Well I'm about to hit the 2nd time that my rear brakes need to be changed. I have a 2015 F56 S. First time was a little over 30k. Now about to hit almost 80k. According to the computer I have 1100 miles left on the rear brakes.
Problem is I'm in NY and the parts (disc, sensors and pads) are down in Florida. Which is about 1000 mile drive from where I am. I won't be going back down for another 2 months.
But if I time it out, from now til then, I'll hit that brake change warning during my drive down to Florida.

So my question is how long after the time is up can i safety still drive with the brake warning like that?

I know it's a FWD and braking is mostly applied to the front brakes.

 

Take your rear wheels off and take a look at pad thickness. You can go quite a bit past where the sensor times out but it is best to physically look for yourself. especially on long highway drives, you use your brakes lees so the "#miles left" is even less relevant. I did my rears a couple weeks ago after i was about 3000km past when the computer said they were "done". could have gone another 3000km of commuting easily.

Also, just to note, the car being FWD has little relevance to the braking being mostly applied at the front brakes. The vast majority of that has to do with the physics of weight transfer during deceleration.

 

Usually the MINI warning leaves plenty of time for you to get new pads.

MINI uses the rear pads to control handling of the car, more so if you really drive hard. It wears the rear pads a lot faster than you would think.

 

there are two brake wear warning systems

one is a miles counter ...... it can be WILDLY off

the other is the physical sensor in the pad .....

good idea is to know how to see pad wear by JUST LOOKING

miles warning for me went off THOUSANDS OF MILES too early ..... all I needed to do was rest the counter

good for many thousands after . . .

 

Looks like I'm 3-4mm left on the rear outer pads. Couldn't measure the rear inner pads.

 

one hopes / expects the inner and outer to wear the same

"seat of the pants rule" : when the pad material is thinner than the backing plate it is time to get new pads.

Here's a worn MINI pad with some white on the backing plate for reference



note the pad material thickness is just about the same as the backing plate


Here'a an almost new GEN2 pad



note that it is WAY thicker but ALSO that there is a bevel .... and the bevel ends at just about where the pad matches the backing plate thickness. In other words: if your quick visual check sees 'bevel' you have some time . . . .

These are seat of the pants checks .... but at least as good as the wear sensors!

 

Ran into this with my 2018 JCW with less than 16K miles. Rear pad to wear sensor. Pads had plenty of material left, the most worn pad was the one with the sensor. Figures.

After I got new brakes I watched the dash more closely during hard cornering and that stability control nanny is kicking on all the time during most cornering. And I'm not talking about taking a corner with full opposite lock and in a 4 wheel drift. Just taking corners at a bit higher than "norma" speed but still at a safe speed. My problem is I'm spoiled. I came from Porsche cars and I can tell you the JCW doesn't corner like a Porsche. I have cooled my jets to prolong brake life.

 

Your advice to look at all pads is spot on. Pads do not always wear the same or evenly.

But if they do one can drive some distance with the warning light on. With another car when the brake wear sensor light went on I checked the pads and all were wearing evenly. There was 3/16ths of an inch of pad material left and I continued to drive the car normally for nearly another 1000 miles. As I drove the light would come on more readily. Finally it was on when I started the engine and I just got tired of the light being on all the time. The pads had not worn all that much more but all sensors -- each pad had its own sensor! -- were all worn down to its sensor and each sensor was clearly making contact with the rotor.

The rear pads can do a fair bit of braking courtesy brake bias valving and the car's short wheelbase. (When I had new brakes fitted to my JCW as I bedded in the new pads I was rather surprised by how much better the braking bite was. It was clear to me the rear brakes play a not inconsequential role in the car's overall braking capability.)

Also, the rear brakes can suffer from running hotter which can increase their wear rate. And as Mini.the.Moocher mentioned in his post the rear pads can wear out from the car's stability control system using the rear brakes to help keep the car under control. (And this was my experience.)

 

good advice here. fwiw, I rode mine for weeks after the sensor went off as I was waiting for my G-loc pads. There was plenty pad left left weeks later. I suspect they are engineered to err on "the safe side."