As of tonight, I noticed my rears (I think drivers rear) is making a noise approximately once per rotation... Sounded like a very mild grinding, possibly over what would be 20-25% of the rotor.

Pretty faint. Can hardly hear it if someone is talking or if the radio is on, but it's obvious the harder you break. Oh, and it's only under ~ 25mph.


I checked my pads when I got home (10,000 miles even on the Mini right now, weeee!) and the fronts have 3/8'" on them, and the rears have more then 1/2"... So I'm pretty sure it's not the pads.

My truck makes a smiliar noise, but the dealer said it was because the rotors are warped and I need new ones. I don't know how the truck rotors got warped, but is it possible for a Mini rotor with 10k on it to warp all of a sudden?

 

i dont see how they could warp that fast unless something is torqued wrong on that wheel??

 

new wheels w/ overtorqued lug nuts??

 

I believe it is possible, yes. Improper Torque mixed with some high performance braking?

 

No new wheels. They're getting sent back, and were never mounted.

Last time my S-lites were off was about 3 weeks ago when I put on my swaybar. If it was torque on the s-lites, would it cause the noise only when braking? When under 25, I can let off the brakes, and the sound goes away.

 

I think it might be excess pad material transferred to the rotor, easy way to check and fix...find a nice open place with no traffic, get the car up around 50-60, and apply the hand brake with your thumb on the button, until the car slows to around 40, release and repeat a couple, 3-4 times; then drive around for about 20-30 mins at 50-60mph, without applying the brakes. see if that fixes things. GL

 

Oooo! That could be it. Now that I think about it, it does seem to come from the rears, which aren't used as much as the fronts for normal braking. And I was on a 1 week trip out of town... It's possible that there was some buildup on the rear rotor... I'll definitely give this a try today. THANKS!!!!

 

Just don't lock up your rears! I've done that before...as it doesn't take much force...

 

What timing. I just started hearing the same thing last night after my MINI sat in the airport parking lot for 5 days. The sound isn't noticable at all if I break slowly. If I break harder, I hear it. Of course, with no radio on.

 

2005LY- that sounds like there's just some oxidation on the top surface of the rotor from
you parking it in the rain.

just use it normally and it should go away.

 

Thanks Polmear! Sounds is gone!

 

woohoo! something I said was worthwhile!
gotta catch that counselor from high school and point this out!!

glad to know I helped.

 

Kenchan, drove around town normally last night and it seemed better but I wasn't so sure this morning pulling out of the driveway. I'll see how it is tonight and maybe try the hand brake idea later.

Thanks for the help, guys

 

This reminds me of my car at the moment....

My brake light has been on for a bit now. We checked the fronts, and they had 6mm left on them. We ran out of time to check the rears as I had to go to work. I'm getting squeaking - only slightly though. I'm going to check the rears asap.

Another friend here has had his light come on, and it was the rears that had gone first. We were talking about this and were sure there were other Aussies that had their rears go first as well...

This dosen't really make sense, taking into account brake bias...

Is this a common thing?? The rear pads going first?? Anyone have any ideas why this would happen...?

 

My noise is back... Sporadically. Some stops it's there and very evident, some stops it's not there at all.

It's odd because it still seems like a rotor issue to me. You know how if there is a bump, and something is going over it, and the process makes noise... That the noise going down the far side of the bump, would be about opposite of the noise going up the bump.

Kinda like if the noise went bump-bump-click, going up, it would go click-bump-bump going down.

I do believe I'm getting this sort of noise... I did have my wheelbearings replaced about 2 months ago. I wonder if that could have something to do with it.

 

I have the same noise, I am pretty sure its coming from the rear. Under braking. Sometimes I can hear a similar less pronounced noise when I let off the gas while going under 30 mph. It started probably 500 miles after I had my H-sport springs put in, and I really hope that has nothing to do with it. It does seem worse after sitting parked in the rain/snow weather. That would seem to indicate oxidation on the brake rotors yes?

 

No clue. I'm going to have my dealer look at it when I take it in for 10k service this week.

 

Yeh, I'm waiting for my yearly inspection coming up soon to have it taken care of. It needs alignment anyway, so I figured on putting up with it for now (I only drive it about 4 times/month right now) and having everything done at once.

 

Got some insight from the dealer today, but after writing out the post, determined it would be better put into suspension forums.