Manny. Nice work. A lot of effort.

On a side note and not thread jacking really. But I have a set of BMW Performance calipers ( the yellow ones sold as an upgrade for 128 owners ) for sale if anyone wants to partake in this mod.

Please don't respond in Mandy's thread just message me. For those that don't know what I am talking about see pic.

Manny you have to follow up and tell us how they feel.



Attachment 106912

Pay no mind to the other stuff on the table. That's just what I took off my 128 when I turned it in.

Sent from my iPad using NAMotoring

Guys,

So turns out that the spacer between the rotors and the spindle is too much to not let the rotor rest in the hub center. The rotor did spin freely when I put I the 3mm spacers, but the rotor would not go in the hub center because it was spaced out.


Scratch the 3mm spacers.

Now to the next move, lets cut the brackets where the bolts mount. I have sent my brackets over to a friend to have him cut the caliper brackets where the bolts mount to. This will move the caliper 2.5mm inwards, therefore centering the brake rotor. They will be cut around 2.5mm to center the rotor inside the caliper.

Attached is a picture where the brackets would need to be cut.

Never give up! Yesterday I was frustrated because I wanted them to be on so bad, but its better to be safe than sorry.

:) I'll post pics when I get them back.

...can't you just get GP caliper brackets? Definitely good to know the 135 brackets aren't a fit, though.

I went through that path already Keen, I'm assuming you didn't read through the thread and that's cool. If you can find them let us know, but upon all my research there is not a single retailer in the MINI community that sells the GP 2 caliper brackets by themselves. They only made 2k GP 2s, so it wouldn't benefit them in any way to sell just the brackets, a part that rarely brakes.

Here's the kit if you are interested in looking at it. http://www.minigenuineparts.co.uk/mi...2BrakeKit.html

About $2100 without international shipping.

Again, if you find them separately let us know, it would be a good help to the ones who want the mod.

Manny

ah gotcha. nope, I skimmed but didn't read the whole thing - I've already got GP2 brakes... and there weren't any R56's I wanted to buy that didn't have'm... :lol:

just got involved because coop wanted you to come over and poke at mine. ;)

that said - good to know they're not available yet, it'd suck to break one (on the track, in a crash, whatever)!

:razz::razz: You already have a GP 2 or is it an R53?

If it comes to break that adapter/bracket, then you probably made a reeeeaally bad and expensive mistake in the track lol. I asked ECS if they would source out the adapters...and never got any response.

Here's a link to the calipers in case you ruin one:
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2643017/
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2643016/

It's $640 ea :eek::eek:

I think Cooper did send me a picture of a 10mm spacer from your car.

Could a company like ECS not just have a replica bracket made by copying the OEM GP specific backet from a set of calipers they have in stock?

Then all they would need to do would be to sell a CNC made copy so people are free to then buy a pair of 135i calipers and have an 'easy' mod by just adding the GP rotors and brake lines?

They're back and powder coated too :D
 

Hey guys,

Sorry for the hold up. I've gotten busy with work and travel. Good news is while I was in Alabama, a friend of mine helped me powder coat the brakes...no more paint messing up because pf brake fluid. Below are some pics. You can see where we cut 3mm in the bracket and the one mm spacers between the bracket and the caliper.

They won't spend a second on that. It won't be profitable for them at all :-/.

Pictures?

I forgot to say, I added some stoptech aluminum pistons to replace the stock pistons. Everybody told me that the ceramic hats on the brembos go to the shi[insert "tt"]errs. Ill put the part numbers for those late on, or the 135i thread on them.

:thumbsup::thumbsup: :)

the bracket it self would be expensive, it would be much cheaper just to have someone trim 3mm off the carrier

Sorry I've had no updates for the past couple of months, work, travel and other things had kept me from going forward. Finally I installed the brakes last week and been running the brakes with no problems at. They work flawelessly.

I went all the way with upgrading with the stoptech pistons ($250 extra) and powder coating them. In all, is it worth spending all the money on these brakes...absolutely not. But it was worth for me, because I like modifying cars. The car brakes excellent and there is no spongy feeling like some had mentioned. No need to upgrade my brake master cylinder or the brake booster either. Now if I ever want to do an"endo" on my car, it would be possible :lol:.

If you find a good deal on the 135i Brembos, go ahead and spend the money.

Keep in mind that you will need:

1. 135i Brembos
2. 135i Brake pads (any brand if you'd like)
3. Mini Cooper GP2 Rotors
4. At least 15mm spacers for the from wheels
5. Extended studs or lug bolts
6. Patience
7. Open up (shave off) the spindle brake mounting points 1mm on the top of the top hole and 1mm on the bottom of the bottom hole to be able to fit the brake caliper adapters.
8. Brake fluid (Dot4)
9. A friend with a mill so the can shave 3mm from the brake mounting adapters.
10. A friend that can help you bleed the car.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through PM and I can guide you through the process.

Thanks!

