R56 Mini brake pads

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afadeev
Posts: 288
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:02 pm

R56 Mini brake pads

Post by afadeev »

Hard to believe it, but in 20K miles I've eaten up both front and rear pads on my '08 MCS. Pretty even wear on all four corners, must be the traction control doing its job to explain similar wear back vs. front?
Since it's summer/autoX season, I threw the Hawk HP Plus (autoX) pads on there for now, but the car now needs a new set of winter/street brake pads.

What pads do you guys run?
OEM?
Hawk HPS?
StopTech Street Performance Pads (tireRack has them on the cheap) - what are these ?

TIA,
alex f

P.S.: This will be the second set of pads on the car. The first was covered by the dealer at 24K miles - the little brake pad monster!

mcahn
Posts: 226
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 4:36 pm

Post by mcahn »

I ran Hawk HPS on my e46 M3 for years for street, autoX, and driver school (beginner group). I like them a lot. They had bit of squeal and not much dust. They did lack bite on a cold morning, nothing serious. But on about my fourth track event the track workers said there were flames coming out of the front brakes. I went out for another session and they said it again. (Fortunately that was the last session of the event).

I switched to Hawk HP Plus. I also use these on the street, for autoX, and driver school. I like them even better than the HPS's in terms of performance. They are horrendously loud and produce a lot of dust. The noise doesn't bother me, although I get some funny looks and suggestions that I get my brakes fixed. If the car were newer the dust might bother me.

If you don't do track events I'd suggest the HPS's. If you do I imagine a Mini would probably not overdrive them, but I'm only guessing. Disclaimer -- these are the only two sets of pads I've had since I got the M3 and started autoX/track, so my experience is not very wide.

Happy stopping,
Matthew

afadeev
Posts: 288
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:02 pm

R56 Mini brake pads, StopTech Street Performance Pads anyone

Post by afadeev »

mcahn wrote:I ran Hawk HPS on my e46 M3 for years for street, autoX, and driver school (beginner group). I like them a lot. They had bit of squeal and not much dust. They did lack bite on a cold morning, nothing serious. But on about my fourth track event the track workers said there were flames coming out of the front brakes. I went out for another session and they said it again. (Fortunately that was the last session of the event).

I switched to Hawk HP Plus. I also use these on the street, for autoX, and driver school. I like them even better than the HPS's in terms of performance. They are horrendously loud and produce a lot of dust. The noise doesn't bother me, although I get some funny looks and suggestions that I get my brakes fixed. If the car were newer the dust might bother me.

If you don't do track events I'd suggest the HPS's. If you do I imagine a Mini would probably not overdrive them, but I'm only guessing. Disclaimer -- these are the only two sets of pads I've had since I got the M3 and started autoX/track, so my experience is not very wide.

Happy stopping,
Matthew

Thanks for feedback, Matthew.

I had actually run HPS's on my old E36M3 and regularly cooked them by the 3rd or 4th autoX run. Would not have dared take them to the track (Hawk Blues territory), but I'm somewhat heavy on the brakes with liberal LFB-ing.

For reference, I was also cooking OEM Mini pads last summer before buying HP Plus pads for the relatively light (~2700 lbs) Mini Cooper S. HP Plus pads fixed the fading and I _love_ how gradual the brake force application is with these pads (could never get OEM Mini pads to engage gradually w/out snapping passengers' necks). But as you said, they are faaaaarrrrr from quiet. I can live with the excessive dust, but my wife drives the car half the time and is starting to complain about the noise. Plus I will be selling the MCS later this summer and want the buyer to have proper street pads (or there may not be a buyer ;-).

Thus the question about StopTech Street Performance Pads. They are pretty cheap, and I found some laudatory reviews on them here: http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/fo ... eview.html

Has anyone in this forum run StopTech Street Performance Pads on the street?


alex f

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