I ran into this problem when I wanted to rebuild my rear calipers on my first gen car. Seems the aftermarket has decided it's not worth supporting us DIY'ers, and shops are going to prefer to remove and replace calipers, rather than rebuild. I couldn't find a rebuild kit locally, and finally managed to track down 1 replacement boot that I had to have.

 

You tried ECS? I've never had a problem getting the dust boots for my 2nd-Gen.

 

I searched for over an hour and the best I could find was a place in the UK and I wasn’t sure if the kit they had was the right one...

 

Albert’s life has been quiet as of late. I am searching for new wheels for him. But other than that, no real excitement like going to the track or a run down our favorite twisty road.

I did put the Falkens on Smokey, the Gray S, and went to LRP with them. Smokey has been my track car for the last 8 years, and most recently has had Bridgestone RE71R 205-50x15. So, unlike the JCW, which had been the first time ever on the track, I have a lot of experience with Smokey with a number of tires. So this was a really good review of them.

In comparison, in the cold and wet the Falkens had little grip, but were very predictable. A little on-throttle in a turn and the front would push and slide. A little lift off the throttle would make the back slide. While I have never had the ‘Stones out in the cold and wet like this, they would likely have been better given my other experiences with them in the wet.

We had dry track in the afternoon, but still cold (50 deg). Right out of the gate, the Falkens had grip which just built up with successive laps. These tires are amazing in the dry. Very easy to drive fast and their limit of adhesion was higher that I was willing to explore, and yet I was taking several corners (West Bend, and the Down Hill) faster than I have with the ‘Stones. Ok, no real data, but I wasn’t slowing as much for them as I had been. It is hard to describe, but the Falkens would do whatever I requested of them with no drama. They were very secure in their feel, but there was a level of compliance that made them easy and relaxing to drive fast with. Predictable would also describe them. I had a cold right rear break away on me in the only left turn on the track (other tires had warmed up) and the slide was not abrupt and was easily caught by the DSC (yes, I run with that on).

An interesting note, though, I had tire rub in the same left side rear wheel well on Smokey as I did with those tires on Albert. This has caused me to reevaluate the rubbing I saw on Albert from running at WGI. I had thought that it was the offset of the wheels I had on Albert. But, with Smokey, I have run that same size tire before on the track and the wheels I used with the Falkens this time are the same wheels I have used in the past, with no rubbing. So, for Smokey, the wheel offset wasn’t the cause of the rubbing. So, what was different? I was pushing harder this last time than I ever have before. The Falkens really encouraged that. At LRP coming out of the downhill and going into the uphill are 2 places the left rear is really loaded, same as happens at WGI. Because I was pushing harder this time, the g loads that were being resisted by that tire were greater that what it has probably seen in the past with these wheels and this size tire. I am now more firm in my belief that the cause of the rubbing is compliance in the rear suspension bushings and the top of wheel/tire is being tilted outward a bit. It wouldn’t take much, but there are 4 bushings that would play into this, and it wouldn’t take much compression of each one of those before the wheel has moved a bit.

So, maybe my search for wheels for Albert is in vain and what i should be searching for is replacement bushing or control arms.

Nah, looking for wheel is fun none the less...
I’ll just add to that, a search for control arms...

 

I got a chance today to test fit a different wheel on Albert. These are Sparco Trofeo 7x7.5, ET 48.


Ok, black would be better, but these are on clearance at TR and money talks




If you look closely, there is clearance; about 2mm

I bought only one wheel from Tire Rack to test fit it over the JCW brakes. They were agreeable that it could be returned if it was un-mounted, no scratches, dents, dings, etc. I have not yet tried them with the 215 tires I plan to use, but I already have 5mm spacers, and longer bolts if the tires don’t clear the front shocks. Putting spacers only in the front will give the car a slightly staggered track width, but I expect that effect will be minimal on handling.

With a 48mm ET, they are almost 3/8” further inboard than the ET 40mm NM wheels and they are 6 mm further outboard than the MINI wheels. This should help with the rubbing issue I had before.

Oh, ya - 20.5 lbs. About 3 lbs heavier than the NM wheels but still about 4 lbs lighter than the MINI wheels.

Now the question is, do I buy 3 or 4 more of these wheels? I am leaning towards having a 5 wheel set, so that would be 4 more.

