Am I being ripped off. My daughters "S" plate Nissan Micra failed its MOT on a few items, one of which was a faulty rear brake load sensing valve. The car has now passed after having the various bits done but the cost just for this part was £330 excluding labour. Can this be correct - is it made of gold or something? I'd appreciate advice before I take this up with the garage.
Many thanks
SH
If this was a nissan dealer part, quite possibly correct......
Indeed. It cost me £160 just for an ABS sensor for a 1997 Primera which with two rear discs and new brake pipes to the rear came to an eye-watering £550 bill with labour charges from Nissan main dealer.
Dave
Why the *f*ck* did you take a 1997 car to a main dealer?
Indeed. BMW dealer prices are not exactly cheap. On monday I had my E34 picked up from work by an independant about 5 miles away. He sorted a rattle from the boot area. Changed the oil in the auto box and back axle, and delivered it back 3 hours later. Total bill including VAT. £59.92. I wonder what a BMW dealer would have charged. Mike.
I'm surprised that this should cause MOT failure. All they do is testing brake performance, and the test is only such that quite old cars will pass.
Nope but it's quite an intricate device and it's probably main dealer only. They sieze on a fairly regular basis and depending on how they fail are quite often the cause of a car swapping ends under heavy braking.
Colour yourself surprised then.
Reasons for rejection:-
Load sensing valve with seized or defective linkage or obviously incorrectly adjusted.
You think that's the only test of the braking system? You're very wrong there.
John
The load sensing valve is operated by the up and down movement of the bodywork as you load the car up. In the normal "unloaded car" position the valve is slightly open. That way when you hit the brakes the rear wheels (with little weight on them) don't lock up so easy. Load the car up, the car rides lower on the suspension, the valve gets opened up a bit more, and the rear wheels (with more weight on them) get to do a bit more work.
If the car is driven most of the time with just the driver and nothing else then the thing sticks in one position.
Find a decent place which does brakes etc, and tell them what the score is. A bit of "percussive maintenance" (i.e. strategic whack with a mallet/ hammer) will release the stuck valve.
I had the same thing happen to my car, and the same solution was used. The only time a faulty/stuck sensing valve (aka load proportioning valve) ever comes to your attention is when it fails the MOT - every time I've seen brake testing the test of the rear brakes makes the back end "sit down", which should cause the valve to open up and then you get a true reading of brake efficiency.
The other time you'll notice is when you are loaded to the gunnells with stuff and find you don't stop as quickly as you would like in an emergency...
/john
And when they do this the test makes the rear end "sit down", opening the valve to give a full load brake efficiency reading. If the thing is seized/stuck then all you'll get is "lightly loaded, don't lockup the rear wheels" efficiency.
/john
Because at the time it was only three years old and apart from that whopping bill gave me no other problems.
Dave
Oh, fair enough at 3 years to maintain the warranty.
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