In trying to sell me the extended maintenance plan, my MINI dealer told me I should replace my brake pads and rotors about every 15000 miles (and the job costs about a grand for the front and again for the back). Does that seem reasonable? It seems like everything I've read says that's both extremely frequent and pretty expensive.

 

What MINI do you have? 15,000 seems pretty soon to replace pads/rotors, but it also can depend on your driving habits. They said $1000 for the front and $1000 for the rear? That's definitely pretty expensive and is in no way what you should really pay. The dealership will be probably the most expensive place to bring your MINI for repairs. A brake job is pretty simple to DIY if you feel you're capable and you can get the parts from us, which will be way less than the cost of parts at the dealer. Or you could find a very competent MINI indy shop as well.

 

Mileage for brakes depends a great deal on how hard you drive (and stop) the car, but for most people 15,000 is too frequent. And most times you can get two sets of pad changes for each rotor change, making $1000 bucks a very expensive proposition. It's pretty easy to do DIY pad/rotor changes which would save you lots of money (to spend on upgrades). Any decent shop could do brake jobs for lots less than the dealer.

 

Thanks for the replies! To answer your question, it's a brand new 2016 Cooper Hardtop 4-door. Barely has more than a hundred miles on it. I don't drive hard, but I do live in a pretty hilly area.

 

Most of us that drive will be looking at 30K miles before needing to do a brake pad and rotor replacement and it won't cost that much if you use an independent shop. Most times you can monitor brake pad wear and decide to replace it when it becomes worn enough.

How you brake (especially if you live in an urban area or on the steep hill) will affect how fast you wear brake pads. Steep hills will be very hard on brakes.

You can also change the OEM brake pads out now for ones that wear out less and leave less brake dust.

 

Any drive in shop like Midas or Meineke or any others of that ilk can do a brake pad and disk swap for you a he!! of a lot cheaper than $500.00 a corner. You can order your pads from any of the vendors here on NAM (Pelican made a nice offer) and select cleaner pads than OEM. OEM discs are just fine for every day driving, no need for the higher performance and cost ones.
Some popular pads are EBC Red Stuff, Hawk, Brembo. Lots of opinions on these but they're all good.
BTW, an opinion without 3.14 is just an onion.

 

I owned a MINI beginning in 2002 .....

MINI OE pads (and rotors) are very soft ... to provide great grip. Bad side of this is they wear FAST.

On my 2002 S I needed new pads at around 25,000 miles. On the other hand the Miata I still owned at the time, I had about 50% pad left with 100,000 on the clock!

it is not hard to determine if you need new pads. On most MINI wheels you can look thru and SEE the pad.

When the pad material is thinner than the backing plate .... it is time to plan a brake job.

this is a MINI pad, almost new ... some white was added to the backing plate .... note the bevel on the pad as well



This is a worn pad . . .



AND MINI brakes are NOT special. ANY place that can do a decent disk brake pad (and rotor) replacement can do a MINI. 10 years ago it was hard to find the pads .... not so today.

 

That was not a good selling point for the dealer to entice you into a maintenance plan. Not that they don't have merit depending on your tolerance for repairs after warranty etc.

However on my 09 I was the 2nd owner and the first brake job was at around 90k miles. The original owner was a road warrior but he rarely used the brake pedal. ��

 

there's nothing wrong with going to another shop for brakes. If you do take it to an another shop be careful if the offer various options for pads and rotors. Brakes are a big safety item saving money on labor is one thing but you don't want to cheap out on parts.

 

You've gotten some great comments, but I want to amplify that extended maintenance service plans sold with a new car are almost universally a bad deal. To make the numbers seem favorable to the sale of this incredibly high-profit item, the dealers will make up some pretty ridiculous numbers about repair rates and costs. In general, avoid extended warranties and repair plans.

Speaking to how ridiculous these numbers are, spending $2K every 15K miles on brakes works out to be about $0.13/mile for brake maintenance. For perspective, the cost of fuel is about $.08/mile. Does it make the slightest sense that you'd have to spend 60% more on brake maintenance that you spend on fuel? Of course not. Brake maintenance cost does vary widely depending on driving habits and who you use to do the maintenance, but spending about $1K every 50K (or $0.02/mile) or so would be much more in the ballpark. If you drive carefully/sedately and mostly on the highway, getting 100K miles out of brakes is not out of the question. And if you DIY and only replace brake pads (rotors will usually go 2x or 3x the life of the pads), you can spend as little as $120 for brake pads.

- Mark

 

have we all MISSED the question?

Some say to change the oil every 3000 ... others (sane ones) say longer

CHANGE YOUR BRAKE PADS / ROTORS when needed . . . .

 

Yup...I got 85,000 miles on my 2005 S.....lots of highway, and some twisty roads...but I tend to not brake too much...
Simple answer, when worn, you change them...
Rule of thumb...folks who get good mpg, tend to have brakes that last, folks with poor mpg, tend to wear them out faster....driving style, and driving type are the culprits.