 

Plenty of clearance!

 

Tire Rack seem to think so... :
I may go with a 3 mm spacer just so I feel better about it...

 

For quite a while now I have been hearing about caliper piston failures in the brakes of JCW and other MINIs. There was recently a really good post by someone who had this failure in their GP2. This is what they found:


GP2 MINI brake caliper piston failure

This picture is from this thread posted by favio1006. Thanks go out to him for this post.

It seems that anyone with JCW or any other BMW sourced performance brake caliper and uses their MINI on the track will suffer this fate, eventually. The best I can tell, there is no replacement pistons available for my calipers. Like my rear brake issue, it seems the DIY market has dried up for doing caliper repairs and MINI/BMW is only interested in sell whole calipers to address a failure...

 

I have finally gotten around to mounting a tire on the Sparco wheel I test fit on Albert earlier (see post above), mostly to see if it clears the front shock and spring. This it does quite nicely. The tire is a 215-45x17 Falken 660 that I had on the NM wheels for that track event. Even though the gray might not be the color of choice, I think they look pretty good.


Sparco wheel on Albert

This is probably the best shot for wheel to shock clearance. You can judge the clearance from the size of the stud on the sway bar link (6mm?). So about 5mm of clearance, maybe a little more. Note these are ET 48, 7.5” wide wheels. Maybe there is room to put a 225 wide tire on this wheel and have clearance. Not sure though. Given the rubbing I have had on the back with the NM wheels (ET 40mm) with these tires, an 8 mm move inboard with these wheels would be negated by a 225 tire and there would still be the same rubbing in the rear. So, it looks like I have been relegated to the 215 tires. This, however, should be acceptable given the lack of camber in the front to take advantage of a wider tire.


Tire to front shock clearance

When I let the car down off the jack and I rolled Albert a little bit down the driveway, I heard a very grinding noise periodically with the rotation of the tire. Upon investigation I found that on of the tabs on the brake pad was hitting the weight on the wheel. This didn’t happen on the MINI wheel even though it had weights in the same exact location.


Wheel weight vs brake pad tab

It seems that the barrel of the Sparco wheel must be slightly thicker than that same area on the MINI wheel. There is always something to look out for when doing this sort of thing.

For now, success! I have already bought 4 more of these wheels. Did I mention that these wheels were on clearance at Tire Rack? They are still in their boxes and there they will remain for the time being and until there is a spring thaw...

Until then, it is back to the wonderful AS tires the car came with...

 

Congrats on the new wheels! I"m sure they'll look great. What do they tip the scales at?

 

Thanks...

These are about 20 lbs each; 4 or 5 lbs saving. I expect it is as high as it is because they are a half inch wider.

 

Albert’s life has been quite as of late and he is currently relegated to the garage for now. But he did have some excitement this past summer with a trip to WGI. Here is a video from that event that I finally got around to making. As I noted previously, it was a good event.


I hope to get back there next season with the new wheels and matching brake pads all the way around.

 

Did you see these : https://www.ecstuning.com/b-stoptech...t-135-upgrade/

For the 4 pot brembo we just sold the last set from SNEED4SPEED , we talked with him before and they did not really see a lot of sales on them in the last couple years. Got to do them in large batches and its going to take a bunch of orders.

 

The SNEED4SPEED upgrade was for the 4 pot brembos for the Gen 2 JCW. I have a Gen 3 JCW and don’t know if it takes the same pistons. I know the rotor is a lot bigger and it takes a different brake pad, so I expect that the pistons are different too. I know the brake pad is the same plate as the BMW M2 (pad material is a slightly thinner though). So, maybe???? The caliper pistons are the same as the M2’s????

Also, the Sneed pistons were expensive. The replacement SS pistons for my Wilwoods are about $12 each; 8 for about $100. I know Wilwood does them in-mass, but a 5x price difference is a bit tough to take.

The biggest problem for my JCW is that there is not even an OEM rebuild kits for these calipers. For the rubber boot, seals or pistons... Nothing... When these crap-tastic pistons give out, the only fix is to buy a whole new set of calipers for BIG BUCKS. I may have found a rubber boot and seal rebuild kit in the UK, but was not sure from what the web site said. And I tried the Brembo web site and that was useless. You would think these pistons would be available from Brembo as they make a ton of them, but, it appears not. I wish I knew what the JCW race team from LAP motors does for these. I could contact them. Maybe they would offer some help.

