Thank you very much Matt
I managed to use the mini and drove to bryon bay.

It was just a little scary as the brakes wasnt that good at all, theres only pressure from half way when you press the pedal (30-50mm pedal travel before the brakes starts grabbing). Doesnt change anything if I pump the pedal.

I followed all the steps for a proper brake bleeding
adjusted the rear brakes

Cheers

so problem solved razor or is it still there?

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

I'd be taking it to a Brake specialist or a Mini Specialist

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

brakes arnt that difficult to work out its trying to help diagnose a problem over a forum is the hard bit.

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

When it come to Brakes and you have already been hitting your head againsted a wall..its time for a Professional to fix it.
Its going to be his life or someone else who gets hurt

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

I'd still want to try to solve the issue myself as this is the only way to learn anyway
and I've got plenty of time now to sort the problem, and wont be driving it till I get it all sorted out.
would the rotor thickness affect the pedal pressure? I might check the thickness of my discs

yes it will if the rotors are under sized or your drums have gone past the maximum then it will cause your pedal to drop. but spongey pedal and a pedal that goes half way is 2 different things. razor do me one favour and bleed your rear brakes only. you said in another post that when you bleed the rear you get a firm pedal but when you got to the front it goes spongey again.

do me a favour and just bleed the back ones and see how you go. you dont need to consistantly bleed all 4 all the time, you just need to find the one thats causing the problem. bleed the back first and see what happens if no good then just bleed one caliper at a time. e.g bleed driver side caliper check pedal if no good got to the passenger one. if you do that and you still have a porblem then its somewhere further up the line maybe a the juntion is leaking or master cylinder has a worn seal.

but start with the easiest first.

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Will try to do that
but its not loosing any fluid at all

I'll post back as soon as I bleed the rears and will let you know

The rotor thickness will not affect the pedal pressure. The pistons will just slide further out of the caliper to take up the slack. There is nothing to make the pistons return.

his not talking about pedal pressure his talking about pedal height. spongeness indicates possible air/ old fluid in the lines. if you have excessive pedal travel but a firm pedal or drums are oversized or rotors are undersized

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Just a thought (amongst many), have you performed any work to the master cylinder of late? Could you please check the clevis pin underneath the master cylinder. If it has half come out (which may cause slack movement), then it may be waiting to come away totally at a bad time...

While you are there, put your hand on the clevis pin and move the pedal through the slack part of the movement. See how much slack movement is being caused by a worn pin. It should be very small.

_________________
SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Wrong. You have been reading your tech stuff again.

How will a thin rotor cause a low pedal? Does the pedal know that the rotor is thin?
What happens when the brake pads wear out? The pistons move to take up the slack.
What happens when the rotors wear out? The pistons move to take up the slack.

sorry that theroy only works on drum brakes... my mistake

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

But with drums you adjust the shoes to meet the drum so you are back where you started from.

The reason for minimum thicknesses on rotors is so that they can sell more rotors.

no morris the reason for minimum thickness on rotors is to prevent cracking and brake pads falling out. (dont laugh ive seen are car had that happen)

the reason the rotors have that maxmuim thickness is because its designed to aborb heat and with stand it. when it gets to thin it cant let the heat disipate and will crack under pressure.

_________________
oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower