I recently got new tires and my, mechanic said its getting close to he wear sensor. I've been looking to get options on a few peoples set ups. Also when replacing do I have to replace the sensors or only if they get damaged?

Right now my idea is cross drilled rotors and hawk pads for the front but not sure for the rears. I do a lot of around town driving along with some blasts through some country mountain roads.

Cheers
Nick

 

He can tell the wear is getting close to the sensor huh? He's either VERY good or full of . . . . trying to sell you a brake job.

do a visual check of the pads...

Depending on which wheels you have you might be able to just look thru but in this case I'd probably pull a front wheel, or both, so you can get a good look at the inner and outer pads to check for even wear.

Know what to look for? The rule of thumb is to replace pads when the pad thickness is less than the thickness of the pad backing plate.

Here's a picture of a nearly new GEN2 MINI front pad. I put a little white paint on the backing plate to make it show up



Here's a worn pad with similar white


btw on the good MINI pad you'll note the edge bevel .... now look at the worn pad ... for these MINI pads, if you can see bevel you'd appear to be OK ... no bevel = time for new.

Note that the wear sensors are only on the left front and right rear wheels, and then only on the inner pads. I find them pretty useless and have jumpered them....

Sensors that have not 'tripped' can be reused (if you can get them out of the old pad w/out destroying them). Like I said I bypassed mine. You can not simply remove them tho because a missing sensor is seen by the computer as a worn sensor and you won't be able to get rid of the warning lite.


you don't mention what MINI you have but all the above applies to both GEN and all models. (btw there's a ton of good info in the Brakes and Tires forums . . .)

What follows are my opinions . . .

In general the MINI braking system is fairly over engineered so unless you are tracking you don't need to upgrade significantly (dump OE pads unless you like dirty wheels).

Most feel that drilled rotors are just bling on a MINI and possibly add only increased chance of cracking. Slotted are safer if you feel the need but there's nothing wrong with the solid/vented OE or a clone like Brembo

I've run EBC pads all around since my first pad change on my 02, and changed out the 07 soon after bringing the car home. My current fav' is EBC RED - zero dust and all the performance I need (but I AM a nanny driver)

 

Thank you. I have the S-lite wheels. I checked the other day when I was switching tires. They were pretty low. Is there any need to switch the sensors when I change brakes?

 

The wear sensor is basically just a loop of wire in plastic held in a place in the pad. When the pad gets 'so thin' the plastic begins to touch the rotor and wear down just like the pad and eventually the wire touches the rotor ... and eventually breaks. This causes an open circuit and the brake wear warning comes on. (the GEN2 system is a bit more complicated but BASICALLY the same)

If the sensor trips - the wire was broken and you must close the open circuit if you want to clear the service warning.

Replacing the sensor closes the circuit; OR dissecting the sensor and connecting the two wires together ALSO closes the circuit and you check brake wear yourself from then on! :-)

My early 02 didn't have these sensors - they came later - but I've done brakes for a number MINI owners over the years and HAVE successfully transplanted GEN1 sensors that were not consumed. My GEN2 experience has been less successful. I've not been able to remove a GEN2 sensor from a worn brake without breaking the darn thing . . . well I did once. I changed the pads on my 07 as soon as I bought it and THEN the sensor came out ... after that the heat seems to make the plastic brittle.

 

My recommendation and experience: Wait until the sensor trips the warning light, then start thinking about replacing the brakes. Otherwise you are likely to replace the pads much sooner than necessary.

 

If your doing your brake job, slotted rotors, EBC red or green stuff, or hawk pads. And then you'll see the big difference when you hit your brakes!

 

And disks too.

Mini OEM disks are fairly soft. If you let the pads wear down too much you will lip the disks pretty efficiently and then need to replace rotors and pads (+ sensor). I did this job about 6 months ago got rotors pads and sensor from way motor works. Parts came to my door within 2 days of ordering.

As for upgrades. If you are not tracking or auto crossing I would recommend the parts I ordered. Got the OEM equivalent disks from WMW - less expensive then OEM and a bit harder so they last longer. I got green stuff pads as an upgrade to OEM because I was not happy with the brake dust the OEMs put out. Stopping is great, wheels are cleaner and it cost me about 200 dollars for parts +shipping as I recall

 

ehh.... I wouldn't do it, unless you want to deal with a ton of noise...i did mine and they are very loud. work very very well...but not ideal for daily driving. i'd just get some semi-metallics for rear (softer) and ceramics for the fronts, so you can still stop hard and quick!

 

Never had good luck with Hawk Pads on the MINI so I recommend some EBC Redstuff pads.
If it's just a street car you don't need drilled and slotted.

 

 

concur .. I was a fan of EBC Green cuz they were lower dust vs OE

but the reds are even better in that regard

 

gettin ready to buy a set, in hopes it will cut down on my noise. I track, but not enough to have to deal with that god-awful noise that i have now

 

love my EBCs green or red both better than OEM

 

Probably going to get some EBC reds and not sure what discs, was looking on WMW probably going to get something off there.

 

our WMW rotors are a great and cost effective choice. Its what we use on all our in shop customer cars.