If you have or find a solution for the Gen 3 JCW calipers, even an OEM rebuild, it would likely sell... At least I would buy a set...

And, sorry for the rant, but I think BMW is hosing us with this one...

 

Oh, thought you were talking about the gen 2. Sorry my mistake. I will see what those guys can do, I talk to wilwood and sneed all the time, also stoptech.

 

It would be interesting to hear if anyone has anything in the way of rebuild kits and/or upgraded pistons for these.

 

One of the frustrating things about the F56, Albert included, is the visibility of the tach. The MINI SE and the MINI GP 3 both come with a digital display which makes the tach much more visible. There is a good thread here that shows how to make this upgrade.

 

Maybe my next mod for Albert:

This looks to be the same (or very similar) splitter that ECS carries.



Hope everyone is well and are prepping their cars for the upcoming track season...

 

Oh, a Digital Cluster would be fun too...

 

Just wanted everyone to know that Albert is alive and well, but still hibernating in the garage. He has been run and rolled into the driveway and back into the garage. It has been a long winter and I had hopes of getting him out this week. He needs a run. But a dusting snow the other night brought out the salt trucks and there is a thick layer of salt all over the roads. Nope not this week. Next week is predicted to be rain. So, maybe after that he can come out, after the salt has been washed away. I have a new set of summer tires for him. A set of Continental DWs with a 340 TW that I am thinking I will mount of the NM wheels I got for him. There may be a chance that these will make for good track rain tires, if it looks like I will be running in the rain.

I can almost smell spring in the air. 40+ deg temps are predicted for today. I have the itch to get going with this and not wait to the last minute to get them mounted up. It won’t be long now. SCDA track season starts in a few days with an event at NJMP later in the month. Patroons (BMWCCA) have an early May event at LRP lined up. Hmmmm, my, it feels good to have a plan. Now, lets see if it comes together.

Hope everyone is well and Motor On...

 

It rained a ton yesterday and the majority of the salt dust has been washed from the roads. This is what Albert has been hoping for. Today is starting out as a crisp, cool, bluebird sky day in the 20s, but predicted to get into the 40s before it ends...

It is time...

To let those MINI ponies loose once again...



Motor on and enjoy the day...

 

How was the first drive in awhile?

Can't wait to get mine back on the road - this was a tough spring break week - gorgeous weather all week. Just waiting on a new A/C clutch coil to put in before I button it all back up and take it for a (hopefully) final drive with the old seats.

 

It’s funny that even on a straight road these cars can bring on a grin so wide one’s cheeks hurt for a long time after it is all done...

I just tooled around some of the local roads and did some errands, but even that is a joy. I did take a side trip to visit some ski shops to see what is on clearance... Maybe some go-pretty-fast frontside skis as componions for the ever playful Sick Days that have been my go-to skis for a while now. And yes that is their name... Those are the skis to grab when taking a sick day from work. This is a “tough” part of the year for me. Ski season hasn’t ended and track season hasn’t start, but there are things to do in both and then both formally overlap in April... Life is tough...

Albert needs a proper wash and polish of the paint before pictures. I am going to look into having the NM wheels clear coated as they will become street wheels for the summer and they are only painted. They were to be track wheels and the finish would not have been that big of a deal to me. But that has changed now. Once that is done I have some really nice summer tires that will go on.

After that - Maybe a ride to some of the twisties we have around here...

Thanks for asking...
and motor on...

 

I wasn’t doing much this afternoon, so Albert got a bath....



Albert on a beautiful day

When I bought Albert I paid for the Armor All paint protection. This was just a wash with dish detergent and a wipe down with a microfiber cloth. So, after 2 years, not looking bad...

I cleaned the wheels with Meguiar’s color changing wheel cleaner. I still have the MINI brake pads and we all know how dust-free those are. The Meguiar’s did well on the wheels with a bit of wiping and cleaned the dust off the calipers with just a water jet spray...

Next - NM wheels and Continental DW tires...

 

Now that I am waiting to restore the glorious, sticky, smooth, magical summerwear on Gollum, I am mindful of Ray Bradbury....

https://www.lingq.com/lesson/5-dande...y-5-1-1001182/

Cheers,

Charlie