It's 200 miles, one way, to my nearest MINI dealer. So I'm looking for a local independent repair shop. Many options in my home town, population about 250,000.

The best independent shop in this area won't install the brake pads and rotors I ordered online. Is that normal practice as experienced by other MINI owners?

BTW, I understand why repair shops would rather sell me the parts they provide - and normally, I would be fine with that.

In this case, I ordered EBC Greenstuff pads and rotors online, because:
a. that's what I have already installed on the front and I want to go with same on rear, and,
b. I assumed that this brand is obscure enough in America to present some difficulty to the independent shop when ordering.

Heaven knows, it was a PITA for me to order them, because several of the retail websites were, for all practical purposes, non functional.

So, have other MINI owners had success in getting local shops to install their user-provided parts, or is there some kind of unwritten law that this is just not done?

 

I tried having an indie shop install my brake pads and rotors similar to you, and they said no way. In their view it's a liability issue, they don't know where your parts came from and if they were to be defective, you might be able to claim that it is the shop's fault. I'm surprised you had trouble ordering greenstuffs, I get them from amazon no problem.

 

I get both sides of this issue, if they install your parts and they fail, are you willing to pay them to take them off and pay for them to put on another set? If they supply the parts its all on them. I have had indy shops use my parts and I assumed the risk.

 

I would have no problem with that. I assume brake pad and rotor failures due to mfg. defects are quite rare.

Good to know that SOME shops are willing to work with the customer.

 

I recently had a shop demand that I replace both front wheel bearings in order to obtain a safety certificate. I purchased replacement assemblies and they installed them the following day with no complaints whatsoever. Naturally I don't expect them to stand behind the parts if they fail because they had nothing to do with selecting them and they didn't make a penny on them. That said, I saved over $300 just in the cost of the parts so I had to do it.

 

My shop here installed my 15% pulley, belt and plugs and installed the tensioner retainer.

 

I've had two indie shops in my area work on my MINI and both installed parts that I sourced myself. IMHO a shop should do this without quibbling when the customer assumes responsibility for any component failures and does the needful thereafter.