No brass guides for the front 1st gen JCW or the R56 calipers. You can get them for the rear, but I just cleaned and lubed the stock pins since the rears only had about 39k no rain miles on them.

Make sure you get the correct SS lines for the R56 calipers as the fittings on the caliper side are different.

 

Gotcha, I'll keep them greased up. WMW has a convenient little kit with R56 SS lines for the front and R53 SS lines for the rear.

https://www.waymotorworks.com/stainl...tml?quantity=1

 

I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I figure I'll ask anyway. A few weeks after I replaced my axles I realized I was still experiencing some popping/clicking when changing direction from reverse to forward or vice versa. I recently replaced my dad's R50 axles with OE Cardone Select replacements and I immediately noticed that they still pop when changing directions as well. What gives? All four of our axles are brand new and they still pop. It makes me think it must be something else, but I can't think of anything that would pop like that when changing direction. Any thoughts? Neither of us have any clicking when turning, it's only when changing from reverse to forward/vice versa.

 

I have zero experience with Mini CV joints. However I have my share of experience replacing German CV joints on my Vanagon. That is doing the rebuilding of the axles myself with the best of German parts. Even brand new German CV joints can give you elusive vibration and shake problems. From your description it is all possible the outer CV joints are less than perfect. You cannot inspect the CV joints with it installed. You may have to remove them and try to hand inspect their movement simulating in a turn. Typically new CV joints are tight and can feel it is mildly binding. Too much binding will cause the symptoms you experience.

I never heard of Cardone until now. They look to me more a non OEM aftermarket manufacturer. Are you axles reman'ed or new?

 

They're new. Mine are made by SneedSpeed and they are rated to 450hp. I bought the Cardone for my dad's car after reading about CooperSAZ doing his with them. Maybe I just got unlucky.

 

For what's worth, I just want to mention that some aftermarket axles can have different axle shaft length from the stock one. This may not be as critical with plunge type CVs used on RWD rear, which can absorb some difference. I think the outer CV on the Mini is a non-plunging CV. It is always a good idea to compare the new axles against the stock ones carefully before installing.

 

I pulled the car into the shop today to check wheel bearings and rotate my tires. I've known for awhile that one of the rims is bent, but I discovered another rim was also bent, though only slight, a few days ago. I've been rotating the tires to see if the noise I've been hearing moves with them. The noise I've been hearing is a wum-wum-wum kind of sound. It's not constant, which is why I thought it would be a bent rim instead of bad wheel bearings. I know that the tires are balanced as well. When I rotated them tonight, I couldn't really tell if the noise shifted. I've been hearing it from the left rear, so I moved both bent rims to the right, with the worst at the front. I couldn't really tell if it shifted, it sounded like it was coming from both sides, but it was very hard to tell.

When I spun the wheels while in the air to check the wheel bearings, the rear passenger side tire barely spun before it stopped. The drivers side rear tire also dragged a bit more than the fronts. I can't figure out if this is caused by a bad square cut seal in the caliper piston or if I have something else going on, or if it's normal. When I did my rotors a couple years ago, I didn't grease the slide pins. They were mostly dry when I took them out today, so I greased them up.

What confuses me about the brakes dragging is that I don't notice anything while driving. The car tracks dead straight on the highway. No pulls under braking. The car seems free to roll on a slightly sloped surface. My pads still have plenty of life left, more than I would expect with a stuck piston/square cut seal. The rear pads on both sides of the car have nearly equal pad life, though the inboard pad has 1-1.5mm more than the outboard pads. Don't know why that is either. However, I have always thought I've gotten pretty poor fuel economy. Even when the car was stock, I would get 28MPG maximum on the highway, and that's hand calculated. In the city it would be 22-24MPG. Now I get 20-22 city and 26-27 highway. That just seems pretty awful for a Mini, so I'm hoping this brake concern is contributing to that. I just don't know why I wouldn't notice any pulls or dragging if it was really as stuck as I think it is.

These newly discovered "problems" have got me thinking about what would be best to try doing first. I'm thinking that I may do both rear calipers with Autozone stuff and also go ahead and do the stainless steel lines for them while I'm there. Then I might do both rear wheel bearings next, since I can probably get those cheaper than straightening the wheels.

Anybody have any experience with these issues? I don't really know how to proceed with troubleshooting, it seems like I can't isolate the potential causes.

 

My son and I recently swapped out rims out for the same reason you found, two bent rims. The car also had that wuhmp, whump, whump sound as well. I don't hear that noise any more though I don't drive the car all that much on the freeway, but I believe the sound is gone.

