Car just failed MOT - Likely cause/fix/cost

[stoofa]

Hi All,
I'm a little out of practice on all this - being lucky enough to keep my own car relatively young, I'm not used to seeing a car fail an MOT.
My wife's 2008 VW Polo has just failed it's MOT. First time in it's history it hasn't passed first time. 55k miles on the clock and it has failed with:

Service Brake efficiency below requirements (1.2.2 (a)(i))
Rear Brakes imbalanced across an axel 2 (1.2.1 (b)(i))

I know, an impossible task to tell me what is up. However, based on the car and age, can anyone give me a likely cause of the fail and what it's likely to cost to put right?
Plan on replacing the car with something newer in around 6 months time, so not looking to spend silly money on it.

Cheers All.

 

[stoofa]

Cheers all.
99% sure it's drums on the rear.
Doesn't sound like it's going to be silly money.

It is low mileage - old lady had it before us and there are a couple of years where there were only 1000 or 2000 miles between MOTs.
Low mileage - can be great, but I guess can also be a curse when the car sits idle for long periods. My better half is putting around 1k a month on it these days.

 

[stoofa]

Hi all - I've now got the paperwork back from my better half.
The flagged part is:

Left (kgf)
Rear: 79

Right (kgf)
Rear: 224

Confirmed it is drums at the back.
Last question - why couldn't they stick to "offside" and "nearside"?
I'm assuming "Left" is as I'm looking at the front of the car. So, Offside?

 

[stoofa]

 

[stoofa]

According to the "lock out" and those figures, it should have failed on handbrake efficiency as well (it needs to be 16%)..

I can't quite understand how the fronts haven't locked out? I reckon he's not ticked the lock out box for whatever reason, and if he had, then it would have passed the service brake efficiency.
It's almost impossible for the fronts not to lock out, that and the OSR has a greater braking force than the front disc brakes!
I work about about ten minutes away from that garage, so if you want me to double check the brakes, I'll be happy to pop your car on the roller brake tester for you (it won't cost you anything, and they'll be zero obligation to have anything done)
Either way it's your NSR brake that has the problem.
Edit
I'm not sure that vehicle weight is correct either.
DM me your reg number and I'll run the figures through the MOT system.

Hi - Thank you for the kind offer.
Typically, we actually live in a small town between Cambridge and Peterborough. My mother-in-law lives in Capel, so my wife combined a visit to see her with getting her car through (or not) the MOT.
Kind of wished I'd kept the job local, the garage didn't offer the other half any solutions or investigations - just MOT failed, come back and see us once it's fixed!

I'll DM you over the reg details in a second - just as a sanity check.
Current MOT runs until the 23rd, so should have time to get this resolved and a new certificate sorted.

If you were pushed to a diagnosis - NSR brake cylinder?

 

[stoofa]

@stoofa thanks sending your car details.

I used the correct vehicle weight (that the system uses) and not the figure he's put into the MOT system along with the brake readings, and..

So it should have passed on brake efficiency, but still failed on imbalance.
Vehicle weight makes a huge difference to the readings.
Edit
When the car is retested, he’ll have to run the car again the brake tester, so it’d be interesting to see the figures he comes up with.

Thank you - that was really informative. I think I'd be angry now if after you'd run the correct figure it should have passed!
But I can see it was a fail anyway.
Going to forge a relationship with my local garage and see if he can get me fitted in.