[Cessa]

With the help of a forum member 'bheights' who posted a guide/pic of central jacking points, i bit the bullet and tried it out - and it actually worked with no damage :laugh:

I jacked up the rear of the car first using my trolley jack and a soft piece of wood with a hole in it so the bolt head sat in, jacked up the car and placed floor jacks under the standard jacking points.
Then placed the trolley jack under the front central jack point with another piece of soft wood with a hole and jacked up the front and placed trolley jacks under the front standard jack points and it worked with nothing bent or damaged. May seem a little crude but i'm happy that this is an effective system to use if you want to do a tyre rotation yourself.
Also make life much easier for oil changes etc etc.
While I was at it, also did a brake pad inspection. After 9000km, I had between 9mm and 10mm of pad left. The pad is shaped from so when you're down to minimum depth, you can visually see that the surface area of the pad increases until your about 3mm of pad left.
with this, I have about 6-7mm of useful pad life left. not sure what the full thickness is (new pad) so this will tell me how much life i will have left in the pads before changing is required.

 

[Cessa]

14 to 15mm, well that means mine should be due for replacement in 8 to 12 months or 20k km. That is not very good.

Your right, there is a panel with a + sign on the left and there is another panel to access the oil filter. Cant remember if there is a symbol on that or not.
Replacing the brake pad wear sensor also looks straight forward but resetting the car after the sensor replacement is something that hasnt been resolved yet.

 

[Cessa]

12mm pad thickness at new is much better. I have been doing some 'spirited' driving but not all the time so if I average 2mm pad wear every 9000km then should be looking at about 45-50k km before due. I can live with that.

 

[Cessa]

I checked my pads on my CooperS the other week (before it's service) and I have 10mm front and 7mm rears with 18K on the clock.


So maybe the rears really do wear out quicker .......

In theory, I would understand why the fronts would be thicker than the rears but for the rears to wear out faster is not a good engineering decision on the build.

If you go after market on the next set of pads, maybe we should look at a harder compound for the rears to even out the wear rate. My fronts are almost the same as the rear in wear factor but i dont ever use cruise. The DSC may contribute to the heavier wear on the rear but I haven't seen that too much on mine.

Donna - your wear rate seems pretty good for the front - double my km's and at the same thickness but the rears are definitely being used fast, maybe another 15k km left. Do you use cruise control????

 

[Cessa]

No definitely not, That's what I like about the mini, its not a 1 directional car.
Your rear brake wear should be of a concern as it seems very high for the type of driving you are doing. Maybe a sticky rear brake calliper or something..