Brake pads TRW or OEM BMW

A common brake upgrade to the E34 5 series was to install E38 (7 series) brakes. Only downside is you also have to install larger wheels.

I’ll be switching to TRW Ultra pads when the time comes. All reviews say they are similar in performance to OEM without the dust.

I use TRW brake pads (just checked, articles are GDB3592 for front, GDB2172 for back). They make quite a lot of brake dust during spirited driving, but that’s not a big deal for me (IMO more brake dust = less wear on brake discs).

I can recommend TRW „DTEC“ pads. Almost no brake dust, no squeaking, good bite on the breaks. The only trade of is that when it’s really cold or raining and you drive on the highway for a long time, the first half of a second when you break again the performance is weak. That’s what I experienced. I never had this with the original pads in winter time or heavy rain.

My understanding is the OEM brakes have well-rounded performance. In spider chart terms, it would look like a round pizza with one slice taken off, and that would be due to dust. They still excel with high performance, solid longevity all at a reasonable cost

happy w trw ultra

I’ve been using trw ultra no dust,no sound and they stop real quick

My understanding is that the pads that bmw uses create a lot of brake dust because they are ‘soft’ to give a nice smooth pedal feel.

BMW OEM pads have done that for decades as far as I can tell. Just get aftermarket pads and you'll get the same performance with less mess.

The brakes. Looks all OE. The dust is unbelievable awful.