Hello team,

My car is Mini Countryman All4 JCW 2022 (recently purchased) and been surprised with front/rear rotors got heated uneven circles (surface) which affecting the brake performance and vibrating the car as well on the high speed brakes.
Car's mileage so far is 22,000 KM and front pads are still live with 50%. The dealership is changing the rear and front (rotors + pads) on my charges not under warranty and said that it's due to aggressive usage.

Anyway, I'm looking for an aftermarket upgrade (discs and pads) that fits the stock calipers and wheels. What are the recommendations here?

Note, car is subjected to see the track twice a year.

 

First post... Welcome to NAM...

Sorry to hear you are having brake issues.

That said, I have experience with the brakes on a 2019 JCW Cooper hatchback, but I am not familiar with the Contryman and its brakes. However, generalities should apply.

Typically the MINI brakes do really well on the street and I have never heard of MINI rotors warping, which sounds like what you may have. Not saying this doesn’t happen, just not my experience, this includes experience with my stock JCW out on the race track.

Blue heat marks on the rotors sound like you have brake pads that are dragging. This can happen from several reasons... One being stuck calipers. Another is from the driver resting their foot on the brake pedal. Either can cause the brake pads to drag and overheat the rotors. You imply that this is happening at all 4 wheels. If that is the case, it is highly unlikely that this is a mechanical issue (that is - caliper sticking) as this typically happens on a single caliper and not all 4. This leaves the other option that you are resting your food on the brake pedal while driving. Even a slight touch on the brake pedal can cause the pads to drag. When you are driving and not braking make sure your foot is not at all on the brake pedal.

You say the dealer is changing, at this point I would see how these work and not change anything out.

As for upgraded rotors and pads... There is really no improvement that can be made to the rotors to improve over heating issues. The MINI rotors are really quite good.

One thing that caught my eye was that you said...
Does that mean that this does not occur when you are first starting out, when the brakes are cold? So, when the brakes are cold, they feel smooth with no vibration? And the vibration happens after the brakes are heated up and used aggressively? I have had that happen on my MINIs at one of the race tracks I go to and I found that to be a brake pad issue. I call it “lumpies” and believe it is the brake pads being over heated and leaving excessive deposits on the rotor which causes vibration, but it goes away when the brakes are used cold and the excess is scrubbed off.

To fix this issue for the track, I went to a very aggressive race pad (Hawk DTC60) on my R56 MINI. For my JCW, I am in the process of switch pads to a Carbotech XP12. I have yet to try these pads, though.

If this is happening just with street use, you could try upgrading your brake pads to something like the EBC Yellow Stuff pad or the Hawk HP Plus.

I see in your profile that your location is “SA”. Not sure where that is, and therefore not sure what your brake pad options are, but for the track you need to go with a high end, aggressive race pad.

Hope this helps...

 

Hello Eddie,

Thanks for the detailed response, truly appreciated.

Let me just touch the most important points, I'm living in Saudi Arabia where the temp nowadays are above 50c.

However, I'm holding International Racing License and been on podium more than 10 times So, I'm not resting my foot on the brakes at all, and not aggressively using them. It's important to mention that front pads still having 50% and the rear got only 10% left. In parallel, the rotors all around ended up with uneven surface with heat circles very obvious to the eyes from the first look.

In motion, street driving is very good with perfect braking when easy slowdown from100kph. But, in the highway with speed 106kph for example, moderate brake (before ABS engage) is vibrating and making noise.

My concern now is, dealership is rejecting change (rotor) on the warranty as they said, rotor been consumed heavily and not factory defect. If that is the case, every 20,000 KM I'm going to change the rotors and pads..!! common..!!
Even if the dealership claim,heavy using.. how the rotor got damaged while the front pads are still 50% left..!!

This is the reason behind thinking into changing the rotors and pads to any different brand. Other cars I had before and tracked them once a month throughout an entire year and daily using it, just changed the pads and the rotor itself never been even resurfaced..!!

 

Congratulations on the podium finishes!

Temps above 50c - (about 120F for us in the States... ). I guess if one was to try to push brakes to their limits, that would really help to do it...

Would it be possible to post a picture of what you are calling “heat circles”? I am not familiar with term...

I will offer my opinion/suggests even with out that...

Part of what you say has me a bit stumped. But, I may good guess on another part...

I’ll start with the part I can offer a guess on... I think there is nothing wrong with your rotors. I think this is just pad deposits from the pads being melted. Seriously...

I have done a lot of laps in relatively stock MINI Coopers at Watkins Glen International and that track is brutal on brakes and I have seen a lot of issues as a result.

