Some people drive mostly highway miles - like me.

Around 65K I had Helix change the front pads to Mintex red box pads for less dust. Turns out they brake a little better than stock too. Also installed Brembo front rotors. Installed new Mintex pads in rear as well, but rear rotors were OK, so we left them alone.

BTW - the original pads were not all that worn down at this point - except for one single pad at the rear which was almost gone.

Fast forward to present day. 143K on the odo now. Still have decent life left on those pads all around. Rear rotors (original from factory) now are worn down & have that lip around the edge. Front rotors look pretty decent still.

So pretty soon I'll go for new pads and rotors all around. The car's 7th birthday is coming up, it'll be a birthday present. I'll probably get everything I need from Helix. I'd rather pay a little more and get good stuff from someone who knows MINIs inside & out...

 

Yeah, I knew brake wear varied by use but I didn't know the range was that big!

 

Hi OctaneGuy,

Thank you very much for the detailed way to change the pads on the Mini. I recently purchased an 04 Mini and the brake sensor light came on 2 weeks ago. I attempted to change the pads last weekend and very quickly realized I was in over my head after owning Chevy's all my life. One thing to add that my neighbor told me about is when changing pads on any vehicle that has ABS you have to crimp the brake line 2" above the caliper, loosen the bleeder vavle and when you compress the piston back in it won't allow trash and other particles to go back up into the ABS sensors. According to him if you don't due this it can ruin the ABS sensors. Once again, thank you very much!!!

 

First off great write up, followed these instructions and had no problems what so ever.

However after changing the pads i have been getting a low thumping noise. kinda similar to the noise when riding the braile in the street. Don't really hear or feel it when I'm accelerating, it's when im coasting is when i hear it and the less when braking. Any ideas on what that is?

 

Hey Guys! I'm going to be replacing the pads on my gf's car this weekend and was wondering if the rotors should be turned when I swap out the pads for the front and rear?

-B

 

There's lots of prior discussion in this forum on this topic. Try this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad-change.html

Good luck with your brake job.

 

Providing they will still be within spec thickness, witch is covered in the linked thread, I would.

Alex

 

Thanks for starting this thread, OctaneGuy!

I bookmarked it long, long ago knowing that I would need to refer to it someday. Well, that day came on Saturday. After 57k miles, the brakes needed done. I replaced all the pads and the front rotors (the rears were still well within spec). It went off without a hitch.

Reading through your DIY was helpful and made the job a snap. Thanks again.

 

Well, finally something with this special little car went according to plan - swapped out the front pads & rotors this afternoon (Mintex Redbox & Whatever rotors) - from jacking up to roadtesting 1 hr. 50 min.s ...

BTW - My rotor torx bolts were frozen, even after a couple of shots of PB Blaster the day/nightt before - but the heads snapped clean off both sides (though I twisted the torx socket thingie), sooo - I'll deal with it next time...

 

I just used this thread to change the front pads. Thanks a lot for the great thread. I have a couple of questions after my comment.

I have an 04 with 133,444 miles. The wife took it over last summer to help with the cost of commuting. She drives 98 miles a day round trip.

Last week she told me she had a light on the dash and it turned out to be the brake pad sensor warning light. I assumed it was the front as the last time I had the mini in for service the wear was about 70% on the front and 50% on the rear.

Pick up some pads at the local parts house only to find out they do not carry the sensor... What's the deal with that? The sensor looked in tact but I damaged it removing it from the old pad.

Ordered one from the Mini dealer in Cincinnati and should get here soon.

I decided to check the rear just to be sure. It is obvious the rear sensor is the problem which leads to my first question.

1) How does the sensor work? Is it a closed circuit that when you wear down too much brake pad, it wears a way some of the sensor and "opens" the circuit? Or is that small sensor some type of prox switch?

After closer inspection, I am not getting even pad wear all the way around. On each wheel the two pads have different wear with the left front and right rear having the most wear. The right rear being the most as that is the sensor that triggered. I don't think in all my driving years, I've seen a rear set of pads wear faster than the front. My second question:

2) Do I have a problem here with the uneven wear?

Thanks again for the forum.

Mark

 

It's just a sacrificial piece of conductive material that wears away when it contacts the rotor, opening a circuit. If you don't want to fool with it, you can simply short the circuit.

Some variance is normal, a great deal is not. My rears wore out before the fronts, although I did all four at the same time.

- Mark

 

All four of my front pads were w/in a 64th" of each other; rotors were an equal 14.4mm (!) - did the rear pads about two months ago, had one wear down to backing plate during track time-trial w/end (inside RR) - also had a piston boot not turning properly on the piston, i think that may have contributed to the uneven wear (not allowing the piston to retract fully) - now fixed (I think)...

My '02 MINI S just turned 68,000 miles, and I bought it used 2 years ago w/ 47k, so I just figured that the rears were original...

BTW (2 cents dept.) I would strongly recommmend lube on those spots mentioned in the OP (instructions) to help w/ even wear ...

