Are there any rear brakes upgrade options for our r53's that is budget oriented ? I just bought the poor man's jcw brakes upgrade as I NEED TO upgrade my brakes so I was hoping there's a larger rear rotor and caliper setup also..
anybody know of anything ? I'd like to keep it under 500$ and lol that's still 2x the price I paid for the fronts..

 

The original JCW brake kit used the original rear calipers and rotors. The kit only included the front calipers, pads, bigger rotors, and upgraded rear pads.

 

With the larger front rotors and caliper set, the "overall" braking is MUCH more balanced than the OEM R53 (frt & rr) brakes.
There really is no need to install a larger rear rotors on the R53.

When I bought my R53, the previous owner gave me most of the parts to put the aluminum control arms and all of the brake parts to install the larger rotors on the back. After driving the car, buying the parts to be able to adjust the camber at the front and rear, that, THAT was a MUCH better investment than the control arms and larger rotors in the back.
PLUS...if you do some hard driving, as I sorta said above, and pay attention to the breaking action, you may find, as I did, the R56 front and the stock R53 rear brakes are a good match and work well together for spirited driving on the street. At least for me in our local mountain roads it all did.

That is unless you are going racing only. Then I might look at aftermarket brake parts to go with the rigors of racing.

If you haven't yet, get the parts to be able to adjust the camber and do that work. THAT...will make a whole new car out of the R53.

Mike

 

yes I know..I've already purchased the entire kit I was hoping there is some kinda rear upgrade out there people do.
but I will atleast try and get a few tests in once I get the r56 s fronts on..
I was looking into the rear aluminum trailing arm swap also but then if I did do the r56 rears to match , are they an upgrade ? It's not that I track my car alot or anything BUT with my cars extra power its making which is almost 2x stock , I need better brakes to try and not fade so bad from 30-100 back down to 30 only 2x.. lol in my car if I do it 2x and slow down abit aggressively, I experience almost 30% brakes fade after my 2nd pull already and it makes the car almost unsafe then when trying to push it hard. And I do have drilledvn slotted and ceramic pads dot4 high performance fluid and stainless lines to try and help cool them sooner which helped a little but not much so I had to atleast try the r56s swap but it is a solid rotor so will see how that feels and maybe if I have to I will get drilled and slotted r56s rotors too but imo the extra cooling really isn't much they just say " I modded these " and look cool. Though I do feel they help in rain but my car doesn't see rain so I don't think they'll be much better than the solid rotors.

 

yes the r56 rear setup is a upgrade, pad size / design and sweep are better

 

I had planned to rebuild and paint the JCW calipers that were on the car when I purchased it, however, I went with rebuilt stock calipers, performance rotors, ceramic pads, and of course a complete system flush and bleed. I later added new struts and am very pleased with the results. I have picked up a set of r56 trailing arms which I plan to add at a later time.
AmazonSmile: PowerSport Front Rear Brakes and Rotors Kit |Front Rear Brake Pads |Brake Rotors and Pads |Ceramic Brake Pads and Rotors |Sensors |fits 2002-2006 Mini Cooper : Automotive

 

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All I see are some rotors that are prone to crack under heavy use, and will not be good at reducing brake fade.

 

I always thought the rear brakes were kind of overkill.

Maybe they are just sliding calipers (as opposed to fixed caliper Brembo’s) but covered with cooling fins like a race car.👍

Peter

 

have you cracked a rear slotted rotor before ??? Imo they really do cool alittle better and have better wet bite but I've never personally seen one crack and break apart. I have seen very minor cracks starting by some drilled holes from being used so long and then over heated but do I think they provide better braking as advertised ? NOPE !

 

so are the rotors then the same size just abit larger pad and surface contact ?? If so maybe ille do r56 rears once i do the trailing arms..
can I do the r56 rear brakes without 1st doing the rear traling arms ?

 

Yes. I have cracked a rear slotted rotor before.
No, the slotted disc doesn't improve brake fade; it's only for "scraping" the brake pad, in hopes for getting rid of debris that might get stuck between the pad and rotor surface. .

This is going to blow your mind, but.... bigger brakes don't decrease braking distances for 95% of street use.

