Failed MOT HELP!!

[Ford_lover38]

Hey All,

 

Just had my car in for a service, and its failed MOT with the things below. In your experience how much would you expect to pay for these repairs?

The cost for new brake pads and disks is £216

The cost for the parking brake "fix" is £172 (apparently includes the purchase of multiple handbrake cables).

Also is the shock absorber advisory anything to be worried about? (if so is it expensive to fix?) 

Help!! I have no idea if I'm being ripped off or not! Any advice would be highly appreciated :)

 

• Reason(s) for failure
  offside rear rear brake recording little or no effort (3.7.B.5a)

  front brake disc in such a condition that it is seriously weakened (3.5.1i)

  Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
• Advisory notice item(s)
  offside rear Shock absorber has a light misting of oil (2.7.3)

 

[avi]

17 minutes ago, Ford_lover38 said:

Hey All,

 

Just had my car in for a service, and its failed MOT with the things below. In your experience how much would you expect to pay for these repairs?

The cost for new brake pads and disks is £216

The cost for the parking brake "fix" is £172 (apparently includes the purchase of multiple handbrake cables).

Also is the shock absorber advisory anything to be worried about? (if so is it expensive to fix?) 

Help!! I have no idea if I'm being ripped off or not! Any advice would be highly appreciated :)

 

• Reason(s) for failure
  offside rear rear brake recording little or no effort (3.7.B.5a)

  front brake disc in such a condition that it is seriously weakened (3.5.1i)

  Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
• Advisory notice item(s)
  offside rear Shock absorber has a light misting of oil (2.7.3)

 

 

When I changed the front discs/pads on our 1.6 MK1 the pads+discs cost £45 from CP4L.  Not a difficult job and was done in a morning.

I guess it depends if you can do some of the work youself and brand of parts etc but almost £400 sounds a lot to me.    Use one of the reverse auction sites like who can fix my car to get some ideas of cost in your area.

 

 

 

[stef123]

What exactly do they intend to change to fix the handbrake?

£216 to replace pads and discs, that must be around £140 profit lol. 

[Ford_lover38]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your reply! I had a look at a comparison site and these are the prices I got for the same work:

- £415

- £350

- £320

 All seems abit expensive to me! Called my local ford dealer just for the lols and they are saying the work will be 399. From reading online and other forums Brake disks and pads are so cheap I dont see how they are so expensive to change, it must be the labor charge to do the handbrake (which is apparently three cables according to them).

I am MORE than happy to do it all myself, infact founda few Youtube videos on how to. Its just I dont have a drive and no offroad parking where I live so have to get someone else to do it. Maybe its the area im in that it costs so much.

[andypsp]

all these dealers work with gold spanners and sockets thats why it cost you so much 

jokeing aside an independent little garage will charge around £45 a hour, front brake pads and discs around £50 for the lot mintex brand on eBay have had a few of these for my mates no probs at all. handbrake cable not to sure about that never changed one of them. but pop into a little local garage if you have one near and ask `em if you supply the parts how much would it be to fit them for you and then it`s job done matey 

[Ford_lover38]

15 minutes ago, andypsp said:

all these dealers work with gold spanners and sockets thats why it cost you so much 

jokeing aside an independent little garage will charge around £45 a hour, front brake pads and discs around £50 for the lot mintex brand on ebay have had a few of these for my mates no probs at all. handbrake cable not to sure about that never changed one of them. but pop into a little local garage if you have one near and ask `em if you supply the parts how much would it be to fit them for you and then it`s job done matey 

Thanks mate, I'll give it a go.

[Guzzilazz]

WHy are you complaining about labour rates? A minimum charge for a washing machine is £75 for the first hour... 

[isetta]

the first and third failure may well be linked. i assume the first one is referring to using the foot brake (usually called service brake on MOT I think) . the rear brake operated by foot pedal is using some of the same rear brake parts as the handbrake is.

[Tdci-Peter]

12 hours ago, Ford_lover38 said:

Also is the shock absorber advisory anything to be worried about? (if so is it expensive to fix?) 

I had exactly that advisory in 2011, when I bought the car. The shock has not failed, has not been replaced & the advisory did not happen again, in the last 6 years. So have a look, do the usual push the car up & down test, then ignore it if no obvious problem is seen.

I have also had parking brake below eff. advisory, cured by giving the cables a really good greasing. Take the cables off the rear calipers, so they can be pulled in & out by hand, and it is amazing how much grease you get slowly feed down there.

Servicing disks & pads is a doddle on the Focus. I am usually pretty slow at mechanical jobs, but can do an axle in a couple of hours now, easy.

 

[v530anh]

I take mine to an independent mot centre, if it fails I get 2 weeks to take it to any garage.

[Ford_lover38]

10 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

I had exactly that advisory in 2011, when I bought the car. The shock has not failed, has not been replaced & the advisory did not happen again, in the last 6 years. So have a look, do the usual push the car up & down test, then ignore it if no obvious problem is seen.

I have also had parking brake below eff. advisory, cured by giving the cables a really good greasing. Take the cables off the rear calipers, so they can be pulled in & out by hand, and it is amazing how much grease you get slowly feed down there.

Servicing disks & pads is a doddle on the Focus. I am usually pretty slow at mechanical jobs, but can do an axle in a couple of hours now, easy.

 

Thanks mate. I'll give the handbrake thing a try.

With the shock test, should I just push one end of the car down and hope to see no bounce?

[Tdci-Peter]

7 hours ago, Ford_lover38 said:

With the shock test, should I just push one end of the car down and hope to see no bounce?

I seem to recall the rule is there should be half a bounce, Ie go up past normal height, then settle. The trouble is, these cars seem to have quite stiff suspension, so unless you weigh 25 stone, it is hard to get much movement. My modest 10.5 stone hardly budges it! I would probably need some assistance.

If you are used to driving the car, I think you will soon notice if there is a significant shock (aka damper, more correctly) problem. Bumpy roads soon become a nightmare of uncontrolled bouncing and rolling.