 

Installed R56 brakes on my R53 along with SS lines. Ran into a slight issue with the lines I thought I'd warn about. The orginal connector on the flexible line which connects to the hard line on the side of the wheel well has flat sides. The SS lines I bought had a round connection without the flats. The issue is that the hole in the bracket where the connection is made has the flats. Therefore, just know that you'll need to somehow reem this hole to fit the fully round connector.

 

Thank you very much for the informative Tutorial on brake pad changing. I will be taking up this project here in Chicago once the snow melts.

Quick question for the group...

Do I need to replace the tire sensor on the front pad if the sensor has NOT gone off yet on the dashboard?

I drive a Mini Cooper S 2006 model that was manufactured after 5/05.

Thanks,

Chris

 

Nope no need to change the sensor if it hasn't gone off yet. You will know when you move it to the new pads. The outside of the sensor will be worn down if it needs replacing. If it looks intact then you're fine!

Sensor has been worn down, light is triggered, and needs to be replaced.



New sensor wire


Pretty evident how the sensor works. When pad is worn down to sensor "hump", the plastic will wear through exposing a contact that sets the light off. If you replace the pads before the sensor is worn, you won't need to replace the sensor too!

Richard

 

The sensor is basically a contact that sits in a slot on the pad. It works by maintaining contact preventing the light from showing. If the pad wears too far down then the contact is also destroyed causing the light to appear.

As long as the light has not displayed your sensor is intact. You should be able to remove it and then re-fit it. This saves you some tricky work. To replace the sensor you have to weave the sensor cable from the pad all the way around the wheel arch.

Change the pads before the sensor wears down. It's cheaper and easier.

 

The sensor is basically a contact that sits in a slot on the pad. It works by maintaining contact preventing the light from showing. If the pad wears too far down then the contact is also destroyed causing the light to appear.

As long as the light has not displayed your sensor is intact. You should be able to remove it and then re-fit it. This saves you some tricky work. To replace the sensor you have to weave the sensor cable from the pad all the way around the wheel arch.

Change the pads before the sensor wears down. It's cheaper and easier.

 

When you say you will save yourself 16 bucks if you change your brake pads before the light goes on, i have to buy new brake sensors if i canged my brake pads after the light went on?

 

yup, the only alternative is to complete the circuit yourself (just reconnect the two halves of the senor and zip tie the out of the way) and lose the functionality, but then you will have to manually keep tabs on the brakepads

i just stripped both wires down a bit, twisted them together covered in electrical tape and zip tied it back onto itself, because i am ocd and take the wheels off to wash them once a month and can easily check pad wear then :D

or i suppose you could just live with the dash light...

 

After reading all the posts and intently studying my Bentley and Haynes manuals, I finally gathered up the courage to change the front pads on my '03 MCS this weekend. I had not done any brake work since taking Automotive Shop in high school almost 40 years ago. Unfortunately I procrastonated so long that the sensor light finally came on. Everything went pretty smooth once I realized that you must remove the caliper guide bolts BEFORE trying to remove the calipers. I thought all you had to do was remove the spring clips...so there I was banging on the caliper with a mallet, and contemplating running over to Sears to buy something called a dead blow hammer when I realized my stupidity. Once the guide bolts were off and I pulled the calipers outward to compress the pistons a bit, the calipers came off relatively easily. The only other serious mistakes I made was that I came close to destroying one of the caliper piston dust seals when pushing one of the pistons back in, and the other was trying to tap the new sensor onto the inner left pad with a screwdriver and hammer AFTER I had the caliper back on the car...and of course the sensor broke apart into several pieces. I have just one question...once I have another sensor, can I install it onto the pad without removing the caliper from the brake pad carrier? Many thanks in advance for your help. A couple of things to add to our knowledge base on this subject...thepartsbin.com sells aftermarket sensors for only $13.95, and shipping is a reasonable $5.50...I just ordered another one :-) Also, I decided to try ceramic pads to reduce brake dust. I was able to buy Pro Stop ceramic pads at Pep Boys (their own brand) for $49.99. These are merely repackaged Satisfied Pro Ceramic VS pads...it's easy to tell that as it the same stock number (PR939-C). BTW, these pads do have the slot for the wear sensors.

 

Hi,

I tried to take apart the front brake unit to remove the used brake pads and I only had to remove the two 16mm bolts. Is it necessary to remove the 7mm allen bolts to replace pads and if so why?

Many thanks for your help.

Jon

 

this article looked really easy to follow so I decided to try it myself but when I took the tires off my car doesn't look like the picture! there's no wire to pull out to release the caliper. any ideas on how to proceed?

 

If you're talking that "weird-W" shaped wire, it's just an anti-rattle clip - ignore that step and proceed - unless, upon re-assembly, you want to obtain it and put it in, then those instructions are there, too

 

Only the most technical terms will suffice here

 

How do I know if I also need to replace my rotors?