Advice re brakes on a car please

HurdyGurdy

My daughter was recently told (12th September) by her ex (and the father of her 17 month old daughter) that he experienced "total brake failure" on his way to work. He then told her that the handbrake light had been on for a week or so before that and that the rear brakes "had been gone" for a week or so prior to that. He had had the baby in his car on a few occasions during that time. My daughter was furious and told him that until she had seen written proof that the brakes had been fixed by a qualified mechanic, she would not allow the baby to go in the car with him.

He has since purchased the spare parts himself and taken them to a garage to be fitted. He has provided my daughter with a copy of a receipt from SuperTyres saying that they had fitted new rear brake shoes. There was no mention of any work being done on the front brakes.

He has consistently maintained that as "I know how to slow my engine down using the engine" the car, and therefore the baby, have been perfectly safe, and there was never any danger that the car could not have been slowed down or done an emergency stop.

My daughter telephoned the local council's fleet transport section, where they do MOTs for the general public and asked them if a car was presented for an MOT with the front brakes not working, just the rear brakes, would it pass the MOT. She was told it would not.

She then said to the ex that she was still not satisfied that the car was safe, and has received this reply:

"To be clear, as I said to you at the time the front breaks lost compression due to the break fluid leaking into the rear breaks, there is no repair to the front break as none was required, the break fluid merely needed topping up once the repair had been completed. There is no paperwork to prove a job that was not required. If you truely feel the need call supertyres and quote the invoice number "

We are completely clueless as to mechanics, so can I ask if what he has said is correct? Wouldn't SuperTyres have said something about topping up brake fluid on the worksheet/receipt?

My daughter doesn't want to prevent contact between her ex and the baby, but will not allow him to take the baby unless she has proof that his car is safe. He wants to see the baby tomorrow and my daughter has said (following legal advice) that unless she sees written proof that the front brakes are fully working, she won't allow the baby to go with him. She has asked if he would be prepared to leave his car keys with her, and take the baby either just in the pushchair, or by public transport - the above was the response to this.

Is my daughter being OTT (due to ignorance, not any wish to stop contact) or is what he said correct? He is asking for contact at 9am tomorrow, so really need to know asap.

Thanks

Wig

I think in the interests of all concerned, to keep the peace, and provide assurance to your daughter she should ask him the get the car an MOT

Halfords is doing half price MOT booked online with debit/credit cards MOT £27.40 at the moment (the retest within 10 days should it fail -if he removes the car from Halfords to get it repaired elsewhere- would be £13.80) so it's not a big cost for him, but if he's not working, then perhaps your daughter could come up with half the test fee.

A simple solution to a complicated problem.

BTW, what he says is correct, only the rears have failed and the rears have been repaired, but he would have come a cropper in an emergency stop situation.

FYI though an MOT is only a snapshot of the car as it is today, it could have front discs nearly worn out or front pads nearly worn out, the tester may not issue an advisory, and the tester may not even notice how worn the front pads are as these are hidden inside. Although working today, may not be so good in a couple of months.

If he gets an MOT she can also check online for any advisories if he says there were none, she needs some information either from the MOT cert or from his V%C log book, but I don't know what info she will need....I'll let other posters tell you that. But then again, Halfords may advise on totally unessesary work just to scare you into getting the work done.

BertTheRaccoon

His explanation sounds plausible as if there was a fault with the fluid cylinders on the rear axle, causing a lot of leakage of the brake fluid, then the pedal would go to the floor.

There can be variations on this with systems with split opposing brake systems.

I'd assume it is a older car with drum brakes at the rear?

Assuming the place that the rear brakes have been done have done a proper job, you can assume the rear brakes are OK.

If you are concerned, I would recommend you go to a mechanic/ garage. I would typically avoid places like Kwik Fit, Halfords etc as they are known to go fishing for work and thrive on scaring people into getting sometimes unnecessary work done.

Better off going to see an old skool mechanic who has been established for years. Do any friends or work colleagues recommend any local garages they trust?

colino

Just jump in the car with him, get him to do 20mph and do an emergency stop. Even with your lack of self-belief, you will recognise the anchors are working.

Poppa_G

no your daughter is not being OTT.

Not always necessary to change your front brakes. However, if he's had a leak in the system the leak needs to be fixed and the brakes should then be bled of any air. It's not just a case of topping up the fluid.

If you can't take him at his word I suggest you contact the garage as he suggests.

Good Luck

atrixblue.-MFR-.

re-MOT it having it done by a council run MOT station would be my recommendation to your daughters EX.

i have know this situation arise through solicitors when a access is a problem, basically mum refuses ex to collect baby in car but by other means of safe transport, his solicitor cant argue with it because it is the safety of baby that is paramount, BIL had the same issue even though the car was MOT's the 2 months prior, it had to go before another MOT at a local council run station.

so your daughter is well within her remit to stop the EX collecting baby in the car if she feels theres a safety issue even though it has supposedly been rectified and request he picks baby up in transprot that is safe and reliable.

