Have the car fax record for my new MINI drop top. It has a pretty complete maintenance record. It raises some questions for me:

1) Why would the plug wires have been changed at 48K miles?

2) The brake pads and rotors were changed in January @70K miles; should I count that as flushing/replacing the brake fluid?

3) Should I be worried that the front pads were changed @31K and then pad and rotors 39K miles later?

TIA
Tony

 

Using CarFax to track maintenance is pretty useless.

They can pull your maintenance history at any MINI dealer and it will hopefully shed more light on everything. This is assuming they had it serviced at a MINI dealer though....

 

The first owner took it to the dealer and the service history and what level of service is pretty clear at each mileage and date. The second owner looks to have been an employee at another dealership (not MINI).

The questions still remain unless it is believed they are inaccurate.

 

MINIs have soft pads and rotors from what I understand. That is why the braking is so good and there's so much brake dust. Unless the records show a brake fluid flush I would not count on it. As far as the plug wires I don't think that is unusual.

 

I'm with Thumper, be careful trusting carefax. I have a horror story about them. But getting back to your questions.

1) Changing wires at 48k miles is not unusual. They do wear out.
2) Hard to say, they don't always change out the fluid when replacing brakes.
3) Nope, perfectly normal.

 

Guess I've never had a car with soft brakes like this (and must not have kept my first MCSc long enough).

I see where it was done two years into it's life but not listed per se since. I believe this is one of those maintenance items that is often overlooked/not performed.

Thinking about changing the MT fluid as well - if I can figure out what MT fluid to use.

Thanks to the responses, make me feel a little better about how she was treated before coming into my care.

 

Brake fluid flush is overrated, but as others said don't assume it was done just because they worked on the brakes. Possible the rotors were warped from improper wheel torque, so that usually involves changing both rotors and pads. I would say it's more common than not, unfortunately. I personally do plugs and wires every 2 years or so, depending. A history of the car is nice, but doesn't necessarily mean it will be good or bad for you. I use Mobil 1 gear oil for the transmission, many will point you to Redline.