A good way to check your vehicles history or the history of a vehicle you plan to buy is go to CarFax and enter the vehicles information such as the VIN number.
The CarFax will give you a good full report on the vehicles history and any work that may have been done on it.
It can even tell you if the vehicle has been recalled or not.
I always run a vehicle through CarFax when I want to check the history of a vehicle I want to buy whether from a private seller or from a used car dealer.
CarFax charges a fee to look up the history of the vehicle but it's not all that much and well worth the money to know the history of a vehicle.