I know brakes aren't normally covered by a warranty, but...

sparkymark75 · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:07

...my car which has just been serviced by Ford has a red advisory on the front discs and pads. I bought the car about 4 weeks ago from another dealer. They MOT'd it and it passed without any advisories.

How can a car go from no advisories to needing new front brakes in 3 or 4 weeks.

So, either the Ford dealer are "at-it", the dealer where I bought the car didn't MOT as stringently as they should have or the Ford service is more stringent on the brakes than an MOT is?

Do you think it's worth chasing this up with the dealer where I bought the car while it's still under "warranty"?

Janesy B · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:09

Is there a lip on the front disk, can you peek through the wheel and see how much pad is left? The Ford dealer is probably being cheeky.

sparkymark75 · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:15

Janesy B said:
Is there a lip on the front disk, can you peek through the wheel and see how much pad is left? The Ford dealer is probably being cheeky.

I don't have the car back yet. I'm pretty sure she said there was a lip on the disc but will check when I get it back. They wanted £220 for the discs and pads fitted.

sovietspybob · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:21

I don't believe an MOT will check how worn the brakes are, just how effective they are. I would however have expected a car i bought from a main dealer to not have almost worn out brakes.

InvaderGIR · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:28

sovietspybob said:
I don't believe an MOT will check how worn the brakes are, just how effective they are. I would however have expected a car i bought from a main dealer to not have almost worn out brakes.

If the discs are scored/grooved or lipped then they will fail or be an advisory (certainly will be picked up on the test anyway).
If the pads are low / excessively worn they will also be picked up and either a fail or advisory.

Peerzy · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:45

I got a 'warning' for my tyres and brakes every year when I had my Boxster serviced by Porsche. Apparently they were "close to the limit and they needed replacing" at a nice cost of over £2500, yet the MOT had no advisories!

I ended up in a barney with the Service Manager one year as his technician had put my tyres at having 2mm of thread left on all 4 (Porsche will only warranty a car if they have more than 3mm on the tyres). We got the car on the ramp and he inspected it with me and we could find nowhere that has less than 4mm!

12 months and 5000 miles later the car went in and came out with no warnings from the service or advisories on the MOT so it just shows how far some garages will go to generate extra business.

It's more likely that the Ford garage are looking for extra easy work than the MOT garage pulling a fast one but have it independently checked out.

IAmATeaf · 19 Mar 2015 at 14:55

I had something similar with Honda when I first got my car. Each year the pads would need to be replaced and after the 3rd year in a row I queried this and in the end had to go back to Honda UK. The eventual answer came back as a bit of a shock, it seems that 1 of their techies was reporting how much was used rather than how much was left but the service department was then then taking the used figure as what was left hence the reason why they'd state that they needed changing every year. I got a refund back but for only 1 year and it did occur to me at the time how many other people had been affected.

MooMoo444 · 19 Mar 2015 at 15:22

IAmATeaf said:
I had something similar with Honda when I first got my car. Each year the pads would need to be replaced and after the 3rd year in a row I queried this and in the end had to go back to Honda UK. The eventual answer came back as a bit of a shock, it seems that 1 of their techies was reporting how much was used rather than how much was left but the service department was then then taking the used figure as what was left hence the reason why they'd state that they needed changing every year. I got a refund back but for only 1 year and it did occur to me at the time how many other people had been affected.

You'd think someone would have noticed that every single car was getting an advisory on it's brakes. :confused:

brendy · 19 Mar 2015 at 15:27

With a little reading up, anyone with a pair of arms can replace brake pads and discs themselves saving the extortionate labour costs. Halfords sell a a jack and axle stands for less than 30 quid which pays for itself the very first time you do the job yourself and is very hard to get wrong unless done by a a complete eejit.

Scania · 19 Mar 2015 at 15:58

I'd take the advisory to the selling dealer and have a word, see what they say.....

Anyway....

