A main dealer (no names, no pack drill) carried out an Inspection Service on our 2002 Octavia Ambiente last week, but the wheels were never removed (the original zipties I fitted are still securing the wheel trims; white on the front, grey on the rear). The rear brake lining wear - the Ambiente has rear drum brakes, remember - was quoted at 20%, surprising for the original shoes on a 53,000-mile car. We are the only owners from new, so we know they have never been changed.

Is it possible to carry out the service, including brake fluid change and an accurate front pad and rear shoe wear measurement, without removing the road wheels? Apparently some old BMWs have a shoe wear inspection hole in the drum backplate, so this could be done with the car on a lift, but I see no mention of the Octavia having such a feature in the Haynes manual. The brakes still squeal as badly as they did before it went in

Have I been ripped off (again)? Last time a different dealer tried to charge us for a leaking tandem pump; a part not present on this car. They didn't get away with it.

I don't see how it would be possible to check wear on drums without removing the wheels unless there are inspection windows. OTOH I do think that it's not out of order for drums to do 53_000 miles on one set of shoes. My late ZX got most of the way there, despite my, ah, enthusiastic driving style (and was written off due to a non-braking issue).

After crawling under the car tonight, there is in fact an inspection window, covered by a square rubber plug, at the leading edge of the backplate. So the dealer could have checked shoe wear without removing the wheels, even though an implied shoe life of 250,000 miles seems a bit fanciful.

I have heard that removing the wheels to inspect for brake wear is now not necessary, as inspection holes are provided - that is fair enough as it keeps service times and more importantly projected service times (when you are considering buying the car) and costs down. What this does not take into account is the inspection for a leaking or seized wheel cylinder, removal of dust and any wear ridge on the drum and that the wheel hubs can stick, leading to problems when you get a puncture and need to change the wheel.

Whenever we do a 20,000 mile service we always remove the wheels to inspect the brakes and quite often at 40,000 miles we remove the pads and carriers from the disk brakes, clean them and grease them.

We very rarely see worn brake shoes, when we do have to replace them it is more often because they have ben contaminated by brake fluid from a leaking cylinder.

It's a case of making the servicing times look attractive to potential purchasers and reducing the cost difference between a dealer by the book service and the independent who may well do a more thorough job.