I looked through the sticky threads but could not find the answers I am looking for.

Trying to figure out if your Brembos will fit on the 1st and 2nd Generations of MINI Coopers. The Brembos we use is very similar in size to yours but where there are remanufactured Cobalt calipers, no such thing for our BMW made MINIs. I am looking for:

1.) Dimension center to center of the caliper to hub mounting holes. The MINI is 4 3/4" (121 mm)
2.) Dimension from face of rotor to outside edge of caliper.
3.) Dimension from rotor to hub assembly, see the picture the MINI has about 13/16" (21 mm)

Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

I installed the Cobalt Brembos on my MINI Cooper along with 330x26 mm rotors. The only thing I had to do was to file out 1/16" on each of my carrier bolt holes in order to use the 4 7/8" centers of the Cobalt.

Anybody know what the pistons are. stainless, or aluminum with plating? The MINI Brembo has a ceramic composite that will melt under the high heat of track runs.

 

Nice, as far as I know the pistons dont have an issue with melting. Not sure what their material of construction is though.

 

Stainless steel will not conduct heat like aluminum and that is why I am wondering whether the pistons are plated. I am going to send Crate Engines an email and see if they know.

 

I would guess alum

 

Polished Aluminum then anodized.

 

The MINI Brembos have the ceramic composite that have a very low heat conductivity value so the rotor heat is not transferred to the brake fluid as fast. Aluminum has a high factor, almost 10 times higher than stainless steel. This could be why I have read here that the rubber seals/boots are destroyed by the heat associated with tracking. Anybody know if there are stainless pistons available? You can them get them for the MINI but they are very expensive. Would think they might work on the Cobalts.

Most have no idea how the MINI even in stock form can take corners, how do your cars handle?

 

Surprisingly well in stock form, they're drivers cars.

 

You guys ever to any Tail of Dragon, The Snake or the Back of Dragon runs?

 

looking on rock auto, the centric replacement pistons are marked "steel and aluminum." so maybe thats a factory aluminum piston machined and has a steel sleeve on it. there are no pictures of them.

the interchange does show they are also used in an alpha 4c and a ferrari 360. so yea, gm used ferrari parts in our cobalts

 

Throw Lotus in as well. I did allot of research on the Cobalt Brembo and the pad appears to be a Lotus style and size.

 

Steel is about 5 times better for heat mitigation then aluminum. I will try to contact Centric and see whether they will tell us.

 

I went with the Rock Auto Centric anodized aluminum for the pistons but OEM for all seals and hardware on my rebuilds.

 

How tall are those pistons?

 

29.57mm

 

And will a magnet stick to them?

 

On another side, our 1st generation cars (02-06) are supercharged with both the 2nd and 3rd gens being turbo charged. There might be some other ideas that we could share.

 

They are not ferrous... Very nice anodized finish!

 

I rebuilt my Brembos once a few years back because I had melted the rubber seals while road racing.
I have since upgraded brake lines and brake fluid and although I must admit my brakes have since probably not seen very serious abuse due to other issues while at the track, they seem to hold up well now.
Do note how the heat has completely burnt off my calipers original finish, revealing a nice copper shade

 

What brake fluid you using?

 

[QUOTE=colodude18;7692077]I rebuilt my Brembos once a few years back because I had melted the rubber seals while road racing.
I have since upgraded brake lines and brake fluid and although I must admit my brakes have since probably not seen very serious abuse due to other issues while at the track, they seem to hold up well now.
Do note how the heat has completely burnt off my calipers original finish, revealing a nice copper shade

I would do them in a high temp Black PC

Mine media blasted to the original color.

 

I've been using Prospeed RS683.
Prospeed RS683 Xtreme Performance Brake Fluid? The world's highest performance DOT 4 Racing Brake Fluid!