As for rear brakes, last week we did rotors and pads plus a 4 corner flush. I too noticed that the rear wheels rotate with a bit of friction. Seems consistent side to side in the rear compared to the fronts. Feels similar to my E46.

The R53 has been getting about 25mpg on his commute so sounds like you are getting similar highway numbers. After changing the front O2 sensor city mpg improved to 23.

 

I see, thanks for responding! I want to keep my wheels unless I can find a set in mint condition cheaper than I could straighten/refurbish mine, but good to know that would probably fix it!

It's normal for wheels to rotate with some friction since even if the pistons properly retract after you release the brake, the pads will still be in contact with the rotor. That said, my rear right caliper was practically clamped to the rotor. It would turn, but it was hard to get it to turn, especially if I took off the wheel and just tried rotating the rotor. There was a noticeable difference in dragging between the left and right side.

Both my O2 sensors are practically brand new. I had a code for the downstream sensor a few months ago, so I just replaced them both with the OEM NTK's.

 

Ordered 3 liters of TYP 200 brake fluid and rear stainless steel lines from ECS Tuning. I'll go to one of my local Autozones this week to have them order the calipers. I hope this makes a difference.

 

The stainless ECS house brand lines are pretty good. If they are similarly made to the ones I put on my Cayenne, then you'll be in great shape. 👍🏼

Let us know how rhe rebuilt Autozone calipers go. Probably can get an online coupon to help with the project costs. Gonna do pads too?

 

I don't believe the calipers I'm getting are rebuilt, as there is a rebuilt option and they are not tagged as such on the website. I will certainly update the thread when I finish, though I'm skeptical that there will be a noticeable difference. I just don't get how I couldn't notice them dragging during driving. I'm not going to do pads, both rears have 7-9mm on them and they were 10-11mm when I checked almost 2 years ago. Plenty of life left.

 

the rears all feel like they are dragging when you turn them by hand, it's the goofy parking brake setup

 

But why? The parking brake isn't engaged. Wheels should never feel like they're heavily dragging.

 

With the mechanical parking brake the chance of the rear brake drag is increased. Not in a low mileage car, but increase tendency with high mileage car, and worst with those in the rust belt. I don't know if you have done this to diagnose if he parking brake mechanism is causing excessive drag. Bentley has a spec for the gap to check for the parking brake lever arm. With high mileage car and/or rust belt car the return spring can be weaken from use, or corrosion.

Before replacing the caliper, I will hand force the parking brake lever to make sure it is not causing the extra drag. Once you ensure the parking brake is not applying pressure on the piston exercise the (hydraulic brake) a few times hard and check to see if the drag is excessive. If the drag is excessive, it is caused by the slider pins, or semi-seized piston. Piston corrosion or pitting can cause it to behave semi-seized as it does not slide smoothly against the hydraulic seal.

I appreciate my goovy parking brakes, especially in San Francisco.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "hand force the parking brake lever to make sure it is not causing the extra drag". You mean pull up the parking brake? Are you talking about the springs on the caliper? They looked fine when I was checking the caliper, no rust. The Autozone calipers come with new springs.

 

I refer to the lever arm on the caliper. It has a spring to return it back to the release position.

Also Bentley has a rather German procedure to set the hand brake lever cable tension.

 

because of they way they work, they preload so they continue to work with the same amount of parking brake lever pull distance as the pad is used up

it's a cheap design but they do drag ever so slightly, not enough for the car to care or to even add pad wear

 

So you're saying you forcibly release tension at the spring to check if it is causing the drag? And the Bentley has the procedure for doing this?

Like I've said, it feels like it's dragging pretty bad, more so on the right side. Pad wear is pretty much equal left/right.

 

 

Yeah, I saw that. So just push that clip the cable is wedged in up to release tension?

 

The rear brakes do drag quite a bit and is normal. Engine torque and the momentum of the 3000 lb car is way more than your arm's strength. If one side is significantly more, it deserves some scrutiny.

 

Well I guess I'll hold off on the calipers then. Does the Bentley have an adjustment procedure?

 

That is my theory. I have never have to do this. It is possible the self-adjusting mechanism would defeat the theory as it is a one way street.

The Bentley has a pretty detail procedure. Do be mindful your left and right cable may be uneven, due to age, rust, etc. Rusty frozen cable is relatively a thing of the past with modern cable made with self-lubricating liners.

 

So it's more likely everything is normal, as mega72 said? It's just disconcerting that it drags as much as it does, and significantly more on one side.