I had another experience with melted pads where they left what I thought was circular grooves in the rotors with noticeable depth to the grooves. I was in a panic as I thought I destroyed a brand new set of rotors. It was a heavy rain day so I had opted to run a set of street pads thinking falsely that I would not be doing much heavy braking. It turned out that I was braking much harder than I thought I would be and I also didn’t like the way the street pad felt. So I opted to changed the pads to an aggressive race pad and drove the car around the paddock to see if the race pads would settle into the rotors. What I found was that the cold, aggressive race pads on cold rotors “machined” off the pad deposit. No real grooves in the rotors. Everything was fine after that.

Do you still have your “damaged” rotors on the car? And can you get a set of new, aggressive race pads or a set of EBC* pads for the car? Front only would be fine for this test. If yes to both, I would suggest a simple test... Put in the race pads and drive around for a few K on the streets/roads and see what happens to the rotors, if anything. This could be a cheap fix versus a complete brake job at dealer rates.The one that has me a bit stumped is the rear pad wear...
But I will take a guess anyway...
The Front rotors are vented, whereas the rears are not. The fronts will cool more than than the rears. With the rears retaining heat more so than than fronts, they are wearing the pads more with each application of the brakes ...

Sorry I can’t offer anything more to help with the Dealer. In the states, we have reasonable ones and not so reasonable ones. The not so reasonable ones won’t think about things and what might be causing them, and then consider what the real options may be. They just go to “pay me”...

Clearly, in your country, heat is an issue. For direct replacement rotors that might help, I would look to see if anyone makes a set of rotors that are “directional”. That should help a little. However, I still think your issue is largely related to the pads you are using. Without knowing what is available to you in the way of parts I can’t offer any direct replacement suggestions. However, if you can access these links they should provide you with some suggestions of the type of pads I think will help...
Hawk brake pads - the HP Plus for the street... The DTC60 for the track
Carbotech brake pads - XP8 (or AX6) for the street... XP12 or 20 for the track
EBC brake pads - Yellow stuff for the street... not sure about the track.

I hope this helps and, understand, I am guessing from miles away, on an unfamiliar car. My experiences are the best I can offer.

Good luck with this issue. I don’t want to suggest that you need to put in race style brake ducts...

 

This is really helpful, and in deep details. Thanks so much.
First, the mentioned heat circles is the equivalent meaning of your mention, circular grooves.

So, what I understand from your initial guesses that the stock pads along with the high temps led to these grooves on the rotor surface. The question here, changing the pads to aggressive one like "Track" ones regardless the brand, is it going to re-surface the rotor? or should i take them to specialised workshop first to resurface them first, then installing back with the new pads application?

My second question, which pads that are considered aggressive, track oriented, but not squeaking, noisy? I can afford and deal with dust.. but the car is used more towards daily one.

Lastly, I'm not concerned about the rear pads at all, and i do understand why they are wearing faster than the front.

Besides that, most of the sites are not offering something for 2022 Countryman JCW, does the car having the same specs of older models like 2021, 2020, 2019?

 

If the grooves are the same as I had, then it is brake pad material that built up on the rotor surface. It is not actual grooves into the steel of the rotor. A new set of pads should wear that right off without needing to have them resurfaced.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a “universal” brake pad that will work well both on the street and on the track. A pad that works well on the track will be really noisy on the street and will wear rotors fast. None of the pads I suggested for street use will work on the track. Sorry - you will need 2 sets of pads and will need to change them out.

I have thought a bit more about pads for the street. I think you could add the EBC Red stuff, which are popular in the States. Or the Hawk HPS 5.0. These will be quieter than the Yellow Stuff or HP Plus pads, although I didn’t find these to be overly noisy.

There may be suitable pads from Brembo or StopTech that may also work for the street but I am not familiar with them.

An earlier year of your car will work.

Here is a web site that is helpful for looking up MINI parts. It is called Realoem.com. I have linked it to the front brake parts. Interesting that it shows that your Countryman takes the same brake pads as the F56 (Hatchback) JCW. So that should open up some pad options for you.

As for the rear pads, I have found that matched pads front to rear help the fronts to perform better. The more load the rear pads take, means there is less load for the fronts to take. Also if you are having issues with the rear brakes that is the same as the fronts, then you will want to upgrade the pads. So at least for the street, upgrade the rear pads to the same as the fronts. If you are only doing 1 or 2 track days on the car, then you could leave in the street pads in the rear. If you are going to do that, then I would go with something like the Yellow stuff or HP Plus pads front and rear for the street use. Just note that, if you have mismatch pads front to rear when out on the track you may need to modify your braking to accommodate less than ideal braking characteristics.

 

Hi there, I have a 2020 Countryman JCW All4 and also looking for brake pad upgrade suggestions. Has anyone ever heard/used the brand "Powestop"? I am located in Toronto and looking for local retailers/suppliers for brake pad replacements. TIA!

 

Power Stop web page lists places to buy their pads. Sorry, don’t know anything about the pads. For the street, they are likely good. On this forum, a lot of people go with the EBC Red Stuff pads.