your bone stock BMW and make it walk on Lamborgihini's with ease. Get our tuning guides and stay up to date on the latest and greatest BMW tuning news.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Top Posts

BMW B58 Fueling Upgrades

BMW B58 Fueling Mods Guide

January 15, 2021 By bmwtuningLeave a Comment

B46/B48 Heat Exchanger Upgrades

BMW B46/B48 Intercooler & Heat Exchanger Guide

January 4, 2021 By bmwtuningLeave a Comment

BMW B46 vs B48 Comparison

December 18, 2020 By bmwtuningLeave a Comment

Tags

50i550i650i750iAlpinabmwbmw m50disa failuredisa symptomsdisa valvee34e36e60e90engineenginesf10fixMm50 enginem54m54 problemsn53n63performanceproblemsrepairreviewSUVxx5x6

Footer

About BMWTuning.co

Our site is dedicated to all things BMW Tuning related. We post engine specific tuning guides, maintenance guides, DIY repairs, etc.

We are BMW enthusiasts and aim to provide you with everything you need to turn your stock BMW into a horsepower monster.

Our garage currently includes a 2008 135i, 2007 335i, and 2008 535i. You can say we are somewhat N54 fanatics. We are hoping to soon add an F80 M3 and F82 M4 GTS.

Recent

  • BMW B58 Fueling Mods Guide
  • BMW B46/B48 Intercooler & Heat Exchanger Guide
  • BMW B46 vs B48 Comparison
  • Best Used BMW’s Under $10,000
  • BMW N55 Upgraded Exhaust Guide
  • About
  • BMW Owners Manuals
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

Our Tuning Blogs

Tuning Pro – Automotive Tuning & Performance Guides
Volkswagen Tuning

Copyright © 2021 ยท Dedicated to making Supercars look slow

Privacy Policy