Who can I complain to?

Gordon_Hose

If you'd have gone to the indy first off you wouldn't have been any the wiser to National tyres prices. There is no complaint.

The lesson for you is to avoid this fast fit type places.

Notmyrealname

skyemanmac wrote: »

I put my car into this garage today and got it back a few hours later. It turns out that all that was required was for the caliper to be taken off, stripped down, cleaned, put back together and then back onto the car. This cost a total of £45.60 including VAT.

So what they actually did was force back the pistons, take the pads out and pump the brakes up and force back the pistons a few times until they moved more freely.

So basically what they have done is bodged them. And they will seize again. For £45.60 they have not removed the caliper, stripped it, rebuilt it with new seals, refitted it and bled the brakes.

And the piston would have been sticking for some time so the brake pads will be unevenly worn and should have been changed.

Keep an eye on it. After a journey feel how hot the middle of the wheel is on the side that was sticking and compare it to the other side. If its hotter the caliper is sticking again.

Joe_Horner

Notmyrealname wrote: »

So what they actually did was force back the pistons, take the pads out and pump the brakes up and force back the pistons a few times until they moved more freely.

So basically what they have done is bodged them. And they will seize again. For £45.60 they have not removed the caliper, stripped it, rebuilt it with new seals, refitted it and bled the brakes.

And the piston would have been sticking for some time so the brake pads will be unevenly worn and should have been changed.

Keep an eye on it. After a journey feel how hot the middle of the wheel is on the side that was sticking and compare it to the other side. If its hotter the caliper is sticking again.

Depends on the car and the honesty of the garage. Clamp off flexi, you can remove a lot of calipers in about 5 minutes, strip clean & reassemble in 20, 5 back on and another 5 to bleed that one corner, job done in just over 1/2 hour. Pars around £15 gives just under £60 / hr for labour.

That's IF everything goes well (no seized bolts, bleed nipples etc and no air gets back past the clamp) which does, amazingly, happen sometimes!

Even "working the pistons a bit" can be a perfectly good fix depending on why it seized - if it was brake dust then no real problem doing that, if it was rust then it's less likely to be a permanent fix but still can be if you're lucky.

A garage that's willing to give up the more profitable job that's already been approved will probably know what they're looking at and make a fair assessment of the particular case - something none of us can do over the internet!

Also, being a rear it may not have been the piston seizing - if it's rear handbrake then could well have been the handbrake mech that seized (op doesn't say if it happened on the move or whole parked up) and just cleaning up is fine for that.