Sorry about posting this; I tried searching for the answers here and in the manual to no avail.

I purchased a used 2011 Mini Cooper - Manual about 2 1/2 months ago. I've been expecting some repairs coming up. The car is at 28.5k miles.

I've got 2 questions:
Do the original brake pads include any kind of wear indicator layer?

On my previous car, I knew my brake pads needed replacing because there was a constant high pitch squealing when I hit the brakes from that indicator layer on the brake pad.

Also related to the brake pad; in service info and upon start-up, the most urgent service needs are the rear brake pads. There's no indicator light warning me on the speedometer, but the service info rear brake warning says that I have 330 miles left (down from 600, and before 1000). Is this just a countdown based on my miles driven, or does this actually read the brake pad sensor?

 

When one of the brake wear sensors trip, a light will come on, probably in the tach. From the reading I've done, there are two wear sensors, one on the front left, one on the right rear. Do some searching, lots of info out there on this subject..

 

Yep, it has a single front and rear wear sensor. You can also check the estimated mileage until the on board computer thinks you may, possibly, sort of, need service on verious items. Read the owners manual.

Buy a Bentley Repair Manual...

 

Couple of things:
1). Welcome to the MINI world. Sounds like you are willing and able to perform DIY maintenance on your car - great way to save a tons of time and money and get the job done properly.

2). You will need some tools and this (from Amazon or other folks selling on this forum):

3). Service indicator count-down is confusing at best, and usually misleading. It is triggered by fixed mileage count and is only roughly correct if it was properly reset by everyone who worked on the car in the past. Rarely happens.

4). At ~30-50K miles, expect to do brakes and rotors all around (if they already have not been done). There is no "squeal" layer in MINI brake pads. You can wait for the brake wear light to go ON, or just inspect the pads visually (need calipers to measure the rotors properly). New brake pads start with 12-15mm of material. When the pad is down to around 2-3mm, the wire in wear sensors start being worn through and light goes ON. You can save the sensor (re-use it in new pads) and the excitement by replacing the pads a little early. Many passionate opinions on what pads work best for whom for what applications - search for the reviews, or go with your personal preferences.


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fwiw, based on the countdown behavior you described, it sounds like you have already hit the sensors in the brake pads. It is a two-stage detection with the computer trying to estimate the countdown mileage based on the partial signal it is receiving. Don't be surprised if you get the brake service light in the near info. That will occur when the brakes completely severe the wire in the sensor creating an incomplete loop.

As noted, there is no squeal layer in the pads.

If you can get to where you can see them, would definitely recommend a visual inspection.

This will vary by driver, but when my brake sensor tripped, I was able to go another 9k miles before finally replacing pads and rotors. I felt comfortable doing that as I was familiar with how much pad I actually had left thanks to all the inspections I had done when rotating my tires.