Nice job manny. Looks good. :)



We have the full GP2 Brake kits here for your:

R56-R59 Cooper / Cooper S | R56-R59 JCW

With GP2 ECS Brake lines ( with factory lines option also ). Comes with the GP2 master cylinder in both kits for the best brake pedal feel, after testing and track time the larger GP2 master proved to make a huge difference. Also click on the kits for install PDFs. We have linked the spacers as 15mm kits w/ bolts or great will be needed up front.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...brake-kit.html


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...83b1774118.jpg


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...abea80180f.jpg


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...5c402bf0fc.jpg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...677c2a4372.jpg



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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...9bde25618a.jpg



https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...fdfb047787.jpg



Thanks

As I see you installed the right caliper to the left side. But the sequence of pistons is wrong in this case, the leading one is big and the trailing one is small. There will be uneven wear of pads. Calipers should be installed on their original sides. The problem could be with bleeding of the brakes, the calipers need to be taken off the brackets and inverted for bleeding. Or it seems to be possible to change the places of nozzles for bleeding.

The 135i calipers are originally installed towards the driver side and passenger side. So by installing the left side on the right side and the right side on the left side the leading piston, which is the big one, keeps being the lead. My brake pad wear so far is very even. And I'm counting 2 track days. Thanks for your input though, never though about it.

Leading piston is always a small one. And it is small on BMW also. Leading piston is not necessarily a piston which is on the top of installed caliper, it is just a piston which is the first to cross a certain point on rotating brake rotor.

So, back to this. Here are the specs for the caliper pistons (since I replaced them with stop-tech aluminums). IDK how this would affect what you're talking about. But in my brain, if all the pistons are the same length, wouldn't they all apply pressure at the same time?


Here are the piston measurments (from the smallest to the widest):


The following would be the exact replacements for each of the pistons, they are all 29.5mm long:

28mm: http://store.zeckhausen.com/catalog/...oducts_id=2916
32mm: http://store.zeckhausen.com/catalog/...oducts_id=2919
36mm: http://store.zeckhausen.com/catalog/...oducts_id=2921




BTW, not saying you're wrong. I just never thought about it.... I have no idea on how much it would really affect the braking if I exchanged both calipers.


As the caliper rotates forward the smaller piston leads and the larger piston does most of the work stopping? If this is true then I would need to exchange calipers and get some longer brake lines...

All the pistons apply pressure at the same time, no matter how big their diameters and length are.

Just imagin that friction band of your rotor is a road, and there is a certain point on it. When caliper goes on this road, or this road goes under caliper, the first piston which is going to meet the point will be small one, always, no matter where you place the caliper in front/behind/on top/on buttom of the wheel. Initially left caliper must stay on the left side, the same is for right one.

Tapering of pads in calipers with asymmetrical pressure on pads is inevitable if to put R-caliper to the left and L-caliper to the right. It is better to put the calipers on their natural sides.

And how long were the original pistons?

They are 29.5mm long if I'm not mistaken.


R,
Manny

I know it alittle off topic, but i was wondering does the stock r56 JCW calipers fit to an R53 MCS? I have been looking for BBK, but don't want to be stuck with Wilwood/Stoptech pads forever (as far as i know this would be the only place to get replacements from). If i was to get the R56 JCW Caliper every one makes pads for this and i would have many options. I don't even know how good this Wilwood pad are compare to the rest. I Normally use EBC Race pads/TI shims/Motul 600 for my track cars and never had a problem with brake fade. I want to do the same with this. I currently DD a 2011 MCS and just purchased this 2003 MCS for Track use (currently taking care of all the maintenance things). I normally focus on handling and then move on to power and this mini came with some goodies already.

So any suggestions? or maybe you can point me in the right direction?

Currently working on making Brake Duct using the Fog lights. Saw on some website they want like $300 for a kit which is a crazy price since i can make this at a fraction of that.

"everyone" makes pads to fit wilwood calipers - maybe not all of them, but. figure out what caliper it is and go poking your favorite aftermarket supplier. pagid, EBC, many others I'm sure.

wilwood has been in the aftermarket brake game a long time, and their calipers (or knockoffs of their calipers) are all over the hotrod industry - there's significant support for them.

wilwood, of course, also offers a variety of compounds across their caliper line - some info on them can be found here:

http://pitstopusa.com/p-4128-wilwood...compounds.html

and a selection example for a caliper I use on my VW bus:

http://www.wilwood.com/BrakePads/Bra...x?padtype=7912



all that said, this thread isn't about JCW or Wilwood calipers - only about 135i/mini GP2 calipers - which are drastically different from the r53/r56 JCW calipers. :)

R56 JCW calipers fit to an R53 MCS? For pads i would do the EBC reds if you daily and some track days, or hawk HPS. If you track all the time Yellows or HP+, or HB640G.550 DTC 60 or HT 10 HB640S.550

Yes I have them on my R52. Shoot me a pm.