As I was swapping wheels yesterday, I took a look at my brake pads and noticed that the fronts still have a decent amount of life left, but the rears are almost worn to the backings. Is this normal? IME the fronts always wear out before the rears so I was surprised to see this. It is a 2014 Countryman with 57K miles, still on the original pads and rotors. Is it OK to replace the rears only, or is it better to replace all four corners at the same time? Probably 20-25% still left on the fronts.

 

You can do just the rears but considering how important the brakes are I'd do them all and be done with it. I did mine with a bit left on the rears and the fronts had loads of miles left. I upgraded to EBC red pads, worth the money IMO. F56.

I upgraded the pads on the CM 40,000 miles ago with Akebono Euro pads and they still look almost new.

 

Although you still have some front pad left you probably will do better to select a brake pad that meets your driving needs and replace all four now. Usually replace rotors at the same time and start fresh. If you have not changed brake fluid it is time to do that as well.

Besides OEM brake pads you can choose pads that give more bite for performance driving or pads that dust less for street use. Rotors are just plain solid ones, nothing fancy needed and avoid drilled rotors which may crack at the holes over time.

Make sure that the hand brake is adjusted and works fine.

 

Every MINI that I’ve owned....the rears are first to go. Normal.

 

yeah, ours also. The fronts are monsters, still over 5/16" left, but the rears are down to the wire. I'm looking at options to replace now also.

 

I was wondering the same thing and now I know. I had new rear brakes, new rear rotors and sensor down on Thursday this past week, the tech said the fronts still look like brand new. They have about 16K on them.

 

Rear brakes wore out on my 2018 JCW in around 16K miles. Warning light came on. Turns out just one pad on the driver's side rear wheel was worn the most and it happened to be the one with the sensor.

What I found was happening was during cornering and not that spirited of cornering either and this in right hand turns the stability control warning light was flashing and the driver side rear wheel brake was being applied. In long sweeping right hand turns I could feel the brake being applied.

This accounted for the excessive wear. I had the rear brakes replaced -- the fronts were fine -- and still the stability control light was coming on too often for my liking. I lowered my cornering speed considerably.

Then 20K miles rolled around and along with the oil/filter service I had the brake fluid flushed/bled (and I think this included the clutch hydraulic fluid, too). The SA advised the fluid flush and bleed. Said it was "due" or something like that. Not that I'm complaining, I had the brake fluid flushed/bled every 2 years with my previous cars -- the factory called for 2 year brake/clutch hydraulic system flushes/bleeds (the brake and clutch hydraulic systems shared fluid) -- and I won't go into the details but it does make a difference. The MINI was not quite 2 years in my possession but it could have been 2 years old.

At any rate, after the brake fluid flush and bleed now I never see the stability control light come on. Don't know why the brake fluid wasn't flushed and bled when the rear brakes were done. I thought I asked for this to be done but maybe I forgot.

 

One thing that you can do...is turn in the "sport" mode (if you can).
In my 06, I turn off the traction control before I leave the driveway.
Beside being MUCH more fun to drive, the brakes work a lot less hard to keep the car...under control..!

I have solid disc wheel covers screwed to my wheels, so I can see the brake dust difference as collected on the discs with the traction control off vs. on.

Mike