Mr. OEM gets bigger feet

[Edge]

Hey everyone - some of you have already seen my car in the past week, so the "cat is out of the bag" already... but just over a week ago, I finally completed the brake upgrade project on my MINI that I've been planning for a long time. Well, to be honest, I didn't do the work myself, but I researched and planned it out.

 

Before I even took delivery of my MINI 7 years ago, I had the dealer install the 1st Gen JCW Sport Brake Kit. This was a very nice upgrade from the factory brakes. However, my 1st Gen MCS now has the 2nd Gen JCW Big Brake Kit (BBK), which technically isn't supposed to be possible. This is the same brake kit that comes on all 2nd Gen Factory JCW MINIs, and is officially available from MINI to upgrade all 2nd Gen MCs and MCSes.

 

Why? Because I firmly believe you can never have too much brake. Why this specific kit? Because it's OEM. :laugh:

 

A few technical details:

 

OEM Brake rotor sizes (diameter: front/rear)

 

 

• 1st Gen (Cooper & Cooper S)
  276mm/259mm (10.87"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 1st Gen (JCW)
  294mm/259mm (11.57"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 2nd Gen (Cooper)
  280mm/259mm (11.02"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 2nd Gen (Cooper S)
  294mm/259mm (11.57"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 2nd Gen (JCW)
  316mm/280mm (12.44"/11.02")
  ----------------------------
  
• 2nd Gen (JCW GP)
  330mm/280mm (12.99"/11.02")
  ----------------------------
  
• 3rd Gen (Cooper)
  282mm/259mm (11.1"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 3rd Gen (Cooper S)
  294mm/259mm (11.57"/10.2")
  ----------------------------
  
• 3rd Gen (JCW)
  335mm/259mm (13.19"/10.2")
  

 

NOTE: All rear rotors are 10mm (0.39") thick, and all front rotors are 22mm (0.87") thick, except the R56 JCW GP and F56 JCW front rotors, which are 26mm (1.02") and 30mm (1.18") thick respectively.

 

Interesting facts from above:

 

 

• All 2nd Gen Cooper Ses effectively come with the same brakes as the JCW brakes on 1st Gens, except for the red caliper paint and JCW logo
  
• All MINIs come with 259mm rear rotors, except the 2nd Gen Factory JCW and JCW GP which come with 280mm rear rotors
  
• The rear rotors on the 2nd Gen Factory JCW are the same size as the front rotors on the 2nd Gen Coopers!
  
• The 3rd Gen JCW has even larger front brake rotors than the 2nd JCW GP, yet it still has the smaller rear brakes!
  

 

The other nice benefit of the upgrade for me, besides the significant increase in rotor sizes, is that the new front calipers are a "4 piston, floating" design whereas my old calipers are a "1 piston, fixed" design. The former is far better technology. The whole kit is actually manufactured for MINI by Brembo - definitely a well known brand in performance brakes. :top:

 

Finally, the meaty details...

 

Anyway, if you have a 1st Gen MINI and you're interested in this upgrade, here's the "unusual" stuff needed:

 

 

• You need to do the R56 Rear Trailing Arm swap first (except for the GP, which already has them). Without this swap, the hoses for rear brakes don't properly clear. The other alternative is to cut a small chunk out of your stock rear trailing arms, but that idea just sounds bad to me! The other benefit of doing this swap is that the R56 Rear Trailing Arms are notably lighter weight (they're aluminum), which benefits the handling. Note you'll also have to buy special bushings from Helix due to a change in the rear suspension shock mount design.
  
• You will need custom front brake lines, because the connector on the caliper end is different for 2nd Gens. The brake lines need to be 1st Gen on the car end and 2nd Gen on the caliper end. I have a contact who can get these made for you if you're interested (nothing in it for me). (NOTE: The rear brake lines are the same connectors between Gens - no problem there)
  
• You will need the R56 parking brake cables, because the connector for the parking brake is very different on 2nd Gens. The end that attaches to the handbrake is the same though, and they are the correct length.
  
• In order to fit the front calipers over your existing protection plates (the shields behind the rotors), a small amount will have to be cut/shaved off. The new calipers are just that big!
  
• Finally, the wheels you currently have may not fit over the new front calipers. They really are huge! If that's the case, you may only need a wheel spacer to solve the problem... but if the wheels really are too small (especially 16" wheels or less), you'll probably need different wheels.
  

 

Beyond that, all you really need is the 2nd Gen JCW BBK itself.

 

Here are the relevant OEM (& Helix) part numbers:

 

R56 Trailing Arm swap

 

 

• 33326795659 TRAILING ARM, LEFT (R56 part)
  
• 33326795660 TRAILING ARM, RIGHT (R56 part)
  
• 33306772658 HEX BOLT WITH WASHER (QTY: 2) (R56 part)
  
• HMS 1080 HELIX R56 HEAR SHOCK BUSHINGS
  

 

 

R56 JCW BBK install

 

• 34110432802 SPORTS BRAKE RETROFIT KIT
  
• 34406769955 LEFT HAND BRAKE BOWDEN CABLE (R56 part)
  
• 34406769954 RIGHT HAND BRAKE BOWDEN CABLE (R56 part)
  

 

Whew... I think that covers it, but I'll come back and edit this post if I realize I left something out.

