Great offer!

 

As Nick said - a nice offer. Looks to be about a 300 mile drive one way for you. But you get to meet a fellow Mini owner who is hands on and get pointers. You might want to keep the car now

 

My SOP for years is to when doing the brakes myself or having them done to have factory brake hardware fitted. I have no time/desire to mess around with aftermarket brake hardware.

When (if) I sell or trade in the car I want to have as much confidence as I can the car is safe. Using factory brake hardware -- and when doing the job myself being sure to follow the factory service/repair instructions regarding brake work -- gives me that confidence.

 

The auto companies don't make many (most?) of their parts. They source them from suppliers. Those suppliers also sell direct, at far cheaper prices. FCP Euro, and to some extent ECS Tuning, in the US are good resource to find the manufacturer of parts that are supplied to MINI. Buy from them or use the information to buy from someone else but, in most cases, you'll save a lot of money over buying the same part with the MINI up charge. Especially for brake components, not much special or challenging about manufacturing them for all but the most demanding applications. Still, its your money...

Here's a link to FCP Euro explanation of parts suppliers(OEM/OE) vs MINI parts
https://www.fcpeuro.com/page/oe-academy

 

If you got them deep pockets, then by all means, go OEM. You can buy better than oem for cheaper. This forum is full of years worth of knowledge, the good and the bad. I run what I know works, some trial and error on my R55s. 3 years later and swap into a R53, she has the exact same setup i finally ended up with on the clubman. It also helps when you have a friend that has owned a Mini since 2005 and racked up more than 10,000 miles on the dragon in it.

 

You can “rent” the needed brake retraction tool at autozone under their loan a tool program. Basically they charge you their inflated retail of $60 for it, you use it, take it back and they refund you the $60.

harbor freight 6-7” clamp is is about $8-10. That’s all you need for the front brake calipers. Finally a t45 socket for the rotor retaining screw, amd whatever size socket the calipers mount bolts are, 16mm? An impact makes it cake but I’ve done brakes with a breaker bar and socket wrench in an apartment parking lot before.

a couple $30 craftsman jack stands and a decent jack amd good to go.


lot better to invest in tools for half the labor cost and have the ability to further save money by doing the job yourself.


if you were local I’d invite you to use my driveway and tools. Fronts are fast, about 15 minutes a corner tops.
rears take a bit longe4 because of the wind back but also not super hard.


btw you said pad amd rotors, how did you conclude you needed rotors? And which end is it that is almost out of pad? Front or rear? Cause they don’t wear out at the same time