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General MINI TalkShared experiences, motoring minutes, and other general MINI-related discussion that applies to all MINIs, regardless of model, year or trim.
Changed the rear brake pads on my R56 Cooper S. And I live in the rust belt. Yes, I know, everything rusts in the rust belt. Even things you might not think about. Like, under the spring clips that hold the pads in place in the caliper holder. Being aware that things rust, I popped the spring clips off and found a little rust that seemed to come off with a wire brush. As you might have guessed, it didn’t. And the pads didn’t fit. At first thinking that the pad backing plate was cut wrong, I cursed the incompetence of the manufacturer of the pad. Then, I thought it might be smartest to take the caliper holder off and inspect it. Yup, it is I the incompetent one. There were tightly adhered rust mounds under the spring clips that narrowed the space for the pads. Ugh! These took a coarse cut file to get off, but once I did the pads fit fine.
All is back together and I hope the pad manufacturer didn’t hear me. Lesson learned. Pads don’t fit or get jammed up after years of use, check the caliper holder for built up rust.
Originally Posted by Velcross
Good story
Sorry you had to do more work to get them back together.
Did you take any pictures of before and after??? Visuals are a great way to share frustration
Nope, no pictures. Sorry. This started out as a simple rear pad change and grew into a larger project. I didn’t think to take pictures. I actually hadn’t planned to make a post until much later. But to put it all into context, Way Motor Works provided a nice picture: Rust buildup in the lower lower slot for the brake pad
While the whole thing was rusty, it was the lower brake pad slot, under the spring clip, where the rust buildup was (arrows in the picture). This all needed to be cleaned off. My guess is, this is where water and salt water collects and causes the damage. The upper slot had little in the way of issues.
Changed the rear brake pads on my R56 Cooper S. And I live in the rust belt. Yes, I know, everything rusts in the rust belt. <snip>
There were tightly adhered rust mounds under the spring clips that narrowed the space for the pads. Ugh! These took a coarse cut file to get off, but once I did the pads fit fine.
All is back together and I hope the pad manufacturer didn’t hear me. Lesson learned. Pads don’t fit or get jammed up after years of use, check the caliper holder for built up rust.
I've had to do this on many of my vehicles, as well. I've had good luck with a chisel or screwdriver and hammer taps to take layered chunks of rust build-up off of the brake pad seating surfaces of the caliper carriers. And then I'll take a wire brush wheel with a drill to clean it all up, too.
I'm in the middle of a brake job on our R52S, as well (new front and rear rotors and pads, and new caliper guide pin boots). The front pads arrive today and I should be able to finish it all up. I had to run to the local U-pull junkyard yesterday and was fortunate to find a Mini with the correct rotor set screws to remove - I had to drill the screw out of the FR hub of ours to get that rotor off. Talk about rust belt...
Put some never seize on those rotor screws before putting them in and don’t torque them too much, just enough so the rotors don’t wobble before putting the wheels on. Not sure if there is much that can be done to keep the Torx part from rusting. But, not having them overly tight should help to get them out the next time, even if the Torx part rusts a bit.
Put some never seize on those rotor screws before putting them in and don’t torque them too much, just enough so the rotors don’t wobble before putting the wheels on. Not sure if there is much that can be done to keep the Torx part from rusting. But, not having them overly tight should help to get them out the next time, even if the Torx part rusts a bit.
Definitely! I've gotten pretty disciplined about using anti-seize (where appropriate) on my repairs in the last 10yrs. First I use a wire wheel & power drill to clean the threads, and then I apply it to all these rotor set screws.
I don't use anti-seize on the wheel bolts, however. I do use a wire wheel & power drill to clean the threads before reinstalling and torquing them, though.
Cleaning the wheel bolts is good. I do use a little never seize on the wheel bolts, I know there is a lot of pro/con arguments about doing this. But what it does is create higher loading between the wheel and hub and it doesn’t cause the bolts to loosen.
I finished up the brake work on our R52S and took it for a quick drive - it feels great! I still have a little tweaking to do tonight (final adjustment of the parking brake tension, for example), but it's good to have it done.