 

I'm sure some are asking... how do they feel? They feel great! The nice thing is that for casual driving, they just feel "normal", like my old brakes. They aren't too "grabby" or anything like that. However, when you really need them, whoa does the car stop hard. Love it!

 

Finally... here are some pics! Note that they were taken with a variety of different cameras, so the quality varies.

 

Original front brake (1st Gen JCW)

 

Front brake shield after being trimmed to fit new caliper

 

New front brake (R56 JCW BBK)

 

Parking brake cable swap

 

Original rear brake (stock - painted red)

 

New rear brake (R56 JCW BBK)

 

End result - front wheel

 

End result - rear wheel

 

Finally, a BIG thank you to my tech for his help in pulling this off - there's no way this would have happened without him!

[Edge]

As a follow-up, here are the OEM MINI wheels that officially fit these R56 JCW BBK front brakes without using a wheel spacer:

 

17" R97

 

17" R104

 

17" R108

 

17" R112

 

17" R114

 

18" R113

 

In my case, to fit my summer wheels (the GP 18" R107), I had to use a 5mm wheel spacer (and appropriate longer wheel bolts) to clear the front calipers. Oddly enough, despite not being on the "official" list, my winter wheels (17" R111) fit without the wheel spacers! This could also mean that the older design of the same wheel (17" R91) might fit as well... pics of those:

 

17" R111

 

17" R91

 

(All wheel images above borrowed from the Wheel/Tire FAQ on MINI2.com, except the R114 image, which I had to get directly from MINIUSA's own site)

[Scavenger]

Hey everyone - some of you have already seen my car in the past week, so the "cat is out of the bag" already... but just over a week ago, I finally completed the brake upgrade project on my MINI that I've been planning for a long time. Well, to be honest, I didn't do the work myself, but I researched and planned it out.

 

Before I even took delivery of my MINI 7 years ago, I had the dealer install the 1st Gen JCW Sport Brake Kit. This was a very nice upgrade from the factory brakes. However, my 1st Gen MCS now has the 2nd Gen JCW Big Brake Kit (BBK), which technically isn't supposed to be possible. This is the same brake kit that comes on all 2nd Gen Factory JCW MINIs, and is officially available from MINI to upgrade all 2nd Gen MCs and MCSes.

 

Why? Because I firmly believe you can never have too much brake. Why this specific kit? Because it's OEM. :laugh:

 

A few technical details:

(See original Post)

 

Finally, a BIG thank you to my tech for his help in pulling this off - there's no way this would have happened without him!

Wow, very nice write-up, man. This is IMO one of the best OEM upgrades! I think your "End Result - Front Wheel" picture is worthy to be a desktop wallpaper!

 

I think the new front caliper actually compliments the GP wheel very nicely and looks BAD ASS!!!

 

I'm glad to see that there are several OEM 17" wheels that will fit over these as well, since many folks are concerned about ride comfort loss with moving to 18" or larger. The rear caliper and rotor are super tough compared to the measly stock rears. You've gained an effective increase in front of 21mm over stock!!!!

 

Great job :congrats::top:

Edited March 24, 2012 by Scavenger

[TATTRAT]

Awesome thread, and write up!

 

This is something I have been looking into over the past couple of months, and really want to go with a big brake conversion. One question, Haemish: Any reason you didn't go with a slotted/drilled rotor?

 

So glad you posted all this, it saved me from the thread I was gonna be making! Looks great!!

[Edge]

I think the new front caliper actually compliments the GP wheel very nicely and looks BAD ASS!!!

...

Great job :congrats::top:

Awesome thread, and write up!

Thank you!

The rear caliper and rotor are super tough compared to the measly stock rears. You've gained an effective increase in front of 21mm over stock!!!!

Yep - and 40mm in the front!

This is something I have been looking into over the past couple of months, and really want to go with a big brake conversion. One question, Haemish: Any reason you didn't go with a slotted/drilled rotor?

Several reasons, actually:

 

 

• Solid is stronger. Yep - although slotted/drilled may look cooler, they are more prone to crack & wear than the solid ones. The added cooling benefits are really only useful on the track anyway... and in theory, solid will stop better because it's a larger contact area.

• The rears are not available in slotted/drilled. Only the fronts. To me, that just looks silly, because it doesn't match. Some people really like it though - to each his/her own.

• I like Mr. OEM to look slightly less "blingy". Yeah, there's definitely some "showiness" there (I love my GP wheels!), but there's a balance I'm trying to keep. Another example is that I went for body color roof, and I even had the carbon fiber JCW spoiler painted over in matching Hyper Blue so that it blended better with the roof and the rest of the car. The spoiler is already loud enough as it is without showing off CF as well. :laugh:

 

Anyway, the kit itself comes with the slotted/drilled front rotors, but the factory JCWs come with the solid front rotors. So yeah, I actually have two brand new extra slotted/drilled front rotors that have never been used here at home.

 

As for going with a BBK, doing what I did on an R53 is not a totally simple process, as I listed in the first post. If you decide you only want to upgrade the front brakes, you can skip the trailing arm conversion, but I suggest doing it anyway as it also benefits your suspension. Of course, there are plenty of aftermarket brake kits that are really good too. You may want to consider the Detroit Tuned offerings, for example.