Had my Vauxhall Zafira serviced and MOTed about 6 weeks ago. I don't do many miles in it, only 150 since then in fact.
At the weekend I was on the motorway when I noticed a whistling sound from the back; when I stopped I discovered one of the rear disk brakes was binding and very hot. I called Autoaid out and the guy who attended examined the calliper and disk and recommended trailering the car home. I asked whether he thought this imminent failure should have been picked up at the service/MOT and he said 'I'd have thought so, yes'.
He also said that the wheel nuts weren't tight enough; furthermore when he drove the vehicle up the ramp on to his truck he had a hell of a job getting the handbrake to stick and said that was wrong too.
So I'm just back from a return visit to the garage, and the conversation went exactly as I could have predicted.
- "Absolutely no way you could tell in advance that the brake was about to bind. More likely to happen given your low mileage"
- "The wheel nuts would have been tightened to the manufacturer's specs, no more, no less"
- "Well the brakes were buggered having binded, so not surprising"
In other words, one mechanic's view against another; and no-nothing me caught in the middle.
I don't know whether to take the view of the garage (a local independent, apparently well-respected I think) or the recovery guy. I've only used the garage a couple of times before (and they were apparently fine), after my previous (excellent) independent garage relocated, and I don't know of anywhere else 'better' to try; ie I don't want to leave this place if criticism is actually unfair. In the meantime I took the vehicle away and am considering my options
Any thoughts? Thanks David