Front brake pad replacement

[KenL]

Interesting Duncan. I drive about 75% on dual carriageways so hopefully may be better for my disks.

[Angib]

In the USA many Mini garages (and owners) had a policy of automatically replacing discs when fitting new pads, though that has mostly changed now.

New discs every two sets of pads would seem to be the norm. I could understand this if the brakes were as good as BMW could make them but even after converting my SD from Cooper to S brakes, I would describe them as 'adequate' rather than 'good'.

BMW have always been like this - I can remember back in the 80s when my first gen 3-series was the same, with drum skimming required every two sets of shoes.

[badwolf340]

Neither had I until I got my first R56 mini and I phoned trading standards but there was nothing they could do. Friends in the motor trade say disks are made of pretty soft material now and I drive twisty, muddy, gritty country roads to work every day so guess its like sandpaper every time I brake.

the other thing to bear in mind is that since the removal of asbestos from brake pad material (a long time ago ) pads are fairly hard now a days and discs are pretty much a service item now

[KenL]

Washed the car today. Couldn't get a good look at the pads but the disks look great. A little lip but no scores or anything.

[daver6]

KenL my wife's cooper has 80k on it, the rear brake service light came on, I checked the pads, at least 4mm on both pads, very little lip on the discs, but, broke the cable trying to remove it, ordered 1 from eBay, plugged in the new wire - but did not refit in pads (I will replace the pads in a few months) in 15mins, reset the service light, job done.
I understand that people with little home mechanic skills need to have a reminder to check the brakes, but, this seems a little over the top - just my opinion so don't shoot me down......

[KenL]

Thanks for that Dave.

[KenL]

I checked the pads and there looks to be plenty miles left on them.

Interestingly, after another 2000 miles covered the indicator has gone up by 1100 miles to a suggested brake service.

So, I guess the indicator is not that accurate and only serves as a reminder.

[badwolf340]

I checked the pads and there looks to be plenty miles left on them.

Interestingly, after another 2000 miles covered the indicator has gone up by 1100 miles to a suggested brake service.

So, I guess the indicator is not that accurate and only serves as a reminder.

A good point Ken and most likely influenced by the type of driving EG motorway miles with little driving/braking to town driving with stop start driving and more braking

[Angib]

I swapped my SD's Cooper discs for Cooper S discs after about 10,000 miles so the pad wear sensor is utterly confused in my car. It got as low as 1600 miles to go but is now counting up and has got to 2000 miles.

This isn't wrong - it's just the system saying "OK, you are using the pads slower than I am expecting, as you haven't yet tripped the second-stage wear sensor".

I conclude that we should not believe the 'miles to go' figure on brake pads until it is at least under 1,000 miles and probably not till 500 miles to go.