Sister in-law has a 2019 BMW X1. This is, as I understand it, a Mini Clubman with BMW logos on it. I did not expect to like this thing, but I actually do really like it.
Rear brake pads wore out at about 40k miles. Normally one would use a scan tool to back off the electric parking brake motors, but my six-year-old Foxwell scanner won’t talk to newer BMWs and Foxwell is not releasing software updates for my scanner. Therefore, I had to unbolt parking brake motors and back off the mechanism by hand (easy).
Oddly, when I unbolted the parking brake motors, I found an ounce or two of brake fluid in the cavity between the motor and the caliper. It had leaked out around the shaft that actuates the brake pad to park.
I assumed that since I found this on both sides, it must be a common problem, but I don’t find any mention of it on the internet anywhere. I also don’t find caliper rebuild kits for these calipers.
Perhaps because the car is relatively new, rear brake pads are mostly being replaced by people with proper scanners, so they are not opening up that cavity and are not seeing that there is a leak. Eventually, the cavity will fill up, and brake fluid will get into the parking brake motor, although if the leak does not get worse, that could take a half-million miles.
Is this a problem I should worry about? Should I
Get new calipers
Wait until repair kits are available
Do nothing and look at it again when the next set of pads wears out?
I expect that the attached image violates a RealOEM copyright. Sorry about that.
Ideally, you would not see any fluid when replacing the rear brake pads.
You will note that the parking brake motor #16 bolts to the inboard side of the caliper #8 fluid reservoir. The output shaft of the motor turns a shaft that enters the back of the caliper and turns a mechanism that pushes the piston to set the parking brake.
In my case, fluid leaked out around that shaft into the cavity between the caliper and the parking brake motor.
Where else could the fluid be coming from? Hose, Bleeder valve, or caliper. One of them is leaking, and shouldn’t be. Brake fluid should not be leaking form anywhere.
Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally drip some down during the pad replacement process?
My guess, the electric motor shaft seal is leaking. If a replacement seal isn’t available, not much choice, you’ll have to have new calipers installed. There seem to be a few BMW- knowledgeable folks who monitor the posts here, maybe one of them will chime in. If you keep the existing calipers in storage, eventually that seal may become available, then you’ll have a back up set.
And pay the core charge for keeping the caliper, I have seen core charges that were more than the calipers themselves… Napa’s core is about 1/2 the price of the caliper, Rock Auto core is $115, part is under $80… BTW neither of them offer the rear Calipers that I saw…
But I agree, if leaking then replace them…
