Did just as you suggested.

1. Mini Service dealer said Bentley Manual was not reviewed by BMW, thus not official.

2. MINI USA said go to another dealer. I did. They had a Mini in with same problem, tried replacing master cylinder and other items in brake system; nothing changed. They indicated it would be the same results for mine, but I was more than welcome to make an appointment, and return another day.

What would be nice is if I had more test results from other Mini owners indicatiing this is or is not normal.

If this is normal, as the one dealer indicates, why did the other dealer, try replacing all the parts?

 

Unfortunately (or fortunately!) all dealers are not created equal. Some are great; other are not.

Getting reports of more owners is not a bad idea, but the condition is difficult to describe and easy to misunderstand. If it were me, I'd take the 2nd dealer up on their offer and get the braking system attended to. Maybe they can fix it. But even if it still does the same thing, you'll have some peace of mind that the braking system has been gone through and given a clean bill of health.

Could you describe the behavior again for those who may be joining the discussion midway?

 

Or better yet just post a video.

 

After your Mini has come to a complete stop, with the motor still running, if you continue to press hard on the brake pedal does the pedal continue to move slowly toward the floor ? Mine will go all the way to the floor.

After removing your foot from the pedal, it will spring back to the normal position and you could repeate the test or continue driving and stopping as normal.

 

Today at a small meeting of Mini owners someone said they remembered reading this problem I'm describing with the brake pedal was an indicator that one of the dual circuits in the Mini's hydraulic brake system was bad.

The Bentley Manual says, "The hydraulic system has a dual circuit that is split diagonally."

I have searched several forums and could not find the that post. Anyone else remember reading it ?

 

Good gosh! 16 years later and lots of people (like me) are still searching for a solution to this. At this point my theory is for these soft pedal cases, there is trapped air that is not coming out. I am thinking of sealing off various parts of the system to try and isolate the guilty part.

I have a used MC I disassembled just to see how it works. No real surprises there. Also bought a used ABS system for the same reason. I might need to cut the ABS block in half to see how things are connected. There are like a dozen valves on it. Installed a new MC. I have a scanner tool that will exercise the ABS when bleeding, but cannot get the brake pedal to be rock hard. This is problematic on the track.

I wonder if the brake pressure sensor (on the MC) input to the DSC system is highly tailored to the MC function? I have a doc that says it is used to determine if the car is under braking. If it is just a yes/no type thing, that would be good because I am also thinking of swapping the MC out with one from a different car in an effort to build pressure with less pedal travel.