mot query

Toby87

How do brake pads get checked/measured for MOT?

My 2018 golf failed on worn pads below 1.5mm so it's been of the road a few days until I had time to get spares and fit them. Having replaced the pads none are excessively worn with a minimum of 5mm of braking material left and all evenly worn. I would hope it a mistake by the tester but can’t figure out how they could be so far out: visually it's very clear that much more than 1.5mm is left and if any kind of gauge was used the error is surely worse.

Beyond the frustration of being without a car and spending time on getting and replacing pads that didn’t need it, worse for me is that I was in the wrong for driving my car home due to it having a fail for a dangerous fault only it had no such fault 😡

Grey_Critic

Did the vehicle fail the Brake Test on the MOT? That can happen if the Brake Discs are excessively worn but then it would be listed as a reason

Toby87

No, just rear brake pad(s) less than 1.5mm thick (1.1.13 (a) (ii)).

Nothing off with the braking and nothing actually wrong with the pads. I'd visually checked on the weekend along with lights and tires etc but as I'd not taken the wheels off I expected to find one of the inners had worn faster but no all were fine.

Altior

Unless it's an R, excessive wear on the rear pads seems quite unusual.

paul_c123

Its done by visual inspection only, they can't remove the wheels for an MoT test.

david29dpo

I hear that the MOT will have to remove the wheels to check the brake pads soon, not sure when the new rule comes in.

MOT men (or woman!) are only human (or stupid)

I know plenty who don't know the difference between mm and inches!

ButterCheese

Yes visual inspection only - it is hard to get this wrong when you have the car up in the air and a flashlight to hand. My only guess is that someone less experienced has mis-read the thickness with their eye-crometer. Did you contact them about it afterwards? I would have perhaps volunteered to take the old pads back and showed them. They could either admit their mistake and make sure it doesn't happen again, or if they were doing it on purpose to get more money out of you, it might make them think twice about doing this again

EssexExile

Perhaps they were hoping to get the job of replacing them.

The Honda dealer told me at the annual service that my pads needed changing, I took it to my local garage and they said they're fine. It went there a year later for a service and they were still fine.

sheramber

At the dealer service they said we needed new tyres.

My husband had checked the tyres before taking it in and knew they did not need changing.

When challenged there was no reply.

Toby87

Like I said earlier I hope it was a mistake, there was an offer but no hard sell for them to do the work. They could have pointed out it needed doing before being driven away leaving me with the choice of arranging a tow or paying them to do the job. It's the 4th or 5th time I've used the garage so when I go back for the re-test I'll let them know the pads were moderately worn at most to gauge the response as much as anything.

oldagetraveller1

"I hear that the MOT will have to remove the wheels to check the brake pads soon, not sure when the new rule comes in."

Will that include removing drums to check brake shoes too? My car has discs front and drums rear.