any mechanics offer opinion on this?

no-oneknowsme

Now that I have responded to all posts made over the past day or two , I WILL NOW UPDATE ON WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON....

Ok , so the car went back up to the mechanic on Tuesday morning. Hubby spoke to him as he knew that I am not as calm and rational as he would be

So , after having the car the whole morning , the Mechanic rung to say that it was fixed.....

Apparently he had to replace the rear cylinder and brake shoes.
We have been charged £50 and the mechanic says that this is only the cost of the parts and that he hasnt charged for labour . Sounds about the right amount to me after googling the parts involved.

Now , I still cant get my head around this because if these parts were in such bad condition that the brakes failed then why wasnt it noticed before ? This same mechanic claims that he went over the car with a fine tooth comb just 10 days ago?

Anyway , its up for the psv retest tomorrow so we are just hoping that it passes as it has been off the road Monday , Tuesday and yesterday and whilst its off road Hubby isnt earning.

I will post back after the retest tomorrow....

A big thanks to EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED AND OFFERED OPINIONS.

Wig

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

The psv tester DIDNT miss the fault though because dont forget , he FAILED the car because of it.

No, he failed the car on the handbrake, nothing to do with brake fluid leaking. Brake fluid has no part in the handbrake operation. You are wrong. If the tester had noticed leaking brake fluid he would have told you about it.

We didnt ask him to adjust the handbrake. We told him that it wasnt holding on even the slightest of hills anda asked him to take a look at it to find out why.

And he did look at it and made it work again, job done, but he has no rolling road so cannot fine tune it.

Now , I still cant get my head around this because if these parts were in such bad condition that the brakes failed then why wasnt it noticed before ? This same mechanic claims that he went over the car with a fine tooth comb just 10 days ago?

Because the cylinder is most likely inside a drum which is what I was saying before he wouldn't have normally looked inside there without good reason. Fact is the handbrake had weakened and he fixed it, it held out and gave no indication it was not fixed, he does not have a rolling road so could not fine tune it. Car was inspected, & failed on handbrake, not leaking brake fluid. Some time later the cylinder gave up the ghost and failed and started leaking. and has now been fixed.
What *I* don't understand is how there can be a caliper and a cylinder on the rear? Chunder?

IMO the mechanic has done nothing wrong. And has been more than helpful.

mikey72

I think chunder is referring to disks, not drums. Car indeed do have disc brakes on most models now.
Maybe he only works on modern cars.
Then again, he's old school with 20 years experience so maybe not.

It's either a strange co-incidence, or the rear brakes were so badly worn, or adjusted, a pistion had been pushed out of the rear cylinder when the foot brake was applied.

(Siezed automatic adjusters spring to mind)

Wig

I have seen cars with both rear discs and drums, the disc mounts over the drum, the drum is for the handbrake. The handbrake is purely mechanical so there is no cylinder. I have not seen what chunder speaks of (handbarake cable going to a caliper, though with technology these days I don't see that it is beyond possibility). I do not understand how the mechanic can change a rear caliper and change a rear cylinder? Why is there a rear cylinder if it has calipers?

caliper


cylinder

mikey72

My car has discs all round, the handbrake works on the rear pads, and locks the rear wheels with the parking brake as normal.
To change the pads, you have to screw the pistons back in, after the auto adjusters have compensated through the life of the pads.

no-oneknowsme

Further update!!!!

Ok , so today the car went back up for the psv re-test and failed again!

The tester tried everything he could to play about to get the right reading but it wasnt to be.

I got on the phone to the mechanic again and told him that the car had failed again and his response was "oh dear....ummmmm , not good.....now.....let me see .......when can I get time to look at the car again.....ummmmmmm...what about next Thursday?"

Well , needless to say I wasnt best pleased with this response and reminded him that whilst the car is off the road we are without an income...

"This really isnt my problem dear" he said "isnt it?" I said . "I could swear that two weeks ago I asked you to prepare the car for the psv and now its failed twice so who's fault is this exactly?"

"Well" , he said "I tried to fix it for you but if you leave it up next Thursday I will take a look and see if theres anything else I can do"

In the meantime we have had to fork out for the cost of the original psv , 2 retest fee's and almost £200 for repairs and we are still not sorted!

So , this afternoon the car was taken to another mechanic who found the problem within half and hour. This problem is the pressure valve (have I got that right?) The car is now booked in for Monday morning to be repaired.

So , my question is the same as it hasd been from post 1 of this thread....is this mechanic being fair with us ? Should he have sourced this problem sooner?

Thanks

Inactive

chunder wrote: »

the op asked for my opinion and i gave it. there are too many anally retentive members on here who think that they know the ins and outs of a cats a###hole.

Well said... I know a little about braking systems, so I choose to not comment on them, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.;)

Wig

Again, IMO no, there is nothing you can hold against the mechanic. You cannot expect to get a guaranteed pass just because you get your vehicle examined before the test. The second mechanic had the advantage of hindsight and knew what had already been replaced.

Welcome to the joys of owning your own vehicle in business!

And remember you chose not to get it rolling road tested before the examination.

photome

chunder wrote: »

jointly own, run, and work in MY garage, with in excess of 1000 customers who keep coming back.....!

been a mechanic since left school 20 years ago so ive done my time unlike some so called mechanics on this forum!!!

the op took it to the garage coz handbrake was no good and asked them to look at it, not just to adjust it (that wouldnt cost £140+)

as for calipers not having anything to do with the handbrake, when did you last work on a car! nearly all manufacturers have the handbrake built into the caliper using a ratchet system internally within the caliper, with the exception of BMW and a couple of others.

the op asked for my opinion and i gave it. there are too many anally retentive members on here who think that they know the ins and outs of a cats a###hole.

TO THE OP... HOPE MY POST HELP YOU IN SOLVING YOUR ISSUE MANY THANKS.

Where is your garage with 1000 happy customers, I am looking for a reliable garage in Norfolk (near norwich preferably)

no-oneknowsme

Wig wrote: »

Again, IMO no, there is nothing you can hold against the mechanic. You cannot expect to get a guaranteed pass just because you get your vehicle examined before the test. The second mechanic had the advantage of hindsight and knew what had already been replaced.

Welcome to the joys of owning your own vehicle in business!

And remember you chose not to get it rolling road tested before the examination.

Thanks Wig - I appreciate your comments.

I take it you are a mechanic or know a fair bit about cars? Would you have any idea how much this problem - the pressure valve - is going to cost to put right?

The mechanic who sourced the problem yesterday and who is going to look at it on Monday morning has a rolling road and so at least when it leaves his garage on Monday we know that it *should* be ok for psv....

Funds are getting a bit stretched now though and a rough idea of how much the pressure valve is to fix would be an advantage. The car is a 2003 Skoda diesel 1.9.

Thanks