What order and idea of cost

Joe_Horner

Wheel bearings are easy to check. Jack each back wheel up in turn and spin the wheel. Listen and feel for roughness as it turns (the tyre has no effect if it's off the ground!). If you can hear or feel roughness they need doing. Then gently try to rock the wheel sideways. If it moves they need doing.

Takes less than 5 minutes and is a lot cheaper than buying tyres "to find out".

In terms of your original list, personally I'd be looking at brake pipes or wheel bearings first depending on the actual condition of each. It's a judgement call between them, especially on corrosion, that can't really be made over t'internet.

Ideally get those two done together because either of them could cause nasty and sudden failures but, if you can really only cover one and aren't confident making the call yourself, get the garage to look and suggest which is more urgent.

The worst the bushes will do is make the handling a bit vague - as long as you don't push too close to the limit they're very unlikely indeed to cause sudden problems on the road.

richard734

Sorry, £was thinking of teh pair - £150 each side is more like it

Brakes, Bearing, bushes would be my order of work.

patman99

Clean the brakepipes with wirewool then check for leaks. Cost = whatever a pack of brilopads costs.

Joe_Horner

patman99 wrote: »

Clean the brakepipes with wirewool then check for leaks. Cost = whatever a pack of brilopads costs.

Plus the extras when they burst in a hard stop and the insurers get ansty because the car wasn't roadworthy (having an MOT does NOT equal roadworthy).

It's not about whether they leak just standing there, it's whether they can (repeatedly) hold 500+ psi pressure when the brakes are applied. You've only got about 1mm of wall thickness to play with so it doesn't take much corrosion to risk them bursting - just because they hold once after you've "cleaned" them doesn't mean they'll do it reliably!

Notmyrealname

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Plus the extras when they burst in a hard stop and the insurers get ansty because the car wasn't roadworthy (having an MOT does NOT equal roadworthy).

It's not about whether they leak just standing there, it's whether they can (repeatedly) hold 500+ psi pressure when the brakes are applied. You've only got about 1mm of wall thickness to play with so it doesn't take much corrosion to risk them bursting - just because they hold once after you've "cleaned" them doesn't mean they'll do it reliably!

There speaks someone who has bought Kwik-Fits twaddle.

mikey72

So you recommend leaving rusty brake pipes, because it was Kwik Fit that told you? Or just leave rusty brake pipes in general.Personally, saying as it's the op who said they're rusty, not mentioned Kwik Fit, not mentioned MOT fail or advisory, I'd get them done first, rather than tell him he'll be fine to leave them.

Joe_Horner

Notmyrealname wrote: »

There speaks someone who has bought Kwik-Fits twaddle.

No, there speaks someone with around 25 years experience of maintaining cars, including many with single circuit brakes where a failure means nothing but our handbrake to stop you.

Also someone who spent the best part of a decade working as a qualified aircraft mechanic and understands hydraulic systems and the pressures / forces involved far better than any Kwik Fit monkey (or you, judging by your comment)

If you bothered to read fully, I said it was a judgement call between the pipes and the bearing depending on the condition of each. Without seeing them there's no way to give a definite answer and, seeing as the OP is obviously not confident to make that judgement himself (or he wouldn't have posted), the best advice is to try and do both of them.

It's certainly NOT sound advice to tell someone who doesn't really know what they're looking at to "just clean them up a bit"!!! The simple fact is that a rigid hydraulic pipe will appear to hold the fluid, even under pressure, right up to the moment that it doesn't anymore. At that point the system fails, and fails completely.

If you're happy to chance that with your brakes then crack on, mate, but don't advise others to and please stay off any roads I might be driving :mad: