Advice please, garage made me pay twice for same new parts to be fitted

Maryandpeter

I had a full service on my VW type 2 camper which included new front brake pads, disks and callipers and 3 Flexi hoses but not the fourth front offside one (F/O/S. After 20 miles, brakes squealed loudly. Returned to garage to have pads and disks replaced, after garage said original parts may be faulty. Upon return, having driven 50 miles home and 50 miles back to garage  they said the F/O/S wheel was binding and this may have heated up brake pads causing damage to pads and squealing. They said they needed to investigate cause of wheel binding, which took 5 hours and after replacing flexing hose, pipes and T bar, wheel was binding 80% less. Then they tried replacing the calliper with a near side calliper, which solved the wheel binding problem, but brakes still squealed as much as before.  They then replaced the brand new break pads and disks and the brakes stoped squealing.  Garage says they will send off brake pads, disks and calliper to see if they were faulty but pads & disks may have been damaged by wheel binding and calliper may have been damaged by grit or debris from flexi hose (which hadn't been replaced during the original service). We also understand the calliper could have been damaged by poor fitting or by not cleaning and lubricating parts properly.
1. Should the £10 flexi hose and £10 pipes and fittings have been replaced during the original service - is it acceptable practice not to replace all flexi hoses and pipes and
   fittings when replacing all disks, pads and callipers on a 47 year old van?
2. Do we have any redress if non replacement of flexi hose is likely to have caused wheel binding and thus damage to brake pads and disks?
3. Should we have had to pay twice for new brake pads, disks and (wrong) calliper and fitting of calliper when garage is still in process of asking manufacturer if parts were
    faulty?

KimJongUn88

A change of pads and discs doesn’t normally include changing the flexi hoses or brake fluid pipes.

AdrianC

Maryandpeter said:

1. Should the £10 flexi hose and £10 pipes and fittings have been replaced during the original service - is it acceptable practice not to replace all flexi hoses and pipes and  fittings when replacing all disks, pads and callipers on a 47 year old van?

Yes. It may have been that that one flexi looked perfectly good - perhaps it looked to have been replaced more recently than the other side? External appearance can be deceptive with brake flexis, though, and it may have been a wise precaution to do it at the same time, especially given the low cost. Old flexis can start to break up internally, acting as a "non-return valve", and preventing brake pressure from being released, causing binding. If the driver doesn't notice the binding, then pads and disks can quickly be overheated and ruined.

2. Do we have any redress if non replacement of flexi hose is likely to have caused wheel binding and thus damage to brake pads and disks?

No.

3. Should we have had to pay twice for new brake pads, disks and (wrong) calliper and fitting of calliper when garage is still in process of asking manufacturer if parts were
    faulty?

If the supplier comes back to agree the parts were faulty, then they should obviously refund you, parts and labour - but, unless you're known to them as a regular customer, I don't think it unreasonable to ask you to cover the cost in the meantime. It's not as if they're expensive parts... JK are £40/side for disks and £17 for pads.

Maryandpeter

Thanks for your advice - also had to pay for calliper - £100. We have just checked notes we made when garage called to discuss service and repairs required and see that they already identified that front wheels were binding and that is why we agreed to new callipers being fitted in the first place - so now it is clear binding was a fault that had been identified but not properly fixed during first service/ brake repairs and so any damage to new parts fitted should surely be garages responsibility?

brianposter

Maryandpeter said:

Thanks for your advice - also had to pay for calliper - £100. We have just checked notes we made when garage called to discuss service and repairs required and see that they already identified that front wheels were binding and that is why we agreed to new callipers being fitted in the first place - so now it is clear binding was a fault that had been identified but not properly fixed during first service/ brake repairs and so any damage to new parts fitted should surely be garages responsibility?

Not really. The garage is expected to do a reasonable job - not to get everything right first time.

caprikid1

Did you supply any parts ? Feels to me the garage DID NOT fall short on what they did, may have done a road test but squealing new pads can go away.