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Buying a second hand car with a valid MOT with advisories
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I had an advisory for worn brake discs on my car a couple of years ago, and the garage said they'd be fine until the next MOT. I only do about 4k miles a year. When it came to the next MOT, the garage replaced them under MOT warranty. If you do a lot of miles, they might need doing sooner.1
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I'd potentially look at getting the damaged tyres replaced at some point, but everything else seems like it'll be fine for now.
The MOT includes a braking efficiency test so it's determined the brakes are OK though the discs will likely need replaced soonish.1 -
Thank you so much, I think the two tyres have been replaced so I'm just concerned about the brake safety. A couple of quotes for brake disc replacement have been £400 - 500 so I'm weighing up if it's worth it. I actually only need a cheap run around for the next few months so this might actually be worth buying and selling on?
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That sounds a bit pricey.
You can buy a branded set of front discs and pads for around £50 for a 207.
If it's got rear discs, then I think they are more expensive as the disc and wheel bearing come as a unit but you should be able to find a set for around £80.
Then just get your local back street garage to fit them.1 -
Fraise70 said:Thank you so much, I think the two tyres have been replaced so I'm just concerned about the brake safety. A couple of quotes for brake disc replacement have been £400 - 500 so I'm weighing up if it's worth it. I actually only need a cheap run around for the next few months so this might actually be worth buying and selling on?Buying it just to sell on is fraught with problems. Either buy it to run it, or leave it.Worn brakes do not make the car unsafe. If they were worn to the point that it was becoming unsafe then they would fail MOT, either on lack of efficiency (they really are unsafe) or obviously visible wear (they work fine now, but could stop working if they wear a bit more). Brakes actually work by rubbing surfaces together, so they are going to wear as a natural consequence of doing their job!Obviously it is you driving, and if you don't feel safe driving with worn brakes, then you will either have to get them replaced or spend more money on a car that has just had them replaced.I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science)
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facade said:Fraise70 said:Thank you so much, I think the two tyres have been replaced so I'm just concerned about the brake safety. A couple of quotes for brake disc replacement have been £400 - 500 so I'm weighing up if it's worth it. I actually only need a cheap run around for the next few months so this might actually be worth buying and selling on?Worn brakes do not make the car unsafe. If they were worn to the point that it was becoming unsafe then they would fail MOT, either on lack of efficiency (they really are unsafe) or obviously visible wear (they work fine now, but could stop working if they wear a bit more). Brakes actually work by rubbing surfaces together, so they are going to wear as a natural consequence of doing their job!
As you write, brakes use friction to turn energy into heat.
The more energy (speed) the car has, the more heat the friction of the brakes will generate when you press the brake pedal.
The discs are open to the passing air and it's this that helps dissipate the heat.
The friction material (pads) and the discs themselves wear away with usage, hence the advisory.
Due to this wear, there's less pad material and brake disc material to dissipate the heat properly.
When the brakes get really hot, the friction material produces gas that traps between the pad and discs and the discs heat up so hot, friction is massively reduced.
The heat has to go somewhere if the discs are worn too thin, usually back through the caliper and into the brake fluid where is boils and burns.
Boiling the brake fluid changes it's properties, it's no longer able to transmit the pressure from your foot to the pistons in the caliper, so even if your pads and discs do start to cool off enough to regain friction, you can't use that because you can no longer work the calipers.
This is why discs are stamped with a wear tolerance, which is usually 2mm at most.
Lose too much material from discs and they can't handle the heat anymore.
A sign this is happening is usually brake judder as the heat from braking starts to warp the discs, but by then the ability of the brakes to handle the heat is greatly reduced.
The MOT brake test for a normal two wheel drive car is done on rollers at around 4 mph.
At this sort of speed, heat isn't really the same sort of issue as say at 70 mph or 60 mph towing a massive caravan.
A 4x4 that can't use the rollers will have a short road test and a device called a Tapley meter will be in the car.
This test is usually done around 20 mph, again heat will hardly be an issue.
So when someone says your brakes are worn, the correct response would be to ask or find out how worn even if they pass an MOT and perhaps not leave it to find out how worn they are on the M1 and you need to slam the anchors on.
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Grey_Critic said:***Brake disc worn, but not excessively***What is meant by Brake Disc worn? There is a specification for brake discs Max/Min braking surface - Ford for example used to be Max 22 mm Min 19mmBrake disc and pad wear should be expresses in percentage wear0
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Goudy said:That sounds a bit pricey.
You can buy a branded set of front discs and pads for around £50 for a 207.
If it's got rear discs, then I think they are more expensive as the disc and wheel bearing come as a unit but you should be able to find a set for around £80.
Then just get your local back street garage to fit them.
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Fraise70 said:Goudy said:That sounds a bit pricey.
You can buy a branded set of front discs and pads for around £50 for a 207.
If it's got rear discs, then I think they are more expensive as the disc and wheel bearing come as a unit but you should be able to find a set for around £80.
Then just get your local back street garage to fit them.
Let the garage supply and fit.Most garages won't fit parts the customer supplies - if they're wrong, the ramp's tied up while the customer mucks about sorting replacements. If they fail too soon, there's finger-pointing over whether the parts or fitting were faulty. Also, they simply price in the margin on the parts to their labour rate... and customers who are trying to penny pinch in this way are usually the hardest work... A good garage doesn't need that.1 -
Mildly_Miffed said:Fraise70 said:Goudy said:That sounds a bit pricey.
You can buy a branded set of front discs and pads for around £50 for a 207.
If it's got rear discs, then I think they are more expensive as the disc and wheel bearing come as a unit but you should be able to find a set for around £80.
Then just get your local back street garage to fit them.
Let the garage supply and fit.Most garages won't fit parts the customer supplies - if they're wrong, the ramp's tied up while the customer mucks about sorting replacements. If they fail too soon, there's finger-pointing over whether the parts or fitting were faulty. Also, they simply price in the margin on the parts to their labour rate... and customers who are trying to penny pinch in this way are usually the hardest work... A good garage doesn't need that.0
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