HurdyGurdy

Thank you all. Relations between them are at an all time low. He was refusing to even contact my daughter directly, instead asking a friend of his to contact her via facebook, to arrange for another friend to collect and return the baby for contact. My daughter refused this, and he has now requested that she sets up a new email account so that they can use this purely for communicating about contact (which she has done).

I don't think he's going to be amenable to my daughter "demanding" or even requesting, he gets his car MOTd. I use the council's fleet transport section for MOTs for my own car, as I know they have no reason to find problems, as they don't do repairs. However, they charge £50odd, and I really don't think he would be prepared to pay for that. I will suggest my daughter offers to pay half the cost, and see if that encourages him.

It does seem from your responses however, that he is correct in saying that the brakes should all be functioning properly now. My daughter was a little wary, as he was driving his previous car around without tax or insurance and couldn't see that there was an issue with this regarding the baby's safety.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

HurdyGurdy

As expected, he has refused to take his car for an MOT before the date that it is due, and has said that my daughter is being unreasonable. She asked if he would leave his keys with her for the time that the child is with him, and he has refused this also, as "I wish to use my car to facilitate the quality of my time with her". He lives about two miles away from my daughter, and there is a direct bus link from very near to her home to very near to his, so it's not like he lives in the middle of the country and couldn't get anywhere without a car. He could probably walk between the two properties in around 20 minutes.

So now they are at an impasse. He says he has given all the information he is prepared to give, and my daughter is sticking to the solicitor's advice to obtain proof that the brakes are working. She is quite keen for him to have contact, as that is the only time she really gets a break and some time to herself, so she is not being deliberately difficult about this.

(Personally, I think that following the replies on this thread, he has given enough information, but my daughter still isn't convinced. I'm keeping out of it!)

Nilrem

If he's refusing to show that the car is safe, given what he's already done I wouldn't let a baby of mine in the car full stop.

I would also be sorely tempted to pass the information on to the local police traffic unit - even forgetting the baby for a moment, I don't want some pillock (I won't use the word I'm thinking in polite company) who thinks engine braking is good enough driving around with dodgy brakes.
If your local area still actually has traffic cops, they might decide to pull him.. The problem is, that in this sort of situation it could easily cause problems for your daughter if he suspects you or her had anything to do with the

It's very scary the number of idiots I see on the road with obvious highly visible defects*, let alone the chances of them having hidden faults like the brakes that could easily prove fatal - my favourite was an old beetle that I saw around the town twice in a few days, it had a minor issue with the rear drivers side wheel - it was sticking out at about 30 degrees (if I'd had a pen in the car, I would have called the cops as soon as I could pull over, as the wheel was obvious unsafe, and the driver was having issues with control).


*In about 30 minutes the other day I saw multiple cars with broken brake lights (either 1, 2 or even all 3 out), let alone the headlamps, so I hate to think how many other faults they had given lights can be checked in seconds, and fixed in a few minutes generally.

Mindless_Clone

HurdyGurdy wrote: »

(Personally, I think that following the replies on this thread, he has given enough information, but my daughter still isn't convinced. I'm keeping out of it!)

I'm inclined to agree with you OP, and unfortunately, I can't help wondering if your daughter's stubborness over this has more to do with her making his life difficult than any actual concern over safety.
Face it, he didn't have to even tell her about the brake failure; he could have quietly had the car fixed and she might never have known he'd had issues.
She's right to be annoyed that he drove baby around in a faulty car, but he is also the child's father and there is an element here of him actually having parental responsibilities too. There has to be some trust in this and she has to trust him to not endanger their child.
I would say, the demands she's making about keys and MOT etc. sound very controlling from his perspective. It probably feels like she's trying to run his life. She might have valid reasons but she's digging her heels in making demands that he will see as unreasonable when there's a number of perfectly reasonable ways in which she can reassure herself the car is safe. And if he feels that way and there's an antagonism there to begin with, he'll likely dig his heels in even more.
End of the day, if it came down to a custody battle, any attempt by wither of them not to allow reasonable access would not be taken in a good light so at this point it makes sense to resolve this as amicably as possible if that's still possible.

I think the option of phoning the garage and/or doing an emergency stop in the car is perfectly reasonable suggestions. If the garage carried out the work they would have, I presume, conducted post fitting/repair tests to ensure it was fit and roadworthy so would have these on record. If they haven't, you can get just your brakes checked at most tyre/brake centres. I think if I were the fella I would probably do this rather than a full MOT and present that as evidence. I think even her solicitor would have to say that he's provided ample evidence the car is roadworthy then.

HurdyGurdy

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

I think the option of phoning the garage and/or doing an emergency stop in the car is perfectly reasonable suggestions.

My daughter is going to call the garage this morning. Unfortunately as the ex has only just reluctantly agreed to contact my daughter via this new email account he asked her to set up, and won't even see her for handover of the baby, but needs a third party (and has refused for me to do this), the chances of him letting my daughter (or me) into his car to experience a test stop are zilch.

I am very reluctant to be giving my opinion to my daughter (which could be seen as interfering), but for the baby's sake, I think I may have to gently work on her!