I have had a few moments with my MCS when some goofball has cut in front of me where I have had to brake hard to avoid a fender bender. There is something about the feel of the brakes I don't understand. Maybe it is just not being used to the MCS. In any case, when I have jumped on the brakes hard it is as if I was pushing my foot to the firewall, no feel at all. The pedal has no give in it. The car is stopping but the lack of feel under hard braking is unnerving. I feel like I am just along for the ride hoping the car will stop. I have tried to recreate that feeling on back streets but it is not at all like what I felt on those other occaisions. Is this OK? Am I just experiencing the MCS at the braking limit where the electronics are in charge?

Thanks.

 

When you say the pedal has no give, do you mean it his hard, like you are hitting something solid. In other cars where the brakes feel spongy, that is actually the brake hoses expanding. This is something in the high performace world you do not want. You are loosing your braking effect to the lines expanding. That is why race cars have braided brake lines. I would think the harder the pedal the better, that is as long as it is stopping.

 

On previous cars, I'm used to antilock brakes pulsing when applied fully, but my MINI is only 5 weeks old so I haven't had to apply full braking. Maybe, as you say, you're just not feeling anything because the electronics are taking over.

 

I know what you mean, since i traded apple for the bmw, I now know what good brakes feel like, sometimes on Aplle I was not sure i would stop, just the feeling

 

I am not sure how brakes are on a regular cooper, but a MCS has the bigger brakes. When I let my Mother drive mine I almost fly through the windshield when she first puts on the brakes and she normally drives a cobra. I think these are the best brakes on any car I have ever owned.

 

I can not help you there. I have not gotten into a situation where the antilock brakes activated. I do know I can feel the hill assist in the pedal.

 

How old is your brake fluid?

 

When you were hard on the brakes was the ABS kicking in? You could test that out if you go to a deserted road, get up to speed and jump on the brakes. If you're really on it, the ABS will kick in to prevent lockup. This would tell you that your brakes are working very well to the point where your ability to stop is limited by the traction the tires have. When you talk about "Electronics" there aren't many electronics on the MINI that would explain what you're feeling. Electronic Brake Distribution compensates for loads and Cornering Brake Control only works in corners but they don't change the feel of the pedal or the force when braking such as systems in a Lexus, Mercedes (Pre-Safe), BMW (Dynamic Brake Control) that tries to judge if you are in an emergency and artificially applies the brakes even more. I personally don't like the way these systems feel. Even on the BMW I've ended up braking more than I expected when the 3-series thought I was in an emergency situation when I wasn't which was unnerving although I suppose some people like it. In a MINI there are few electronics working when you are hard on the brakes to change the amount of force you put in. The MINIs brake pedal may be stiffer than other cars and need more force, which is what you are describing.

If your foot is actually hitting the floor without ABS kicking in, you have a problem, perhaps some air in the brake lines. A while ago when I had somebody bleed my brakes prior to when I now do it, they did a bad job and I was left with a mushy brake pedal and reduced force. My suggestion is to find a deserted road and learn the brakes under stress and try to get the ABS to kick in.

 

Sounds like something is wrong. My brake pedal is very stiff (which i like). I'm surprised to hear bad reviews about the brakes. The brakes on these cars are really good, especially the MCS. More then a few times I have been in emergency braking situations (70+ to 0mph) and these brakes always stop the car quicker then I think the they can. The MCS stops from 60 in just around 110ft which is just as good if not better then the new M3

 

The R56 has Brake Assist [BA], which adds braking force beyond what your foot pushes in emergency situations. Based on my driving experience, the BA kicks in when you stab the pedal extremely quickly, as if your life depended on it. The BA seems to make pedal feel softer/lighter, because the system is adding its own effort and doesn't need any additional effort from you. Does this resemble what you're experiencing?

Cheers,
Ryan

 

...since I traded my BMW for my MINI, I now know what good brakes feel like.

 

Yup, that's what it felt like.

I tested on an empty wet street. If I jump on the brakes I can hear the ABS kicking in as the tires bite and release.

Maybe something here. I drove a Honda CRV and was used to really hammering the brakes for an emergency stop. When this happened on the MCS, it was more like the feel went away when I hit the pedal very rapidly. I sure wish I could duplicate this when I was on an empty street.

 

Like others have mentioned I think the brakes are doing something funny because you are stabbing them in the emergency without really thinking. It's hard to reproduce because no matter how hard you try you aren't in an actual emergency.

