[MartinSSZ]

Hi all,

The rear discs (and pads) on my Cooper are going to need replacing because of the dreaded corrosion/scraping/screeching issue.

If the dealer won't play ball on this (my Cooper's 3 months out of warranty, but I did report brake problems to them 6 months ago) what is a cost-effective upgrade that costs roughly the same money as BMW would sting me for genuine part replacements?

I've been looking at the Mintex offerings, anyone got any experience of them? I'm tempted to go for M1144 pads as an upgrade, and normal Mintex discs.

Thanks!

[MartinSSZ]

Following the flood of replies to my question I replaced the rear brakes on my Cooper yesterday with Bosch discs and Delphi Lockheed pads for the princely sum of £45 and an hour of my time.

The rear nearside brake was completely scrap, despite being looked at by Elms in Cambridge and declared 'fine' 5,000 miles ago.

[zyo]

Doesn't sound too bad, they want £190 to change the front discs and pads at my dealer. My car is two years old and is due new front pads shortly but i am told that the discs will need changing aswell. Haven't experienced a car that need both discs and pads changing at the same time before. Also they missed the fact that the rear pads were at their limit when the warning light came on two days after the service. They have replaced the rear pads and i said surely it 's unusual to change the rears before the fronts due to the bias toward the front brakes.The answer was " no". Methinks that maybe a little economic with the truth.Oh..and they charged me £92 to change them.

[MartinSSZ]

I believe there's a design/engineering problem inherent with the MINI's rear brakes, as most I know of have required/will require rear brakes before fronts, which (as you say) is totally unheard of...

For £45 and an hour to fit I couldn't be bothered to argue with the dealer about it as a warranty issue.

[zyo]

Thats bad enough, but the fact that the guys doing the service didn't notice the rear pads were out is alarming, its a good job there is a warning light. The ironic thing is that when i was asking the service guy about replacing my fronts in the near future he pointed out that the engineer had been THAT THOROUGH that he had noticed the chrome tip on my handbrake was broken....but not the fact that my rear pads were out. When i asked why it hadn't been spotted i was told "i don't know" followed by "the engineer is aware it wasn't picked up and will be having a meeting."No apology though.(who trains them in customer care) I am not unreasonable and occasionally these thing happen , we all make mistakes, i would much rather someone said..."i'm very sorry it wasn't picked up " than giving me some story.