Ford Focus MK1 Brake Problems and Kwik Fit

Prothet_of_Doom

harleq1962 wrote: »

you can get a set of pads on ebay for under £20 delivered, you need an allen key and something to push back the cylinder , its about an hours job at the most, and as eveyone has said you cant put the brakes in the wrong way around as there is a spring clip on the pad that fits in the cylinder.

I'd suggest the local motor factors, or someone like GSM rather than ebay.

A local back street mechanic should take less than 2 hours to do all 4 corners, and replace the fluid too. In my drive in the rain, I'd budget 3 hours.

oysterpearl

To give you an update, we sent a complaint to Kwik Fit through their website about this and we had a phone call from the area manager yesterday. He seemed anxious to resolve the problem and tried to arrange for us to take the car into a Kiwk Fit centre to check again. He said it was a serious allegation we were making and if we were found to be correct, the employee would be in trouble. He said he would call our local centre and get it booked in and call right back.

Anyway, he didn't call back. We left it for 24 hours and then called him. After complaining (again) he went and called the centre and booked it in. He also spoke to the person at the Barnstaple branch who had lied to us. This person at Barnstaple (who is apparently the manager) said he never told us that they were the wrong way round and that he only said they were worn!

We are appalled at Kwik Fit and will never use them again. We have an appointment tomorrow for the check, but it almost feels like a waste of time. Even the area manager said we may have "misheard"!

Foxy-Stoat_3

I would agree - pointless going back to Kwikripoff.

Get them checked somewhere else if your worried or forget about this whole sorry incident, the time I went to Kwik-Fit.......

oysterpearl

I just rang the Kwik Fit branch and spoke to the manager direct.

He now claims that he didn't say the pads were in the wrong way round but the clip that holds the pad was in the wrong way, letting the pad "fall forward" and then causing uneven wear.

Not once do we recall him saying anything about clips.

Is this possible or more lies?

Foxy-Stoat_3

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=ford+focus+front+brake&um=1&hl=en&biw=1076&bih=569&tbm=isch&tbnid=EbMotRfTXWRysM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/2005-2007%2BFord%2BFocus%2BFront%2BBrake%2BPad%2BReplacement/3029/1&docid=ZOdIxZMXM2ONVM&imgurl=http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/NvWhHJoOGQwrLfFZ.medium&w=592&h=444&ei=d3v6UczTO8W5hAeszYEQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:80&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=188&tbnw=258&start=0&ndsp=9&tx=46&ty=68

You decide, I can't see anyone refitting the spring the wrong way...either way you don't need to go back there.

Strider590

A burning smell from brakes isn't anything unusual, you MUST employ engine braking (as mentioned above) though on long steep hills, the biggest risk is that a caliper piston will seize with the heat and cause the car to pull left or right when accelerating (and the opposite way when braking).
Very hot brake pads also become less effective until they cool down.

Short of driving a racing car at full chat around Silverstone, it's very hard to make brake fluid boil on a modern car.

ballyblack

on TV recently?

Watchdog v Kwikfit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHYrn6F4_LI

SteveJW

I am the fleet manager for a large local authority

Around 15 years ago we had several reports of brake failure on LDV 3.5t 17 seat minibuses, especially when schools had taken them to Scotland. We found this hard to believe and put it down to brake fade.
Anyway we decided to carry out a couple of experiments, we got permission from the local Army School of Transport (now you know which part of the country I am based in)
We drove round the test course with the vehicle in fourth gear throttle to the floor and kept the speed at around 45 mph by applying constant pressure on the brake pedal, after about ten minutes the brakes were stinking hot but still a good pedal. Took my foot of the brake and throttle pedals to slow down as I pressed the brake pedal again it went straight to the floor.When we stopped the discs were glowing red
Changed the brake fluid for higher specification fluid, repeated the experiment same result.
Our opinion of what was happening was simple school boy physics, liquid under pressure has a higher boiling point, when pressure is released the boiling point returns to its normal figure
We eventually discovered what the drivers were doing, they had all gone on various courses to familiarise them with driving minibuses, they were told to cover the brake pedal on long descents, as an engineer I take this to mean foot off throttle and positioned above brake, they had decided this meant foot of throttle and pressing lightly on the brake pedal.

Sorry for the long post

Westmead_Fan

You cannot put brake pads in the wrong way round! One side clips into the caliper with springing things that are stuck on the back of the pad, the other pad has no clips. They wont fit upside down either!!!

you will be surprised with what happens when some customers who have no knowledge can do on 2 instances 1 have heard from a customer & 1 i have seen for myself.

are you sure the brake calipers aren't sticking on creating the burning smell from the brakes. do not buy cheap pads/disc from ebay only top brands or you will most likely have braking problems in the future.

get the brakes checked properly by a garage you trust asap you do not want brake failure