After this mornings latest scraping noise, which has been the same sound I've heard or about 2 weeks, but 10x louder today, I took my MINI back to the dealer & has them look again for the cause of the noise. It sounded like I was dragging a metal pole (grinding) under the car when I was going at slow speed or turning. It wasn't consistent & I couldn't recreate it. I just had to wait for it to happen.

They found it this time! My front caliper bolts are bent, which are causing them to freeze onto the rotor. The pads were worn as well (no warning light came on). So, I have a loaner and my MINI is getting new front shoes. Thank goodness we have extended maintenance!

Anyone know how caliper bolts can get bent? This car is my DD & I put over 100 miles on it a day. I'd like to be more cognizant of how to avoid this in the future. Thanks!

 

How many miles on your brakes? Have the pads been replaced before? If they were, who did it?

Not sure what you mean:
"My front caliper bolts are bent, which are causing them to freeze onto the rotor."

Which bolts are bent? Are you referring to the bolts that the caliper slide on?

And what is frozen to the rotor?

Pictures would help.

Quite honestly, the MINI brakes are really quite good. Many people run them on the track without problem. That would load them up about as much as they can be. So this is a likely a very unusual problem. Given that your car is an '09 it should be corrected under warrantee and I would expect it to be fine without you having to worry about having done something wrong with driving or otherwise.

 

I bought the car from the dealer, it was CPO. All maintenance has been done by the dealer. I don't do any mechanic work on my car, as you can probably tell from my confusing OP. I can do cosmetic mods though and am willing to learn more about the mechanics.

It was explained to me that the caliper is floating, and the 2 bolts that hold the caliper carrier have bent. So after I took my foot off the brake, the caliper did not release which resulted in the grinding noise. Here's the weird part, I could be going 50 mph and do a hard, fast stop and not hear anything when braking. Then I would go 10mph, turn the corner slow (L or R), and the grinding would be loud & clear.

After looking at the diagram in the link below, would it be possible the caliper carrier & the caliper housing did not sit properly on the rotor (due to bent bolts), causing the non-release of the caliper and grinding?

I'm assuming the bolts being referred to are #4 in the following diagram...
http://new.minimania.com/part/G2NMB4...6-57-COOPER--S

Good to know it might just be a fluke & not something I did. Thanks!

 

What I don't see in the picture are the spring clips that in the slots either side of where the brake pad goes. If these are not in place the pad will have excessive movement which might pull the caliper to the side which might have bent the bolts. This shows it a little better:

http://www.penskeparts.com/DiagramsM...1&rnd=03192010

You will need to go to the "brakes" section.