 

Im not looking for that as much as im looking for them to NOT experience fade so soon like the r53 brakes do. I've never been satisfied with the r53 brakes.. and once I do track the car and when I do push it hard , because I'm not an experienced " boy racer " having larger brakes will help me especially because I use brakes much much more than I use down shifting to slowdown unless I NEED to stop sooner ,yea ille downshift and rev match ect then but I just prefer to throw it in neutral once I know I'm coming to a complete stop and neutral as far and long as I can and use just my brakes rather than my clutch and transmission to slowdown. I'm sure ille get flamed for that too but it's how I drive and imo I'd rather wear my brakes than my transmission.
and I totally agree , I really seen no improvement on my mini going to drilled and slotted rotors. What little better bite snd feel ny brakes had after installing them I'm sure came from running a better pad compound not the rotors design.

 

Does anybody have any specs for the r53 v r56 rear brakes and know what it all takes parts wise in order to complete the swap ? The front are sapose to arrive today so I'm going to hopefully get them on befor this weekend because everyday until Saturday is getting progressively colder.. today high mid to low 50s and by Saturday a high of 36 only.. GEEZ.
also , any opinions from using the Brebmo brand brake calipers pads ??? I think my best bet will be to stay with a solid rotor and a good street/strip pad compound and I will probably go Ceramic just because of the dust factor from the pads.. though ny ebrake is finally corrected adjusted finally now that the seasons done so no more rear rims getting 2x as dirty as my fronts..

 

If you do the R56 brakes, you need calipers, brackets and lines. Some people modified the part of the oem handbrake cables to fit the R56 hole, but you can just buy R56 cables too. You do have to notch some metal off so the brake line clears. I just used a hole saw to keep some "integrity".

 

Awesome ! Did you do r56 front too ? What is your opinion on the extra braking they added ? I know my next mod...i just cant believe how much r53 brakes suck. Imo theyre not even good enough for stock power levels.. imo , the area i prefer overkill is brakes and suspension as you can tell with my car..if these r56 brakes arnt adequate for me and my car then I know my next step but unfortunately it's going to be expensive so that's why I HAD TO atleast try the r56 swap.
I got these today though.
i had the decals because i was going to do brembo rotors and pads but I think the ebc setup will be fine.. I might throw the decals on the calipers to fib after I paint them if it looks nice.
also i seen the rear lower arms needs to be cut to fot ebrake cable. I have adjustable upper and lower arms and theyre bars actually, so i wonder if i wouldnt have any interference. I had to zip tie them to my arms i have on now.

 

I have front and rear R56 brakes. It definitely is better, but I have cheap Bosch pads right now, with proper pads it would be a lot better. I had Hawk HP+ on my oem brakes, braking was good, but the noise...

 

do the full rear conversion arms and all, it's only another 120 $ or so from milan applegate

 

I will definitely keep that in mind as I wanna do the full rear conversion as well as my clutch then too this cold season.

 

Do the 2x piston jcw/brembo style calipers mount up to the r56 S brackets I now have ? Like the ones below ?? If so I'm already gonna abandon these r56 I just put on because I can get a Hella deal on one's like pictured below..

 

Does that caliper just bolt direct to back of my hub and then use the 295mm rotor ???

 

The 4-piston caliper set up is a bolt on, but you’ll need the 4-piston brake lines for them. The rear JCW R56 brakes use an even bigger rotor with the same R56 caliper and different bracket. I upgraded my rear R55 brakes to JCW spec and only needed the rotor and bracket.

 

sweet , the jcw rear brake route is probably what I'm going to do then too. and then i take it those front 4x piston calipers brake line bolts upto my hard line them fine ?

 

The hard line connection… I’m not sure. I know I’ve seen those 4-pot calipers on R53s, but I’m not 100% on the smaller details. Do the regular R56 brake lines mount up to the R53 hard lines? If so, then the 4-pot brake lines will too.

 

When I upgraded my R53 brakes, I used 294mm R56S front discs and calipers. On the rear I used stock size discs, R56 brackets and persuaded some 38mm audi calipers to fit. EBC red pads all round. If I did it again, I'd just slap an entire R56 justa set on with EBC reds. My upgrade is actually a bit much for road use, makes 15" wheels tight on the front and it was a pain to find and fettle 38s for the rear. Brake balance was near stock.