Hi everyone!

OK, So I had my Skoda Fabia '02 serviced a few weeks ago, no problems were reported to me (in fact I was told it's a good car and drives nice!). Anyway, the garage just changed the oil, windscreen wipers, filters, plugs etc. (according to the receipt I was given).

I then took my car for its MOT at another garage a couple of weeks later (not quite sure why I didn't get it done at the same time..). Although the car passed (only just), I was told the brake pads needed replacing as they were badly corroded and the tires also needed to be replaced as they are worn to near the minimum limit. The bloke at the garage also said he had real trouble trying to take the tires off the car and that he doubted the other garage removed the tires when they carried out the service.

Isn't the garage where I got my car serviced supposed to inform me about the problem with the tires and brakes?

It seems to me either the garage that carried out the service is incompetent or the garage where I got the MOT done is lying and trying to get some more ££££ out of me. I just don't know which one!! :(

Anyone had any experience of something similar to this??

Thanks and sorry for my rambling post.

Tim

Did you have an "inspection" service? I'd expect any half decent garage to pick up on things like tyres and hopefully brakes, but I doubt it's routine to take the wheels off for a service....

Check out your tyres and see how much tread there is on them. If they're fine then I'd suspect the brakes won't need doing either, but definitely worth checking!

Chris

Thanks Chris.

It was a full service I had done. I'll check the tread on the tyres. BTW, how can you tell the condition of the brake pads/discs by checking the tyre tread? Sorry, but my knowledge of cars is pretty poor!

Its also possible that if the place that did the MOT sells brakes and tyres, they said this to get potential business. I would go somewhere else for a second opinion.

Sorry, but I don't understand the connection between tyre-wear and brake-pad condition either ????

I assume when you said the garage had trouble taking the tyres off, you really meant taking the wheels off, as doing the former would be a trifle unusual, but the latter would be par for the course in order to rotate them and check for brake wear.

Taking the wheels off a car fitted with alloys can be problematical as due to hub corrosion and chemical interaction with the alloy, they can "weld" themselves on. A simple solution is to clean the rust off the hubs and wheels with a stiff wire brush and give them a very light coat of copper grease. It could save a heap of heart and back ache if you are trying to change a puncture on a wet cold windy night on the hard shoulder of a country road!

Thanks Mathepac. Yes, sorry I meant taking the wheels off not the tyres! The comment about replacing the wheels sounds about right - the garage mentioned that I probably wouldn't have been able to replace the wheel myself if there was a puncture.

Sorry - my point wasn't very clear My meaning was that if the tyres are legal then they were obviously trying it on for business and the chances they were lying about the brakes too would be higher.

Tyres are easier to check than brakes

Chris

A more pertinant question would be how the MoT tester could tell that the brake pads (sic) were corroded. They're specifically excluded from carrying out work that requires dismantling, so he couldn't see the backplates, and the pads aren't made of metal, so don't corrode!

That's a good point actually. Why was he taking the wheels off for an MOT?!

Chris

Thanks for your replies.

What I got back from the garage was that "both front brake discs are corroded on the inner braking surface and both rear discs are corroded on outer braking surface". The guy is quoting me £152 (ex VAT) to replace all the brake pads and discs. He said garages should ideally remove the wheels when doing a service although can also check for corrosive discs by just looking through the wheels. I'm not sure why he took the wheels off when he carried out the MOT, I didn't question that as I thought it was normal! :( He also said the other garage (where I got my car serviced) is known for dodgy workmanship and he's heard a few complaints about them... whether that's actually true or not I don't know!

I checked the tyres and the rear ones are about 1mm from the min. limit so I didn't bother getting them replaced just yet.

I don't know what wheels you've got but you can see the outer faces of my discs quite easily through the standard 5-spoke alloys, and the fronts don't have dust shields, so you can see the inner faces too.

Well-worn tyres can be an advisory, but only fail if already illegal.

Take your car to kwik fit and watch them do their free brake and tyre check.

If they say the same as the other garage then you know that you need to get yourself some new discs and probably pads at the same time.