After stopping, continue to apply pressure to the brake pedal. Does it meet solid resistance, and stop, within a short distance or slowly, with some resistance, continue moving downward. Mine continues downward; and, I don't think this is right. I've had the car into the dealer two times. They changed the brake fluid and bleed the lines, the first time, and bleed the lines again on the second visit. Nothing changed, and I'm told it is normal. Does every one else have this same type of brake pedal movement ?

While at the dealer, I asked them to bring another Mini around for us to compare. They couldn't find one at that time. The Service Director said to be a fair comparison it would have to another 2003 MC Automatic with around the same number of miles (37K). I'm not sure if it has to be Chili Red too.

 

My experience is that if the pedal continues downward then you have a leak in one of the seals in the brake master cylinder. It shoud be replaced or rebuilt and the whole system bled again.

P.S. The service director sounds like an incompetent bozo who know absolutely nothing about cars.

 

Just to back up petecrosby, your brakes should always work the same regardless of the odometer.

 

Doesn't sound right to me.

My brake pedal has remained the same since day one. Your pedal will feel like any other vehicle. When the ABS kicks in the pedal has a very weird "lumpy" feel then the car will stop and the pedal feels normal.

Tell the service department that you are not satisfied and have them deal with the issue.

The mileage has no bearing if the brake system is in good working order. The service manager does not sound very concerned and this is unacceptable.

I am reading through all of these threads. If BMW Mini didn't build such a great driving and characteristic vehicle god knows where they'd be right now.

I had no end of trouble from Mini service but I stuck through it until I got the result that I paid for in the 1st place. It's just sad that while mini sales have skyrocketed, mini service has taken the day off.

Stick with it and be sure to open your mouth / pen and let everyone at MiniUSA know what you want.

Kesh

 

No! a sinking brake pedal is NOT acceptable.

In states with a safety inspection it will fail you.

If you bring the car to any kind of an autocross or track day it will fail.

If you are sitting on a hill for a long time your car will roll away if you don't pump the brake.

I agree with the above poster. If you are not making puddles of brake fluid on the ground, then there is a bad seal inside your master brake cylinder.

John

 

My Grand Prix has been like that from day one - and I don't use or leak any fluid. It's been through several brake jobs, an upgrade and a couple fluid changes in it's life. Maybe what is being described is a much slower 'sink' than some of you think? With mine, it'll sink if I continue to push hard, but not if I'm simply resting my foot or pushing lightly on it.

 

Look closely at all of the wheels. One of them might be dirtier than the rest. If so this (could be) is the one where where ryou have a seal leaking. THis is how I found it on my Miata. It has white wheels that were like new so it was easy to spot the brownish gunk all over it. Just my 2 cents. Good luck

 

Sounds like kaelaria has a good handle on what I'm seeing. That makes kaelaria's Grand Prix and my Mini. Has anyone else tested their Mini for brake pedal travel ?

 

I doubt most people have ever tried what we're describing, Jim. It's normal.

 

My BMW 535 exhibited the same behavior. For that car it's normal. The braking system uses a brake pressure accumulator. If you continue pressing hard on the pedal it will continue to sink. However, if you used that much pressure during braking, you would absolutely be deep into the ABS. It's only something you would notice if you're stopped, and it does not indicate a problem.


I've never noticed whether my MINI does this. I'll check and let you know.

 

i know what you mean about having the feeling when you press on the pedal you have to push alil harder to get the ...car to respond.....Nothing you can do stock cuz ive tryed bleeding the system and found putting Stop tech Stainless steel lines in didnt help alot.

 

I've been struggling with this, as well. I have two S's, and one has lots of travel in the brake pedal, one has none. My experience, driving other MINIs as well is that there's all kinds of variance in the brake pedal and clutch pedal.

Since my MINI with lots of brake pedal travel is that one that I track, it's something that I'm constantly aware of. I frequently bleed my brakes and have done a complete change of fluid twice this season. I hate it, but the car stops. I've had the system looked at and nothing could be found that was wrong with the master cylinder. I also have stainless steel brake lines and the caliper bushing stiffening kit.

Good luck. Let us know it anything different comes of this.

 

Where did you get the caliper bushings from and what did you gain from them?

 

OK. I finally remembered to check the brake pedal travel. As I suspected, I can continue to move the pedal toward the floor if I press hard when the car is stopped. However, this much pedal travel/effort would absolutely stand the car on its nose if I were at speed. I do not think what I experienced in my MINI is anything unusual.

OTOH, what tontobird had to say was interesting. I'd be tempted to change the master cylinder if that was my track car. A soft pedal at the track is no fun.

 

I got them from Helix, but you can get them from a couple of places. HMS and/or Turner Motorsports, at least one or two other vendors on this board carries them.

If you do a search, you will find a long thread with comments from those who've changed over. I, personally don't feel a difference, and I do consider myself pretty sensitive to such things. If anything I think the pedal feel is worse.

 

I had every intention of having my master cylinder changed before my last track event. I'm over 50K miles, so took it to a tuner that is in my BMW club chapter and is active in the track events and track prep of cars for racing and dedicated track use. They found nothing wrong with the master cylinder and didn't see the point in changing it. I'm still thinking of getting it replaced......

I did switch to a more aggressive pad for the track.

 

You can say that again! ...

 

Sorry to disagree with you but I have tried this on my '03 MCS and the pedal does not sink. If my car did this, I would rebuild the brake master cylinder.

 

The brake system is closed. If your pedal does not stop, you have a problem.
There is a designated amount of pedal travel, any manual will have that spec, and it will tell you what shouldn't be exceeded. The pedal should stop when the MC has displaced enough fluid to push the pads against the rotor. If it continues to sink, the ABS could be faulty, there could be a leak, or there is a problem with the MC. None of these are good or safe. Your SA is a moron!

 

Mine and all normal brakes should have a definite stop before you have the Flintstone feet type stop going through the floor.

 

I want to thank all who have done the test and reported the result. I found this in the "Bentley Mini Cooper Service Manual" on page 340-10: under Brake troubleshooting -

To check the function of the master cylinder hold the brake pedal down hard with the engine running. If the pedal slowly falls to the floor, either the master cylinder is leaking internally, for fluid is leaking externally.

 

Umm, exactly. (see my response above).

 

I still think we're describing differernt things. Perhaps the Mini does operate differently than a grand prix - I haven't tried it on the Mini (never think about it). What the grand prix does I wouldn't describe as even 'fall tot he floor'. I can press it hard slowly, down - but it springs back up after I let off, it doesn't stay there.

 

The Bentley Manual doesn't say what happens after the pedal goes down, but on my Mini it does come back up and the brakes continue to work. I have tried it on one other Mini, a manual, and the pedal stoped solid, not at all like mine.

 

Show that to the MINI dealer and ask them politely to fix your car under warranty. If they don't want to fix it, at least get the problem documented. Brake problems are not to be ignored, so stay after them. Call MINIUSA, visit another MINI dealer, go after it until you get what you need.