Yep, that's what's been going on for the past three weeks evidently. 4 weeks ago my brake wear sensor light comes on and so I would make sure to order some new pads and new rotors afterwards.

A week later as I was travelling on the highway my passenger rear tire essentially goes flat, although I don't know it right away since my tire pressure monitor light never came on. (I forgot to reset the system when I put the summer tires back on) And since I did not have run-flats on, it meant I had to call home and get my brother to come by and then we would go to our shop (storage area in essence) and grab on of my snow tires and a jack and replace the tire then.





I'll remind you that in the second pic the tire is more off the rim because I drove the MINI a bit further onto a frontage road away from the cars on the main road

So a couple days later, I switch to my snow tires until I get my brand new spare tires on my summer wheels. (Goodyear Eagle NCT 5 *run-flats* that came with the wheels that are on my snow tires)

At this point I get the new front brake pads (Hawk HPS) and a new brake wear sensor, and get those put on along with my new summer tires.

Afterwards, I decide to order new front and rear rotors, (OEM replacements) rear brake pads (also Hawk HPS), a rear brake wear sensor and the Bentley Manual. (updated version) Those would arrive a week later.

Now what should've been maybe a 2 hour job, took two days. Essentially it came to be that the rotors were a pain to get off. (the torx screw that holds the rotors were unbelievably tight) I decided I would take the rears off first since that was where most of the work was to be done.

After 2 1/2 hours the rear brakes were all finally taken care of. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, Egan fights back yet again.

Now comes the front rotors which at first seemed relatively easy, but the driver side rotor fought back with a pain. In fact so much pain, the torx socket stripped the screw itself. Now the only way to get it off was to essentially drill it out and use a screw extracter tool and that did not go so well either. The head of the torx screw broke off and my dad and I were left with the the rest of the screw basically rusted or fused onto the wheel hub.

Now because we already took the caliper off we couldn't use the brakes so I had to use a breaker bar on two of the wheel bolts to counter the force my dad and putting on the wrench to getting the rest of the screw off using a screw extractor. Still would not budge. As a last resort, we took some scrap exhaust pipe and put opposite forces just to make the screw move and it still would not budge

After an hour trying to get it off, my dad and I gave up for the night (it was after midnight at this point) But the next morning my dad went back and chiseled it off which apparently worked. So for now I would have to deal with one screw that holds one rotor on and use the four bolts that hold the wheel on the other side for the other rotors. I now need to order some stainless steel torx screws.

Eventually I got the rotors changed and then all was finally said and done. That was essentially my experience of changing brakes. Although since I've never done it before, it a was a good experience in the end and in the future will not take as long.

I do apologize for this being a bit long, but I kept delaying to post all this and everything added up to what happened all the span of this month.

My next objective is to take my MINI somewhere and get the brake fluid flushed and new tranny fluid as well. I'm less than 200 miles from hitting the big 50k mile mark and I'll hit it this week on my way to EAA up in Oshkosh.

 

Too bad about the tire... Don't worry about the torx screws, they're not actually necessary. You should go back and put a dab of never seize on them though, if you didn't already. There's a thread I read a while back that said to do that the first time you take the wheels off.

 

I was about to say, all those torx screws really do is hold the rotors in place when you take the wheels off, once you have the lugs in they dont really do much. Good story though.

 

Yes, that's what my dad and brother were telling me. That the torx screws are not really that necessary. I said that I would order some new ones and then thought maybe I really don't need them. Maybe I'll get some anyway down the road, but not right away. I suppose it's nothing urgent so I'll see how everything plays out.

And I did put some stuff on the screws that would prevent it from rusting. I forget what it's called I'm afraid. It's that silver substance.

And as of now, everything is doing just fine. No problems to report or anything.