2008 R55 (Clubman) base model with 32k.

My rear brake service countdown hit 0 miles just recently and the 'brake' light lit in red along with a red service indicator showing the mini on lift.

Still have the original pads/rotors and from what I can tell the pads still have about 5mm (50% wear) and confirmed this today at a shop. Took it home and did the service reset. It initially showed 37000 miles and a date of 12/2014. However just after it was showing a yellow brake light and yellow mini on lift when I restarted the car. Then, after driving away all the lights went off. I checked the service counters again and now the rear brake countdown shows 1100 miles with no date, but when first starting the car, it shows the rear brake message with 1100 miles and the 12/2014 date that I set.

What in the world is this thing doing? Has the rear sensor tripped on stage one and guessed that I should have 1100 miles to stage two? What else could it know. My inclination is to forget it and just keep resetting the system until the brakes actually need replacement. Anybody here know how this system actually works?

 

The lawyers at mini want you to keep checking.....

 

I cannot say with confidence about the R55. But if it is like the R53 and has a brake wear sensor the only way to be ride of it is to replace the sensor. The R53 sensor is an open circuit sensor meaning the rotor wears the sensor until the circuit path is worn away and thereby trips the sensor

 

The condition based system is guessing. From how hard and how often you brake it tries to guess when you'll need new pads. It's also augmented by the sensor in the pad.

The sensor is two stage, the first at about 6mm and sets the countdown to about 6k to go. The second one is at 3mm (minimum by spec) and causes the red brake light to go on.

As its guessing most of the time it can get it wrong. It can count down to zero when there's pad left (more than 3mm). That will also cause the red light to come on. That happened to us once the CBS counted down to zero for the rears. The dealer measured about 6mm and reset the indicator to 10k. 2000 miles later the red light came on, presumably for the second stage sensor and they replaced the pads.

 

teleski,

I did basically the same thing - just rode around with the brake light lit until I knew it really needed brakes. I went about 9,000 miles like that. Fortunately, the time covered didn't lapse over into when the safety inspection was due or I would have been forced to change them earlier.

Btwyx has provided a good explanation of how they work.