My car scrapes the ground when brakes are applied
 

Hi,

I'm having this strange issue with my mini cooper (hard top 2013): sometime when I apply the brakes, I can feel the car is scraping the ground, making noise and causing vibrations on the brake pad.

The scraping sound/vibration tends to happen whenever there is some thin layer of ice/now, dirt, dead leaves etc on the road. It's not particularly annoying, but I'm concerned if this would be a safety issue.

Don't know if someone can shed some insights.

Thanks

When you apply the brake you hear a scraping noise and feel a vibration? Are you sure that your brake pads still have good life to them? Are you sure it's only when the road is "slick?" Vibration under braking sounds like a warped rotor issue and the scraping while braking may be metal on metal that you're hearing. I'd inspect your brake pads to see how much life they have left.

You could be engaging ABS....ABS sends a similar sensation through the brake pedal. The fact it happens mainly on slick surfaces leads me to believe that is the case...Not a safety issue in that case. It allows you to stop without sliding the tires...