I had some work done to my brakes a while back, new pads, fluid and lines, and came away from the experience with terrible noises coming from my right rear rotor. The brake was wailing when it was not even being applied and had a fairly consistent warble in addition to this problem. I was told, and accepted the theory that, I should have replaced the rotors too and that was the problem. I just went to my MINI service tech for an unrelated problem and he told me that they had been seeing problems with that specific rotor for a while now. Has anyone else had/heard of this problem? I am dying to know what the issue is here. Thanks.

 

My assumption for the problem certainly wouldn't start at the rotors, unless they were severely scored or worn beyond the min thickness. I would start at the installer improperly compressing the piston, over-torqueing the guide pin bolts, or improperly torqueing the caliper monting bolts. The wear sensor may have been improperly tied out of the way, or improperly installed.
have you looked at the parts?
do your brakes work?
does the park brake work?
post pics?

the theory about replacing rotors with pads is almost asinine, I can understand new pads with new rotors; that is one I certainly recommend.

 

I have not taken apart my brakes and looked at the parts. The rotor does not appear to be scored or warped to my eye, but I have been told that warping could be a matter of microns.
The brakes work fine, it's just that awful noise.
I guess we'll see if anything was messed up when I take it to the dealership on Tuesday.

 

I too had a loud noise coming from my R/R brake.
Took it to my MINI dealer and, after inspection, they said the R/R piston did not retract and was rubbing against the rotor.

Is this a defect? I don't race and, although I drive a curvaceuos route to and from work every day, I'm not in a habit of braking hard. The only thing that I can pin it down to is a defective DSC module. Where it is sending brake signals to the R/R wheel constantly.

Anyone else have this problem or know of a MINI service notice?

 

Good Day,

I have a 2003 MCS and the brake sensor light came on - took it in and was told the rear sliders were sticking and caused the inner pads to wear out. When asked about warranty - and we are not done yet - the cause was "an excess of grime" I run 235 18's lowered with aero so it is never off road

Normal wear and tear on brakes not covered but when you only have to replace two inner pads because sliders sticking....

would be interested if others have the same thing - this is how we received windhshields on warranty...

Cheers,

Russell

 

ask the stealer how the excess grime penetrated the rubber boots that protect the slider(rail pin, guide pin)
sounds like a serious BS excuse

 

That was exactly the problem. The issue is this, according to my service guy, the brake master cylinder is located closest to the front left brake and thus, the R/R does not always get enough pressure to fully retract the piston. My caliper was replaced under warantee, along with the rotor and it now works perfectly.
As to the "too much grime" - I'd say that's MAJOR BS.

 

OOOOOH! very interesting...but STUPID
so I guess that all of the MINI's running in europe with RHD have problems with the L/R caliper, since the MC is located closest to the F/R caliper
service ppl must take a class in BS101, 201, 301, and 401...

 

hit the submit too soon...
One more thing: piston retraction is a based on the 'seal rollback' factor, and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with hydraulic pressure.

 

Yeah, that sounds like a problem I'm having. R/R inside pad is worn out.

Terrible noise coming from the area. 2003 MCS 20,000 miles.

Going to see dealer tmrw.

 

Hi,

I see a trend coming, I too heard the disgusting, grinding, dragging noise coming from the R/R brakes.

My R/R rotor was replaced at my expense at roughly 20,000 miles, the dealer told me that I should have come in for brakes sooner. I'd never heard of a car that needed rear brakes before the fronts but none the less that's how it turned out. Replaced the L/R rotor at 30,000 miles (again on my dollar) as part of dealer performed brake work. I was told that there just wasn't enough metal left to turn the rotor. Yet the fronts haven't been any trouble, replaced pads and no issues.

I will be happy to follow this thread to see if I have indeed been relieved of funds unneccessarily by my dealership.

Mini B

 

I wasn't aware that moving the steering column would mean moving the MC...to quote

Anyway, the brakes are perfect now. I don't give a crap what caused it. The fact is that we have shown that there is a problem with the R/R caliper. Go be arrogant someplace else.

 

sorry you took what I said as an attack against you, I was dissing the service person. They should explain things in a sensible manner rather than fill peoples heads with BS.
Also perhaps you haven't read any of my other posts on this topic... I would like to see a resolution to this problem, and determine if I need to pay special attention to my rear brakes. Several other braking issues have seemed to develop but most people don't give any real descriptions of the problems (ie: my brakes failed: well what happened just before the failure, did the pedal drop to the floor, did it only feel like the brakes didn't initially engage, but worked with more pressure applied to the pedal, did the pedal stay firm while the car didn't slow down, etc) each of the three scenarios denote a different type and scope of failure, and there are many thousands more to contend with, and not all failures are directly the brakes fault, even though no brakes is the result. But I digress.
Dont take my smartass remarks as personal affronts

 

MotorCity Mini just fixed my brakes. No worries, warranty took care of everything.

They were really professional about the whole thing.

 

Here's something to check if your rear brakes are making noise, even without them being applied. There are springs on the back of the pads closest to the pistons. These springs form a kind of C shape and clip into a groove in the piston. It's possible to install rear brake pads, but neglect to clip the springs into the groove. If this happens, the springs will get squeezed between the piston and pad, causing the brakes to be slightly applied all the time.

Easy enough to fix. :smile:

 

WOW!! I had my dealer replace both front and rear brake pads and roters since I have had the car. I have 42k on the car now and the rears went before the front. Not once have I had to pay for any of it. It has been covered under the free maintenance plan. Rotors are part of the braking system, I would not have paid any money out of my pocket for the replacements. BTW my inside pads were worn more than the outsides on the front and rear, and the rivets were actually digging into the rotor in the rear I would have a talk with that particular dealer, and If i did not get satisfaction from him, I would contact a regional rep if possible.

 

I'm on my third set of brake pads, and each of the last two times they've worn out, the right-rear pads are always the first ones to go. They wear out much earlier than the others. *shrug*

 

I had my 03 MCS in for the recalls and I mentioned to my service advisor that the brake pedal felt soft. Upon inspection they noticed that my brakes were worn to 4mm. They proceeded to install new brakes and rotors (underwarranty), when the took it all apart, the driverside rear caliper had been leaking fluid.

My car is now back and new brakes and rotors...and i am ready to motor more. I have only been doing regular driving (speeding at times, no racing or track time). Has anyone experienced worn brakes at 33k miles?!

 

I just replaced my rear pads last night after 22k miles. Everything look fine on mine. These even had 4 track days on them. The inside rotor from the right side was worn a bit more than the others.

 

33k? Damn. I'm lucky if a set of pads lasts 10k.

 

Are you guys using the parking brake? Doesn't the rachet attempt to adjust for pad wear by moving the piston outwards? I would think that if you are using the parking brake and pulling it hard you would have a tendency to over tighten the rear pads causing premature wear.

I rarely use a parking brake and if I do its 2 or 3 clicks max. Never had a problem and have gone through 4 sets of front pads and 1 set of rears.

 

Ok, polmear, all good.
The problem was that the brake was consistently dragging. It was screeching which progressed into a ghastly crunching, grinding noise. The r/r caliper was replaced, along with both rear rotors and both rear pads. It has been trouble free since that time. Now I think it's about dang time I got a pulley...