Pants · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:05

IAmATeaf said:
I had something similar with Honda when I first got my car. Each year the pads would need to be replaced and after the 3rd year in a row I queried this and in the end had to go back to Honda UK. The eventual answer came back as a bit of a shock, it seems that 1 of their techies was reporting how much was used rather than how much was left but the service department was then then taking the used figure as what was left hence the reason why they'd state that they needed changing every year. I got a refund back but for only 1 year and it did occur to me at the time how many other people had been affected.

That's a very convenient explanation for the dealer, having made a fair bit of extra cash for themselves.

mattyg · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:12

So that dealer had been recommending the replacement of parts that it didn't in fact need.

Doesn't Dom (Don't get done get Dom, Dom) have a whole program regarding scam artists like these.

Funny how because its the car industry they can get away with it.

Merc tried the same with my AMG. So I told him the wear and mileage that he had just told me would equate to another 2 years worth of mileage before needing to spend £2500 on my brakes.

Thanks but no thanks

Finglonga · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:13

Every service my BMW X6 had they gave an advisory that I would need new front discs soon. It is just an advisory and they are not saying you need them now but be aware they may need doing. Of course those with little knowledge would say go ahead and do it without realising the work is not necessary.

slick rick · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:14

Stealers gonna steal!

IAmATeaf · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:15

brendy said:
With a little reading up, anyone with a pair of arms can replace brake pads and discs themselves saving the extortionate labour costs. Halfords sell a a jack and axle stands for less than 30 quid which pays for itself the very first time you do the job yourself and is very hard to get wrong unless done by a a complete eejit.

The fronts are easy enough to do but certainly on my car and my wifes the rears were a pain in the arse as I needed special tools to wind the pistons back. I now just use an indy, they charge £60 to replace a pair.

Dogbreath · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:18

IAmATeaf said:
I had something similar with Honda when I first got my car. Each year the pads would need to be replaced and after the 3rd year in a row I queried this and in the end had to go back to Honda UK. The eventual answer came back as a bit of a shock, it seems that 1 of their techies was reporting how much was used rather than how much was left but the service department was then then taking the used figure as what was left hence the reason why they'd state that they needed changing every year. I got a refund back but for only 1 year and it did occur to me at the time how many other people had been affected.

That doesn't really hold up to any kind of scrutiny as it would be blatantly obvious to the person changing the pads that they weren't significantly worn.

agnes · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:22

Takes no more than an hour for all 4 corners DIY to do pads and disks. The only real tricky parts are pushing the pistons back when you've put new pads in. Not really tricky, just need force to start with then they should smoothly push back.

And any locked bolts that you might come accross, make sure to put copper grease on the locking nut and between the disk and wheel!!!

sparkymark75 · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:43

Haven't physically checked the discs myself as I had to get back to work but the service paperwork states;

"Front discs heavily lipped and corroded on the inner faces"

Orford · 19 Mar 2015 at 16:57

My friend bought a car from a dealer, including new MOT. 4 weeks later she rear ended a car that slammed on after a child ran into the road. 30mph and she couldn't stop in time, she asked the insurer to look at the breaks as she thought she had enough stopping distance. When the car went for repair at the insurers approved center, they refused the claim as the rear breaks were extremely worn to the point of not working.

After phoning the car dealer and getting no joy, she contacted main UK customer service with reports and pressure from the insurer, Manufacture are covering the claim, repairing the brakes and investigating the dealer and MOT tester.

Don't let them get away with it.

Unless its a scam by the MOT place, scare you into a new set of front pads and Discs.

Housey · 19 Mar 2015 at 17:27

I had my car MOT'd last week. I always go to an MOT only centre, same place, used it for years. They are happy with me to walk the car with them as they test, they will highlight items that need attention and have nothing to gain from failing me as they do not provide garage services. I can't recall the last time (if ever) using a garage or dealer to do my MOT.

Just me I guess.