My 09 Club has brake pads that put off a TON of brake dust, worst I have seen on the 50 cars I have owned in my life. My car has the low pad sensors, is there a better pad avail for this car that I can use???

 

EBC Redstuff, about a third the dust of OEM pads

 

will they work on my low pad sensor system?

 

Yes, they have the slots for them but if you've already triggered it you'll have to replace it or cut off the sensor and connect the wires together before you can reset the brake warning light.

 

No warning lights yet I just HATE the brake dust. Wife drives the car and if I don't stay on top of cleaning the rims they will be shot this summer with the heat cooks the dust on them.

 

EBC green or red stuff. They're both good. Also hawk pads!

 

I have done pads on various cars, is the the mini something I could do it on also? That tough of a job?

 

I did Hawks on my old VW when I had BBS' shot peened RC's on the car. It helped a ton! The Mini has black wheels, which fit my life better currently. haha

My dealership just replaced my pads with 27k on the odo. I'll wait til they go bad again to go to something with less dust.

 

I installed Carbo Tech 1521's on my 09 Clubby at 3000 miles; Friday I had my annual inspection (37000+ miles). The inspector informed me that they were like brand new. Plus, much less dust over the past 4+ years.

 

Absolutely!

All brake pad jobs are pretty much the same.
All MINI (and BMW) dealers quote exorbitant labor charges to perform this basic maintenance procedure.

MINI, like BMW, uses "plug in" plastic brake pad wear sensors with a wire loop inside them. Once the pad wears through and the wire inside the plastic plug is cut, open circuit is detected and the brake pad wear light is illuminated. Pretty basic stuff. You can re-use the old sensor, but it may brake off while you remove it (plastic gets brittle through heat cycles).

Virtually all aftermarket brake pads have slots for OEM brake sensor plugs cut into them.

Brake pad choices are a religious affair - everyone has a strong opinion based on statistically insignificant observations. Most aftermarket brands have vast array of brake pad models suited for everything from every day use, to autoX, to track. Popular brands are (but no limited to): Hawk, Carbotech, EBC.

As you do your research, you will find strong opinions for an against all of the above

You may, or may not, need to change the rotors. Measure the remaining rotor thickness with a caliper, and if it's within a 2-3mm of the MIN (stamped on the rotor hot), consider replacing "while you are in there". If you have the right tools and supplies, it's another 30 minutes across all 4 corners.

You may, or man not, want to consider flushing the brake fluid "while you are in there" as well. If you have the right tools and supplies, it's another 30 minutes across all 4 corners.

I have personally settled on StopTech pads for the street, Hawk pads for track and autoX (different compounds for each task).
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brake...odClar=Hardtop

Usual vendors:
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/
http://detroittuned.com/
http://www.waymotorworks.com/
http://www.amazon.com/ <-- Best priced once you figure out what you want!

Hope this helps,
a

 

Tire Rack now offers the Brembo Ceramic Pads.

Does anyone have any feedback to share on these?

I bought a set and haven't mounted them yet. In my haste, I didn't consider these may not be suitable for Autocross as their are a Premium Ceramic.

Thoughts?

 

Sounds like you will be our guinea pig - do let us know how they work out for you

For most autoX applications, you want a pad with operating temperature range up into 600F or 1000F range. That's how hot your pads will get after first few runs, and you don't want them to be outgassing like crazy, crumbling, or loosing brake torque when hot.

The price you pay for the compounds that work well when that hot is that they usually need to be warmed up to at least 50F or 100F before they achieve decent brake torque characteristics. That is usually an undesirable trait for most street pads.

There is no such thing as an "all purpose" pad. Whether brake pad manufacturers discloses this fact to you upfront or not, they all have optimal operating temp range window, and it either starts at ambient and maxes out before 600F, or goes higher but also starts higher.

I can't find a data-sheet on Brembo Ceramic Pads after a few minutes of casual searching. Let us know if you do.

To learn more, consider studying the following:
http://www.ctbrakes.com/brake-compounds2.asp
http://www.hawkperformance.com/sites...ATALOG_WEB.pdf (page 18 in particular)

a

 

That pad is popular with the STI/EVO crowd for DD purposes. Not sure how it would hold up to auto-x but probably just as good as the stock pads. Light cars don't need as much brakes especially if you're on street tires.

 

I would recommend our EBC Redstuff pads, or Akebono pads, both are much less dust than the OEM and work well without being noisey.

We also have the Brembo Ceramic in stock, but not much feedback on them to say good or bad yet.

 

I too use HPS for the street personally. I have use the Stop-tech as well. I like the low temperature bite on the Hawk. I feel the Stop-tech's torque curve is more even to the higher temperatures. Hard stops from highway speed is where I feel the diffrence. This is on a heavier car than Mini though.

Normally I wake a certain troll whenever I post about Hawks. I apologize if this happens again.

Not yet enough info on the Brembo Ceramics at this time.

 

I am using Hawk HP+ for track days, and need to replace my OE front pads for the street. The Hawk HP+ are a ferro-carbon compound, not ceramic. So, do I need to stick with a ferro-carbon street pad for material compatibility if I want to be able to swap back and forth? I don't need a high performance street pad, just something OE-equivalent, inexpensive, and lower dust. Trying to find something cheaper than the Hawk HPS at $111 (TR) for the front axle set, which would be an obvious candidate but more than I would like to spend. I'm assuming I shouldn't go ceramic for the street if I'm using HP+ on the track. Thoughts? Am I worrying too much about pad material compatibility?

 

Yes, you are

There are VERY few hard-core track compound brakes that are sensitive to what type of brake compound the previous pad had spread across the face of the rotor. None of the pads you mentioned qualify.

Personally, I presently run and love StopTech pads for the street/winter ($65/front axle @TR, a tad lower elsewhere), Hawk HP+ pads for the autoX summer season, and Hawk Blues (9012) for the DEs. ZERO issues swapping them around at will.

I used to run Hawk HPS pads on another car on the street, but now strongly prefer StopTechs. Used to swap HPS for Blues and back without any issues as well.

HTH,
a

 

1yesfan,

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...eplacement.htm

Pelican Parts has some great resources for performing tasks on your Mini.

Matt

 

Since we're now 2 months after the OP ... I assume the job has been done; however, for those in the same boat who may browse through this thread ....

one thing that surprised me as I hadn't seen it before, nor did I do any research before hand ... was that the rear axle requires a brake caliper wind-back tool. I ultimately figured that out after the car was apart, and had to arrange for a ride to autozone for a loaner tool.

BTW, I installed Hawk Performance on the front/rear of my 2011 Justa in Jan and am happy with the results.