The following articale was posted to the BMW digest by James Kousoulas , it is reproduced here with his kind permission.

Just did my front brakes on my 318ti Compact myself at approx 18k miles. Here's a little rundown on the process for anyone interested. First I should note that I did it with a friend of mine who was a Mercedes Benz Mechanic and had all necessary tools. I am not extremely knowledgeable with the mechanics so forgive me if some of the details are fuzzy or if I forget something.

1. We started by jacking the car using the cars own jack . I figured this was best since all the discussion of where to jack the car made me nervous. The cars jack worked extremely well and was easy to use.
2. Used air gun too remove the tires.
3. There are two nuts on the piston side of the caliper. Removed those and removed the spring from the front of the caliper.
4. Brake calipers slid off and we took the old break pads off.
5. Greased the break pads so they would not squeak.
6. Buffed the discs to remove any glaze.
7. Attached the break pads and reattached the calipers to the discs
8. Put the two bolts back in.
9. Put the spring back in.
10. Put the wheel back on.
11. Torqued the wheels.

Total time for both wheels at a leisurely place was 55 minutes.

Total cost was $42. for factory Ate ( I think this is how it's spelled) brake pads and $16. for a large deluxe vegi pizza.

Sensor had not been activated so did not need replacing.

Dealer cost for pads was $85 + tax and cost of brake job and pads from dealer was approx $160.

If you have the proper tools and are mechanically inclined with some sort of a manual or know how, it is not difficult. W/o having seen my friend do it I would not have been able to do it myself because I knew nothing about brakes. Now, with the proper tools, I feel I could easily do the next one myself. There were no little tricks or surprises. The hardest part was actually taking the spring off the front of the caliper.

Another little trick is too loosen the brake fluid drain to retract the caliper so it will fit over the disk. (Do this with he brake pad off). Other then that it is pretty simple.

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