I'm doing a rear brake job on our '05 Mini S and decided to replace the rear rotors. I was very pleased to find the coated Zimmerman rear rotors for only $30.75 apiece at PartsGeek.com. Plus, shipping was a mere $6.95 to California! Some days you get lucky.

Regarding brake bleeding, the Bentley manual says you need to use a special scan tool to call up service function Bleeding ABS/ASC (or ABS/DSC, depending on system installed). Can anyone shed some light on this requirement? It certainly doesn't sound very user-friendly for track days and general maintenance.

Finally, has anyone successfully used a pressure bleeder on the Mini? I have one but the fluid reservoir on the Mini does not appear to be compatible with the adapters I have.

Thx for your insights!

Alan

 

Having received no responses to my question on needing a scan tool to perform brake bleeding, let me rephrase the question:

Has anyone bled the brakes on their MINI themselves?

Did it require the use of a scan tool prior to bleeding?

If so, what did you do to overcome this requirement?

Thx.

Alan

 

First that sounds like a great price on Zimmerman rotors. You will find a lot of good procedures on here for brake bleeding. The short answer is that for the standard brake bleed you do not need a scan tool. You can do it the tried and true way with two people and pumping the brakes. Last time I did it I gravity bled them and it worked great.

 

Agreed. A basic bleed does not require more than a wrench, a bleeder bottle and some new fluid. An helper to pump makes things quicker is all. And for this work there's no need for any specific order; assuming the mc does not run dry they're all separate lines and don't cross feed. Pressure tools and such are favored by some but do nothing more than make the process quicker.