Brakes fading

They have probably used cheapo cardboard pads. Did you specify genuine only? Genuine discs and pads for an escort are about 70 quid. Did you warn them in advance about the damaged bolts or were you hoping to catch them out? In which case, what goes around, comes around.

mrcheerful

In message , mrcheerful . writes

That's what I was thinking. He seems to think its fine to pull a quick one on the garage but isn't happy that they may have done the same.

How about paying for the extra work you KNEW needed doing but failed to tell the garage before accepting that fixed price first ? As others have said, what goes around comes around. :~)

So what you are saying is, because the garage did not check all the work needed before giving a fixed price, that makes it OK for them to fit sub standard parts or not to do the job properly. They could have phoned the owner and said sorry but we have hit a problem and the price does not stand. Better that than brake fade and possible casualties.

I suspect the poor grade parts would have been fitted anyway. However, you are right, they really should have phoned to say there was a problem, and quoted the extra labour required. It's not their fault the car is presented in a damaged condition.

If the garage offers a fixed price for doing a job, then they are obliged to do that job for the price.

If it had been the other way round, e.g. the car had all new bolts, the old discs had been copperslipped when originally fitted, and the job less time than usual, would the garage have offered a partial refund? I don't think so somehow!

There is no excuse for a garage to botch a job, especially when it comes to working on brakes.

Yeh but Andy it was a fixed price job, no room for movement, you know as well as I what the 'customer' would have said to the above - basically the OP took the garage for a ride and now seems to be complaining because the garage did the same to him. I think some would call it poetic justice, not correct, but there are times when the customers are their own worst enemy (after all he agreed to the quote and thus must have known what parts were going to be fitted or was he thinking that the labour charge was FOC)...

Yes, to fit the parts as described. If there are other complications then they are quite right to ask for more money, especially when the damage isn't their fault.

The labour time to fit the parts assumes that all the parts will remove easily anyway, so no, no discount would be relevant.

Quite right, there isn't.

Andy Hewitt ( snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I think you're right - The garage honoured their original fixed quote, using the exact same parts that they would have used anyway.

The fact that these are a bag of crap, and that something's still not right, is separate from the OP trying to pull a fast one on them.

My suspicion is that the OP got the bunch of shonky shysters he deserves.

Absolutely. You only ever get what you pay for. Occasionally you get a bargain.

It was a fixed price job to fit new pads & discs.

Oh indeed, although IMHO, the garage should have advised that further work was needed. It may even be apparent from the information provided that further defects with the brakes might be present - such as a fecked caliper or something.

Rounded off nuts are hardly complications that should be charged extra for.

The price reflects the fact that discs can sometimes be a pig to remove, and that it wont be a case of simply unbolting and bolting. Sometimes the job will be easier than anticipated, sometimes more difficult. If you are going to start altering the price every time the job does not go exactly as expected, then there is no point offering a fixed price in the first place.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "SimonJ" saying something like:

Oh yes they are; they can be a right bugger and it's hardly the garage's fault the car was presented to them in that state.

Abso-bleedin'-lootely.

Following up everyone who's commented so far. The garage did lower the prince on account of not having to replace the headlamp they'd already ordered in and didn't have to replace.

I'm sure they had a look at the job before they quoted and the only reason they got to do the discs and pads at all instead of being given a car that only wanted a shock was that I had an hour spare in the evening to try and do it between my wife taking it to the garage for an MOT and it going back for the fails fixed and the retest.

They failed the brakes on some corrosion on the disks and I'll give them their due, there was rust on the edges, although none really on the face, but there was enough slight scoring on them that I felt the replacement would be worthwhile.

They failed the headlamp on 'could not get a pattern'.

They failed the right rear shock and again I'll give credit that I had been carrying some heavy loads in the summer (well within axle limits, but for 10 year old car that was probably enough to see off a worn shock).

They gave a fixed quote for the entire job and since it was fairly reasonable, I rang them to get them to add in the second shock at the back since I'd prefer the suspension parts to be matched in age and wear where possible. I also told them I'd have a look at doing the pads myself if I found time before the appointment and that I was dubious about them not being able to get a pattern needing the entire assembly to be replaced.

I didn't get home from the training course I was on until the Friday and grabbed discs and pads as soon as I got home. I then clipped the bulb in that was loose in the holder and set to work trying to get the calipers off. After an hour, a quick post here to check I was after the right bits and some wd40 and gentle pressure to shift the nuts, I gave it up before I (a) damaged what remained of the flats and (b) chucked an axle stand at a wall.

I don't think I added anything to the work the garage expected to have to do. Since they had inspected the car for the MOT and more thoroughly for their quote they gave a quote based on the condition of what they saw and they probably added in some 'could be a bugger to shift that' time. They got to keep the new headlamp and could have got away with replacing that if they were just in it to pull a fast one since I gave them the OK to replace if it still wouldn't give a good pattern.

I wasn't trying to pull a fast one apart from saving myself money on a

So, on to the remedy. The Escort has never been the quickest braking car I ever drove, but I don't race it around. I wouldn't have thought you should be getting enough heat into wheels in 20 miles to cause fade even with cheap pads, or do they make pads that bad? I'd assume that the discs are pretty much of a muchness. What they've put on is vented in the middle, I can feel the gap with my finger (although no fins to be felt which were visibly evident on the originals).

In summary. I took the car to the garage to do the job they were expecting to do and they'd quoted for having inspected it themselves. I didn't add any further to the job apart from requesting they did extra expensive (well an hour extra labour went on for the second shock) work in one aspect and removing a small bit of work in another aspect (idiot checked the lamp bulb for them). I certainly didn't round the nuts and only attempted any work on one wheel. I did a visual inspection of the other wheel and decided it seemed in worse condition so didn't even touch it.

I apologise that I gave a false impression in my first post in the thread, but I didn't want to type the full background. I *was* pleased that the garage had trouble since it confirmed my assesment that my spending any further on the job *would* have been futile and it made me very glad that my wife had got a quote rather than an estimate. If I'd never even looked at the damn thing it would still have cost me that cash.

If the garage won or lost is neither here nor there I doubt they lost out much judging by the price they charged for the parts. If they've screwed me with crap parts then I'll negotiate with them to remedy it somehow. If they haven't fitted things correctly and that is cooking the brakes somehow I'll again talk with them.

I only posted here to work out what could be wrong. From what I know of changing pads on other cars, they regulate themselves in in about 100 miles or so. I can't see how you can get a disc wrong. Hence my question to you guys who presumably have a lot more experience than I.

Warwick

Oh yes, I fitted some cheap pads once (I didn't actually ask for them, I wanted genuine ones), and they were practically on fire after 3 miles.

Thanks for that, should perhaps, in retrospect have mentioned all that in the first place :-)

I would suspect you either have badly rubbish pads, or they managed to jam a piston in a caliper - they might even be siezed.

You dont have to justify yourself to these tossers ^^, Garages rip people off left, right and centre, if you found the bolts were rounded and a company is offering fixed price brake replacement, get the thing in and get it done, if they charge you more so be it, if they don't you win.

Some people seem to like to preach how your are "doing over" the garage, but infact they are the first to do it themselves, its the internet, remember that, half of them prob can't even drive anyway.

Ronny

Warwick ( snipped-for-privacy@affordable-afpers.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

No, they didn't.

Ronny ( snipped-for-privacy@Ronnny.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

He asks for our opinions, he gets them. If he doesn't like them, then that's not *our* problem.