Also, I fixed the broken connector to the headlight level sensor - more detail here.
Finished fishing the chain guide rail bits out of the oil pump housing. Cleaned the RTV mess off the pan and block - no idea why someone would have done that instead of using the gasket. Installed new oil pump timing chain.
Drove the car in to the garage on three cylinders firing....
No damage noticeable to the cylinder 2 piston or walls. Compression was good on the other 3 cylinders; as for the rest of the internals, I'd say they're fine. Car wasn't making a 'death rattle' - I had planned to replace the timing chain last summer when it hit 125,000, but the valve broke before that (currently sits at 123,000).
I bought the car in 2018 from a used car dealership with 85,000 miles on it, but no idea on service history. Carfax doesn't have much info. It's obvious someone's been in here before; there were fasteners missing on the turbo heat shields, RTV silicone on the oil pan, aftermarket friction wheel assembly/water pump/water pipe installed. The timing chain guides I removed were IWIS; tensioner is OE MINI. I wasn't originally planning to open up the crankcase, but when I pulled the guides out and saw the broken sections that plan changed.
And tonight, my daughter helped me adjust the passenger and driver door windows using a wrench for the window retaining nuts we 3D printed (found the CAD files online).
The passenger window was definitely drooping in the front, whereas the driver window didn't really move during the adjustment. My daughter had noticed water weeping in the passenger side corner of the window by the top when driving in the rain. And she also complained about the extra wind noise from there when she was driving on the highway.
You can see the tool laying on the top in this picture.
I used Gorilla tape to pull the window up into place (with the door closed) while my daughter tightened the nuts.
The window adjustments were the last step in a bunch of repairs to get her car ready for summer drivinng (the brake job was the really big part of that summer prep work).
And, sure, we still have to paint the replacement hood and change the radiator and condenser to resolve the damage from my kids' little accident in the Mini in December 🙄
Head mounted back to the block today. COMETIC gasket. Cleaned the cams up, back in the head, tool installed, chain and guides in. Called it quits because the torque angle gauge I bought is complete junk and I'm not comfortable guessing on the 180 degree second stage for the crankshaft bolt, nor the cam gears.
Only other thing I did was install the new REIN coolant pipe. I know ECS sells one that many people favor, but the Rein version is about $50 cheaper. I don't think many people realize this product is out there.
Great way to spend any day
The only downside to a day at the beach
2 hours of vacuuming when you get home
great images
thank you. It’s not as bad as you think, no rear seats, just the carpet in boot, and rubber floor mats. I must say though I have found a couple free car vacuums around me 😉
I spent most of my day Saturday swapping these two pulleys , I've been working to remove some odd low grinding when off the pedal and high pitch sounds while on the pedal...
Took longer than expected, but managed to remedy my noise issues.
I have an occasional chirp/squeak at start and a rattle/squeak at idle and I just imagine that's what is causing it...
I finally changed the oil on mine, I think I was 4000km over the interval (well, my 10k km self imposed interval) I noticed the oil was halfway down the lower bulb on the dipstick and 2L was all that drained. 2-3 weeks before, the dipstick was at half.
Seems to be a substantial leak but I don't know if it's RMS or something on the front side of the block that's leaking right on the engine/trans break line... Oil goes way up the front and not up the back at all, so it's either being flung off the flywheel, or it's turbo drain, oil cooler, filter housing or something else on that side...
My Au Pair is basically the only one driving it at this point and I'm away for July so I just hope it doesn't die while I'm gone.
Installed my coil overs, sway bar, end links, rear adjustable arms, and wheel studs this weekend. Found out that I now need 5mm spacers up front because the NM Wheels are touching the BC coil overs. So now I'm waiting by the window for FedEx to pull up and deliver my ECSTuning spacers. Gonna get a wheel alignment later this week and hopefully be ready for our little Mini club run this weekend.
Used them on my 2 other minis and I've never had any problems with them. Also went with the 14x1.5 threads since they're more common, so I can use nicer lug nuts.
Lesson learned. Pads don’t fit or get jammed up after years of use, check the caliper holder for built up rust. 
