Long story short, my brake warning light caught me when I was out of town, so I took my car to the local MINI center (Towson, MD) to have it checked out. They replaced my rear brake pads, but said my rotors were still in good shape and didn't require replacement.

A month later, I am getting completely awful amounts of brake squeal. Once they are warm, they will squeal even when I am not applying the brakes (i.e. all the damn time). The reason I went OEM (aside from being out of town) was that I don't track or autocross this car and so I wanted the reduced noise characteristics of the OEM pads.

I'm slightly irritated that I overpaid at the dealer to get this done and I'm still having problems with it. Any suggestions? Obviously, going back to the dealer isn't really an option, since the dealer is six hours from here.

 

Since the rotors were not replaced, it is likely that the pads are still bedding in....that is being worn to the shape of the rotor.
New pads should only be put on worn rotors after re-surfacing...and measuring. Then they are much more likely to warp. Braking performance is poor till bed-in is complete...and often noisy. also glazing of the rotor/pads can occur in this situation.

 

You may have sticking caliper pins, which would cause the pads to drag slightly. It could also be a sticking caliper piston which would have the same effect.

If you can drive the car for say 10 minutes on the highway and coast to a stop without using the brakes much, then feel the rear wheels to see if they are warm. My guess is that one or both will feel warm to the touch indicating a dragging brake. That would explain why the squeaking is constant and gets worse the more you drive it.

Any competent brake shop could check this out. You could do it yourself too. At this point your rotors might be glazed too. Look at the rotor surface on the rears and compare it to the fronts. If they look the same, you are probably OK.

The glaze can sometimes be removed by using the brakes hard. That would mean braking hard from 60 to 15 MPH several times until you can smell the brakes getting hot. If that isn't your cup of tea, you can also sand the surface with garnet paper to remove pad residue.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I went ahead and pressure-washed my rotors and calipers yesterday which improved the problem slightly but not enough. I'll try 56 Blue's suggestion today and see what I get. Thanks again!

 

So I took 56 Blue's advice and drove for about ten minutes at 65ish mph without using my brakes. I then pulled off the road and poured a bit of water on each brake rotor (didn't want to burn myself). Both of my rear brakes weren't hot enough to boil the water but were painfully hot to touch. I'm pretty sure they are both having problems with a stuck caliper or pin(s). What all is involved in investigating the stuck pins/caliper?

 

What is the size of the torx screw that secures the rear rotors on the 2006 Mini Cooper?

 

Here is another suggestion:

The rear pistons have a groove where the pads are supposed to clip in. if they are not clipped into the grooves it will cause that squeak becuase when the calipers retract the pads won't.

Check that the pads are clipped into the piston's groves. I tell you this because it happened to me a while back... one of the pads came off the groove and it was doing that.

 

Since you paid a dealer to have this work done and MINI dealers warrant their work for 2 years, can't you take it to your local dealer and have them take a look at it for you?

Chances are it's one of several simple things - pads not clipped into the pistons, rotors with a substantial lip on them causing the pads to rub, or worst case - sticking pistons.

 

Jack up one wheel at a time. Try spinning wheel first. A lot of drag will confirm that something is not allowing brake to completely release.

If it's dragging, remove the wheel and check what Chisss talked about in his post. That seems like a logical first step.

 

Well, my local dealer is in Raleigh, NC - 2 hours away.