Hi all,

The car has started pulling when braking to the left. I've been advised that is because my brake pads need changing as one is applying more force than the other. This would make sense, as on the MOT back in October it was advised that the pads and discs would need changing in 5-6 months. I've been quoted £326 for the work at ATS here in Leicester, which for a uni student sounded quite steep! Would just like to get a second opinion on whether you think this diagnosis is correct, and whether I can get it done more cheaply at my preferred indy garage when I go back home for Easter?

They are dead easy to do yourself with a little care and an 7mm Allen key. look on you tube how to do it and see if you can attempt it yourself

The diagnosis could be correct, but without access to your car to assess it then I'll need to take their word for it.

An Indy should be cheaper than that, £326 is pretty steep! 

I would have thought you could find a garage that would do it cheaper than that price.

The price might depend on quality of parts they use.

It is possible that it could be caused by a faulty caliper and not the discs/pads.

If there are no unexpected problems (and calipers are fine)I would have thought a proper garage with a ramp/lifting table could do it in less than one hour. And I reckon you could get the discs/pads for well under one hundred quid. Perhaps even £50 - of dubious quality?

It is an easy job to replace pads/discs but of course the consequences can be disasterous if done wrong.

I wouldn't be confident doing it myself, obviously being such a safety critical system. I think its probably a correct diagnosis, they were saying they were well worn on the MOT. When going along normally its straight and true, although it does like to follow camber (theres a part of the A50 thats dreadful for it lol). @isetta how would I know whether its a faulty caliper or not?

Focus discs are quite expensive (odd considering how common they are!) bit even so that quite is ridiculous.

If you've got the basic tools to do it, I really world recommend doing them yourself.  You really can't get pads and discs wrong!  

The only difficult thing with brakes is bleeding the fluid so just don't open the bleed nipples.

"how would I know whether its a faulty caliper or not?".   Not really any way of telling without some dismantling.

Even if it is the caliper sticking it might not need a new one, it might just need cleaning up the stiff rusty bits (eg. sliders) and putting some copper grease on. (and cleaning up the  pad holders so the pads can move properly. )   All of which should really be done anyway when pads are replaced - but I doubt it always is

 

here's example of price of discs/pads. £38 including postage

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-C-Max-Focus-Kuga-Volvo-C30-S40-QH-Front-Brake-Discs-Pads-Set-Grease/283334265836?fits=Model%3AFocus|Plat_Gen%3AMK+II&epid=1846902863&hash=item41f809cbec:g:f9cAAOSwVAtcPa76

I can't comment on quality but you can see why £326 sounds a lot. I suggested it would not take more then one hour (if no problems occur). I am not in the trade - can anyone in the trade confirm my view on that?

Discs can be more expensive but definitely not in that price range... Go to a smaller independent local garage, it'll cost you much less.

Going off to trusty indy garage, will confirm if its discs and pads or just a sticky caliper. Sadly as I'm at uni, I can't perform maintenance on the car in the car park as its expressly forbidden in the contract.

If you went to Ford's and used Motorparts it'll be only around the £200 mark!

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Was just a sticky calliper, paid the nice mechanic (who knows my Dad very well so is trustworthy) £15 and he greased up both sides for me and all is good. Happy days!

Who doesn't love a happy ending! Great outcome...😀

but how many people do just pay ATS etc those sort of prices when it's a simpler fix.  

Customer: Will it be ok for me to drive home while I think about it, because I have a friend who might be able to look at it for me. 

Garage: I don't think you should be doing that love, anything could happen, and I see you have a child car seat in there, think of your children .

11 minutes ago, isetta said:

Garage: I don't think you should be doing that love, anything could happen, and I see you have a child car seat in there, think of your children .

Have you been reading their training manual? LOL

It's not just chain stores either...  A major main dealer told my Mum two of her tyres were dangerous and that they couldn't let her drive out on them after a service...despite them having 3.5mm of tread and passing MOT there!

I do wonder how many non car people get fleeced every day by garages tbh.

 

I've been dead with flu the past week so couldn't do it myself, though I would've had a crack at it myself if I could. Had to get my Dad to drive it up for me! I don't really bother with the chains, though ATS were very good when I needed an alignment doing.

Nothing inherently wrong with 'chains', apart from you need to realise that they are totally sales driven. KwikFit's AirCon service for £59.95 and the offer of a full refund if it doesn't work is particularly good and I've used it on a couple of cars...

Sadly the news doesn't seem to be all good, just driven the car 120 miles and now it seems to have a lack of acceleration and the brake pedal is feeling spongy! Always love it when it comes back worse than it was! Looks like yet another trip to the garage.

The brake is probably seized on now...new caliper time!

I love owning a 13 year old car! Just curious as to what the mechanics are behind this happening?

EDIT- I wouldn’t say either side felt particularly hotter than the other after I stopped?

I have numerous experience of seized calipers on my 1995 GT4 over the years! The symptom usually manifests itself as a skewing to one side or another on braking as obviously if that caliper ceases to work, there is no grip applied to the disc to slow it down so the other side working caliper is doing all the work. Obviously, it will also show up as an MOT failure. The good news is that a GT4 caliper is about £280! (Imagine how that feels if you have more than one that need doing) Your Ford one will be considerably cheaper!

13 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

I love owning a 13 year old car! Just curious as to what the mechanics are behind this happening?

EDIT- I wouldn’t say either side felt particularly hotter than the other after I stopped?

Corrosion and rubber deterioration over the years, accelerated by salt and grit from the road.  The caliper piston has to be perfectly smooth to seal to the rubber O ring.  The O ring twists as the piston is pushed forward by the fluid pressure and the rubber tension in that twist is used to pull the piston back when you release the brake pedal.  A rough corroded piston or weak rubber O ring stops the piston retracting as it should.  Rusty, bent or dry slide pins can also stop the caliper being able to retract as it should.

It only takes a slight bind on the brake to noticeably reduce acceleration, especially on a lower powered car.  The extra heat produced by the bind over a long period of time will overheat the brake fluid at the caliper end, cause it to boil and create air bubbles which is what causes the spongy pedal.

I would expect the disc to feel hotter on one side though...unless both are sticking.

I'll be getting it checked out again, as it would seem all the other symptoms are there, reduced braking, lowered acceleration etc.

I'm just curious - because oif the expense of my 'GT4' calipers, you could buy a refurb kit for it with all new seals and all the other bits to bring functionality back. Of course, it meant if it was your daily driver which mine was, was a huge inconvenience if you weren't skilled enough to do it yourself. Do Ford do a refurb kit for the caliper or is it so cheap, you just get new ones?