Back when I had my car on a track it took a lot of getting used to to slow the car down quickly from high speeds. I always wanted to start slowing to soon and ease into the brakes slowly and then modulate them until at the right speed. Believe me the stock brakes are pretty good, not great but still better than most cars I've driven. When braking hard from 100+mph to around 30mph the front will dive so hard that the back end will get a little wiggly.

 

Good catch, it is quite interesting that Brake Assist is not mentioned on the MINIUSA.com, no similar system is mentioned under performance or safety specs and a search also yields nothing. It is plainly mentioned on the UK site but is obviously missing on the US site, while the 2008 MCS Owner's Manual clearly states that it is there. I stand corrected when I stated that MINIs don't have such a system.

 

Tonight we had a similar incident happen and we have a JCW with Brembo's and I was really impressed with how the brakes worked...

 

You can't copy the sensation on an empty street. Don't forget that a bolus of adrenaline was being dumped into your system at the time. It can alter your perception in a number of ways. By the time your foot hit the brake pedal, your brain was awash in endorphins, your pupils where fully expanded, blood was shunted away from your extremities, and your sense of time was distorted.

Or you could be Joe Cool and become acutely analytical in the face of impending doom.

I am not saying it was a panic situation, cause it doesn't have to be one to trigger a response. Your body does this stuff on it's own rules.

If it was one of them "hit the brakes hard and keep driving times", maybe the ABS system on the MINI operates a little different than you are used to. Like the lack of a pulsing sensation on full bore braking.


Either way. Was it a female cell phone user in the other car?

 

like others, i'm surprised anyone would complain about the mini's braking.

I occasionally drive my gf's 98 civic and man, I get scared when I have to come to a quick stop and have to push the brakes all the way to the floor in order to stop.

I have felt the "squishyness" of the brakes when in emergency situations. It just felt different. I could still feel the car stopping so I wasn't concerned, and I was way more concerned about analyzing what was on the shoulder of the road as I had to swerve off the road to avoid an accident.

 

Like others have said, there are certainly some notable variables here, such as Brake assist and such, but as far as firm vs. squishy brakes go, I'll take firm over squishy any day.

It's like going from my 2700lb '93 Mustang with 13" Cobra brakes to my wife's Harley Davidson SuperCrew F-150. When I really need to get on the brakes in the F-150, I seriously wonder if it will ever stop. I push the pedal down and it just keeps going and going. It's not a confidence-inspiring feeling in the least.

 

There's a brake booster which builds up line pressure faster if your in an emergency braking situation so you stop faster, that's probably what you're talking about.

 

i never knew the terminology for what i was feeling, i just know if you wanna stop quickly, use the tapping method on your brakes.....now it makes sense why....haha

 

If your car has anti-lock brakes you should never use the tapping method. It works against the anti-lock system and will actually take you longer to stop. Tapping is the right method for cars that do not have anti-lock systems.

 

So are you saying your MINIs brakes feel squishy or just that you understand that squishy is bad? I agree that squishy is bad and I have never felt that they were in my MINI.

There is some difference in response on the peddle depending on how hard I push. The peddle is by no means linear. I was talking to wbarnhill about this some weeks ago, actually. It seems like the car isn't stopping like it should when little brake is applied but once a bit more is applied the car just up and stops. It does take a little getting used to but I've learned that I don't have to apply the brakes as early as I think and can instead stop in a much shorter distance.

 

Agree . On the nasty bumpy pothole jungle path I drive to work everyday in NYC, ABS often shows its effort on these nasty surface. But I only feel this when I wear Puma motorsport sneakers/speed cat.

 

No... I don't even HAVE a MINI, yet! :D

I was just comparing the brake feel of my 2700lb Mustang w/ 13" Cobra brakes to the brake feel of my wife's SuperCrew F-150 w/ 20" Wheels. Night and day as far as firm vs. squishy... and the brake feel of the F-150 is not something I like.

So, my post was simply a comparison of firm vs. squishy brake feel... not SPECIFICALLY related to a MINI.


Yeah, it sounds like the Brake Assist might have some sort of lower limit regarding pedal pressure or application rate that it "kicks in" at, rather than a linear increase in braking power multiplication.

It would be interesting to hear straight from BMW/MINI exactly how the system is programmed/set up.

 

Idk but my brakes are perfect. I can stop on a dime and have never had brakes so good. Super responsive!