Should my brake discs have failed MOT

Almost certainly not. As with a lot of the MOT test the failure is subjective but the book clearly states :-

'a brake disc or drum insecure, cracked or excessively scored, pitted or worn.'

Note the word 'excessively'. On my MOT course we were told that even if the disc was over half rust we'd still have to think hard about failing out.

The MOT is all about minimum standards, a lot of the time if a car can manage to make it to the MOT station it'll probably pass.

John

Thanks everyone.

I've got one side off but the shop's given me the wrong pads, so I'll be going back tomorrow. If I'd bought the pads from a Renault dealer, I'm sure they would know which were the right pads just from the reg or chassis number, so why can't a motor factor get it right !

Because French assembly lines are a bit random. You just never know what they'll have fitted.

i bought a car once, driving it over the snake pass between Sheffield and Manchester and my brakes failed....foot to the floor..... Round country lane bends down a steep hill aint fun. took me ages before i stopped and much longer for my heart!!!

It turned out the previous owner let the disk wear way too thin, on a old FSO, my 2nd ever car so about....oo long time ago now, so the lowish but not bad brake pad fitted past and popped out, so piston popped out and no brakes...

apart from having a thin disc that gets hotter quick, i wouldnt recomend it!

I've got a peugeot 206 HDI and without fail, three different puegeot dealers on seperate occasions have given me the wrong brake pads, the wrong oil filter, the worng air filter and the wrong fuel filter element. These were dealers in Worcester, Northampton and Evesham.

If the official Pug dealers can't get it right first time, what h>

In news:b5n7i.87400$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk, Jules wittered on forthwith;

I drove a 7.5 tonne hire truck over the Snake Pass a few years ago with seriously shagged brakes. Could only use the brakes for a short amount of time before they would stick, making the truck barely able to accelerate up the next hill. Was an experience but using a combination of the exhaust brake and very light occasional application of the air brakes I made startlingly good time over the pass. Not something I wish to repeat.

The phone call to the Iveco dealer in Boston who'd "fixed" the brakes was pretty colourful, to say the least. As was the one to the owner of the hire company who'd sent me to collect it.

On the matter of brakes and subjectivity, that reminds me my Transit initially failed its MOT recently with the words... "Brakes have no servo assistance".

Now I think I would have noticed if the servo wasn't working, it clearly was! I tried coasting down a hill with the engine off just to prove the point. It's a wonder I didn't break the seat back with both feet on the pedal trying to stop the damn thing.

The statement therefore was patently untrue.

So, back to the station to argue the toss. He said that there was no dip on the pedal, hence as the testers manual says... "No dip can be felt when the engine is started, indicating vacuum assistance is not working satisfactorily." (Not the same as "No servo assistance".

He then proceeded to show me what he meant, and said "look, my foot doesn't go down", as I watched his foot going down! When I pointed it out, he changed it to "well it doesn't go down far enough".

Now we are into "subjective", but the book says "No dip", which isn't subjective. In fairness he took it for a road test, said "clearly the servo does work" and passed it.

So, in this instance, was he correct in applying a subjective assessment, the rules wouold indicate not. But probably more importantly, do I have something going wrong with my brakes that I should be fixing!

BobC

Peugeot 205 rear drum shoes are a nightmare. Supposed to be 2 types, one with the snail ratchet adjuster riveted on, the other it's held by a pin and clip. But if you don't get the lever that engages with the teeth on the snail you stand no chance as the teeth won't grip if they have the least difference. Having failed to grip once they are scrap as the teeth burr which prevents it ever working again. None of the pattern part makers have the drawing so they will instantly trash the lever.

The message from "Mallory" contains these words:

GSF won't sell dampers for Renaults 'cos they had such poor luck getting it right. Even with the oval plate number the local Renualt dealer failed to get the wife's dampers first time.