The car is a 2004 MSC with 34K miles. The question is how much resistance should there be on the rear rotor when the brakes are not applied?

I noticed some noise coming from the rear when the brakes were lightly applied. I had recently swapped my summer tires on and noticed that the right rear wheel had more resistance than the left. So when I heard this new noise I figured it was a rubbing pad.

So I slackend off the parkling brake. No change

I took the rear brakes apart and cleaned and lubed them. No change. There is lots of pad and rotor left.

At this point I am thinking sticky piston so I am going to take them apart again and check the pistons.

The pads and rotor do appear to be somewhat glazed.

So although the rotor is not binding, there is a fair amount of resistence when I rotate the wheel. I'm curious if this is "normal".

Any thoughts? Thanks

 

Well I rotated the piston back into the caliper. It wasn't easy. The surface where the piston makes contact with the pad was cleaned and lubed again - some corrosion was present. The brake works fine but after applying them the friction remains high.

I am still under warranty for another 33 days so I guess its back to the dealer.

If anyone has any thoughts or pointers on how to free up the piston, your comments would be appreciated. Thanks

 

I just replaced my left rear wheel hub assembly. Wheel was hard to spin. Pulled the caliper off the rotor, removed the rotor and gave the hub a spin. It did not spin. Here's the thread.

'02s and '03s are now seeing these go bad according to the dealer.

....Les

 

My right rear parking brake Bowden cable seized completely. http://www.lonestarminiclub.com/foru...read.php?t=383

 

Thanks guys those are good tips. I am going to check the parking brake gap. It is described in the Bently manual but the link had a better picture.

I'm also going to take the rotor off and check the bearing. I don't think that's it but I might as well check it.

Thanks again for the tips

 

if your rear pads are dragging to much just bend the e-brake cable. mini has made a bulliten for this concern some time ago. or just bring it to the dealer and we'll take care of it for you

 

Ok

I don't think its the parking brake because the the cable has been slacked off and the spring is resting on its stop. ( wasn't able to locate the service bulliten online)

I don't think its a wheel bearing as I took off the caliper and the hub/disk rotates freely.

When I went to put the caliper back on I can not push the piston back into the caliper to allow it to be reassembled. I opened the bleed nipple and when I rotate the piston clockwise fluid flows out, counter clockwise fluid flows back in. Despite using a lot of force, I cannot get the piston to retract into the caliper even with the nipple open and rotating the piston clockwise. When I first reassembled the brake (yesterday) I was able to rotate the piston back into the caliper.

So now may brain is :impatient and I'm stuck like the piston. Further suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

use the specail tool to put it back in place would be my suggestion
pain in the !@# with out it

 

Today I went and tried exactly what I did yesterday and the piston rotated back into the caliper letting me reassemble the brakes. I am using the needle nose pliers rotate and push non technique. Nevertheless a mystery. I'm going to see if the noise is still there under driving conditions and take it to the dealer if it is.

Thanks for your help

 

Yesterday when you couldn't get the piston to rotate back far enough, are you sure the bleeder screw was open. It will back up into the master cylinder if it can. Just one possibility.

YD