My wife has a 06 S which she bought used with about 12k on the clock. Now we have over 17k and I have noticed that this car unlike any other I have known produces a lot of break dust on top of the fact that what didn't get maintained properly by the previous owner has lead to some bubbling of the painted wheels. I would assume that the brakes have not be done with the mileage being what it is. My questions are 1. did the car come with a bad batch of rims or 2. is the factory pads that caustic and 3. would going to greenstuff or something along that line reduce this problem. Any info would be appreciated. I know the easy fix would be a set of black steel wheels, but mama would not go for that, understandbly so.

 

Mini uses "soft" pads and rotors so a fair amount of pads/rotors get ground down and cause the dust ... Yes switching to Ceramic type pads can help te dust, also aftermarket rotors (cross drilled/slotted can also help.
Cleaning and maintence on the wheels help , I started using Armoral Wheel protectant and it's helped immensely on the cleaning/wheel care side of things

 

I just clean them a lot. I switched to Ceramic and they caused hard spots on the rotors. I have sense switched back and just use the OEM, and clean more.