I have no idea what 'pad retainer' you are talking about ....

GEN1 pads have clips that are attached to the pad backing plate and are not 'optional' or removable

{gen1 rear} disregard circles


GEN2 pads have no such clips
{GEN2}


EBC pads sets typically have a stick on shim material which is more anti-sqeek than anything else ...

 

The fronts came with none used original.
The rears did come with a backing plate that snaps on the pad. EBC.

Now to finish this & try to reset everything.

 

to educate me

could you provide a picture

of the pad retainer

 

The pad retainers are on the pads installed, but they clip on the back nicely & are about 2/16ths thick (steel). Mini provides pad holders with their pads, the rears I took off had a piece of metal as a backing maybe similar to the EBC? As it was quite rusted. It appears each manufacturer has the specs for the caliper that they use to design their pad in accordance with the company they represent.
Ie. Mini pads are quite different from EBC pads both used to stop the car.

 

Skeeter is our 2006 R50 JAC. Very basic. The brakes were about 25K in an not really needing replacement when I bought it last August, but they were horribly noisy and the brake dust was just stunning.

I thought about a number of kits, slotted rotors etc. but the point is they're just not worth the money. A good friend with a speed shop that specialized in Mini's suggested I get good quality OEM style rotors and any of several ceramic pads.

I went with Bosch QuietStop rotors and Akibono ceramic pads from Amazon as well as the odd bits and pieces. If you have a Gen 1 mini there's a decent video on Youtube. .

The one thing I would do different especially on the rears is crack the bleed valve and attach a brake fluid collection bottle.

Finally the brake windback tool either this set from Mini Motoring or this tool from Emnotek is really necessary to compress the rear caliper piston sufficiently. I rented a tool set from AutoZone, but not one of the adapters really worked and it was the hardest part of then whole job.

Make sure you have appropriate anti-seize and lubricants and plenty of brake cleaner.

Finally when you're done lookup the bed in procedures for your brand or brake pads. For example Akibono says not to do anything specific and your pads should be bedded in couple hundred miles of normal driving, where some firms recommend a series of stops from speeds as high as 60-65 MPH with a period to cool off the rotors.

The new brakes are great by the way, stops really well and very straight, no noise, no brake dust and I spent less than $250.

Oh one last thing, if you have a late 2006 Gen 1 measure your front rotors before ordering. One of the reasons I went with Bosch is they have separate part numbers as these cars made after July 12 2006 could have one of two different size from rotors 276 or 294 mm diameter rotors. Mine has the smaller rotors about 10.75 inches.

I called a number of specialty Mini parts folks and not one of them could tell me what the differences were in the brake systems at that time.