Brakes Wheels 1st Gen Tires Most liked posts in thread: R56 rear calipers bolt on R53?

I can't remember about the rear brakes, but I even though the fronts will bolt on, they fronts will require a different brake line.

 

Aren't the rears the same size?

EDIT: Just checked realoem. Same size rotor, different looking caliper.

R53


R56

 

Different calipers with different style pins. Different E brake cables and different wear sensors for the pads (minor)

My guess is that it will not work. Plus the rear pads on R56 are pretty small. Slightly smaller than R53

 

I"m not so sure..

the GP arm had the R53 rear brake set up, didn't it? And the R56 has the GP arm, basically. I'm thinking that if one were to take everything over from the caliper carrier, the hardware should fit.

But someone would have to try to know for sure.... Then there's the cables and the like. Early cars didn't have the pad sensor... If you check your brakes a lot on your own, you don't really need it.

Matt

 

Sorry whats GP arm ?
The RTAs are different from R53 to R56. the R53s are Steel and the R56s are aluminium. Wheel bearings are different too.

 

On my '03 the calipers bolt up but the brake lines run into the trailing arm. One would need to mod the R53 arm or switch to an R56 unit.($$)

 

GP's came with the aluminum R56 RTA's.

 

Also..

the TCE larger rear rotor kit bolts up to the Al R56 trailing arm, with a bit of grinding cause of clearance issues for the bolts that the caliper carrier is used to mount to the TCE plate. But that means the R56 and R53 caliper mount bolts are the same size and spacing.

FWIW, there are many that have mounted the R56 trailing arm to drop unsprung weight. But we mount the R53 calipers on the R56 arms! And for guys like me, that means that we went from the large early bushing to the small later bushing.

Matt

 

Thanks, butthead, you just reminded me of another mod I haven't done yet. :lol:

It never ends.

 

When you are ready.... R56 Trailing Arm Swap

 

Gee, thanks for piling on, buttwipe.

Yeah, I remember when you did this, and, at the time, I was like "wow, that's awesome, but I'll never get that extreme".

Famous last words.

 

Not saying I won't do it some day, but it might be easier for me to lose 6 lbs on each side.

Also, one advantage of the R56 rear brakes is that they do NOT have those stupid clips for the outer pad as does the R53. So, pad swaps for the track/street might be a little quicker. And for those that have painted or want to paint the rear calipers with the R56 setup they will no longer chip paint off every damn time they change the pads. :mad5:

 

But...

that would be sprung weight!

Matt

 

Touché

 

Somthing to consider when doing the R53 brake coversion to R56 Rear

Something that you want to check, for the early R53 (2002) the trailing arm is a little bit different, meaning that it is difficult to mod to create enough room for the brake lines. The latest R53 trailing arm, can be modded by cutting a half moon ( check the photo from MINI2 Forum) allowing the brake line to have enough room. Also you have to twist a little bit the parking brake bracket at the caliper to make more room for the cable, as the trailing arm is in the way.
The mounting bracket has the same hole location and you can use the same bolts that you already have.

List of parts: R56 calipers RH & LH, parking brake cables RH & LH, brake lines RH & LH.

However the recommendation will be to upgrade to the R56 trailing arms, so the upgrade becomes $$$$.