sparkykev

Mrs Sparkykev took her C3 for its MOT on friday, and they failed it, on front brake pads less than 1.5mm, and tyres at less than 1.6mm.
I didn't see the tyres as she went and got those replaced the same day while i was at work, but the tyre place said the tracking is out, so i presume they had worn on the edges, they had done a good service, so fair enough.
Anyway today i shoot off and get some new brake pads, jack the car up, whip off the wheel, and look at the pads and see at least 5mm left on each.
Now i'm livid, i wish the garage was open now, as i'd be down there like a shot. I just hope i'm as angry on monday.

360ste

iTrader: (1)

Is that 5mm including the backing plate?

SunnySideUp

As above .... what is the amount of material on the backing plate?

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

How did they measure the pad thickness during the MOT without dismantling the car

A visual inspection for corrsion, excessive scoring etc and brake efficiency test is what should have occurred if I am not mistaken.

sparkykev

There's 5mm of the friction material left, about a third compared to the new pads.
At the worst i'd have expected an advisory note stating they need replacing in the near future.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

On some cars you can see the thickness either by shining a torch through the spokes of the wheel or from behind the wheel whilst the vehicle is in the air. Depends on the type of calipers and wheels fitted.


IMO, it should have been an advisory; Brakes should only fail if they are leaking, ineffective or ready to fall off (and I've see cars with pads on the metal pass the efficiency test - thats how relaxed the standards are ).

apples24

iTrader: (1)

agreed sounds an advisory to me, did you look at all 4????

nick172sport

iTrader: (6)

if you took the car to a autocentre they make things up

SunnySideUp

They see a woman and can say anything .... hoping to get a simple, quick earner.

I would take the old pads down to the garage and demand a FREE re-test ... whilst jamming the pads where the sun don't shine!

360ste

iTrader: (1)

Go onto the DVLA website and see if there is a link to VOSA who watch over the test centres and see what they have to say. Hopefully the garage will get a few "adjusted" cars to test. Then get their butt's kicked.

deanb1980

well acording to mot rules it doesn't matter what state the brakes are in as long as it passes a brake efficency test my old astra was sitting for 14 months i mot'd it and it passed straight away and the state of the frt brakes was amazing as the discs were fooked to look at but it passed the brake test and that what should matter and as per above if the brake pads were low they would just advise it

GC8

Dispute it with VOSA if you wish. Theres little point though, as it failed for tyres too.

Leslie

In all fairness, 5mm is really not very much when you think about it. it is less than !/4 of an inch and could be well on the way to getting dangerously worn, hardly worth risking damaging the disks either, gets a lot more expensive when that happens. Even worse if the brakes failed had the pads not been replaced in a short time. Maybe a bit hard to fail it if it passed the test on the rollers, but the bloke was probably thinking of what could happen with a future failure of the brakes not all that long long after his MOT test. A lot of people would just forget a warning. He has to protect his own licence to do the tests after all.

Les

scoobyboy

you can fail it if it's less than 1.5mm at any point, obviously yours isn't so as someone said maybe they were hoping to get some work out of it

danny c

iTrader: (6)

if the pads material,not the metal backing are below 1.5mm its a fail!anything close to that is an advise! if the person ignors the advise thats down to them! the tester advises things that are close to failing basically to cover his *** if anything was to happen!
when i done my mot test to get my licence i was told if you are unsure pass and advise as vosa take a very dim view of failing things that are not quite a fail!

trouble is though everyones view is differant and a mot is a minimum standard of a cars safety,where as a service is very differant!

Leslie

Maybe the bloke was thinking about the lady's safety.

Les

r32

It would seem never (sadly) let a female take a car for MOT, I know not all garages are bad but it does seem that ladies are taken advantage off.
A friend runs a garage, he regularly gets people bringing cars where they have failed the MOT. Mostly track rod ends but it happens for almost any reason. He checks them out and perhaps 90% are fine and need no work at all.....

billythekid

Donkeys years ago my Mrs took her Pug (car not dog!) into a main dealer for a service. That night I checked the oil.... still rather dark... hm... look at the oil filter.. covered in grime and crap.

Took the car back up there the next day and the re-did it all but they were trying to tell me that they had changed the oil and that they did not bother with the filter as its not a service item for that service... and they were doing it out of "good will"...

Oh really.... went and got the service book out... turned to the page for that service plan.... replace engine oil... replace engine oil filter.... bla bla bla...

W@nkers.

Never went back there...

Kev_turbo

I've been charged for changing the spark plugs on a diesel citroen at the main dealers before.

I asked the service manager to check the recipt and tell me what was wrong with it, he couldn't so i got him to follow me outside to my car and asked him to point out the spark plugs they had changed as per invoice. He went a rather bright shade of red, refunded the whole service charge and begged I didn't take it any further.

scooby seb

iTrader: (1)

where the disc's grooved at all(as in a lip on the outter edge)??? if they were the lip on the disc would be covering part of the pad making the pad look thinner than it was!

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Good trick with main stealers is to whip the spare out.

Usually you'll get a nice checklist about how they've inspected your car etc etc including 'inspect spare wheel'

If they tick that you can haggle like crazy because you know they are making it up.

5t.

Leslie

Thats a good one, nothing getting hoist by your own whatsit!

Les

SimonD

..by telling fibs about the condition of the brakes?
Surely if he was thinking about her safety he would advise her to have them replaced asap and provide a quote for replacing them.

sparkykev

No the discs hardly had any lip on them.

Anyway she phoned this morning and explained what was found, and his excuse was that when they do the test, its hard to tell whats left on the pads as you cant see without removing the wheel.
I'm still a bit baffled, but she got the free retest, and a pass. Still i won't be using them again or recommending them to anyone.

Steve vRS

A Renault dealer told me the spare wheel on my Clio 182 Cup was in good nick.

The car had tins of tyre foam.

Steve